Who is great?
Identifying great talent
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What I am thinking about 🤔
“Talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not”
-Leila Janah
I have been thinking a lot about the quote above. Talent is at the core of progress as it enables the creation and pursuit of ideas. This has become even clearer to me as I have gotten more involved in building businesses. You are only able to make great progress when you get the right team around a problem. Identifying great talent and role fit becomes a competitive advantage, especially when the goal is innovation.
Unfortunately, most instruments that are used to identify talent are highly correlated with status signals that aren’t widely accessible. For instance, many people would consider a qualification from an Ivy League school as a great marker for talent. Although this assumption wouldn’t be far from accurate, it's a marker that comes with a strong bias for people who already have access to opportunities. Traditional markers of success, such as admission to prestigious schools or working for large reputable companies, are more accessible to people in higher income brackets. There is also little competitive advantage in using such talent markers since everyone else can easily make the same observation.
The most talented identifiers of talent are able to determine really great potential in people without relying too much on status signals. They are able to accurately assess aptitude and skillsets such as adaptability, problem-solving, communication and emotional intelligence. They can easily pattern match when they come across people that are great at specific things. Great talent identifiers are diverse. They can be sports coaches, founders, teachers or venture capitalists. They have different temperaments and preferences. They however have one thing in common: accurate markers that allow them to correctly assess and predict competency in their respective fields.
A lot of my reading and musing this month has been about finding out what these non-obvious accurate talent markers are. Although I am still in the early stages of this quest, I think I can safely speculate that one of these markers is passion.
My definition of passion is very specific. I am not referring to a magical calling or strong urge to do something (sometimes with a somewhat spiritual gist). For me, passion is a state of satisfaction that we often get when we find something that we both enjoy and are good at. It’s just way easier to excel at something we are passionate about. The tough part is figuring out the full extent of our competencies and interests as we seek to find a passion. Perhaps the key to identifying great talent entails being attuned to people’s passions and ensuring that they get to pursue them.
Can you identify great talent around you? What criteria are you using to assess that talent?
What I am listening to 🎧
Tim Ferris Podcast: Joe Gebbia - Co-Founder of Airbnb
Yes, I love Tim Ferris. It took me a while to admit this but my Spotify stats won’t let it slide. His interviews are really great though (including this one). Joe Gebbia is a great storyteller. I was at the edge of my seat when listening to this and I burst out laughing a couple of times.
Audiobook: Open by Andre Agassi
It was really interesting listening to this book while mulling over my thoughts on talent. Contrary to what I have suggested about passion and talent, Andre really excelled at tennis even though he despised the sport. You can even feel his nonchalant attitude towards the sport from the tone of his writing. I found his whole journey intriguing. I didn’t change my conclusion about passion and talent after listening to the book but I got really curious about exploring autobiographies and biographies in general.
Audiobook: Talent by Tyler Cowen and Daniel Gross
Tyler Cowen is apparently an OG according to all the people I consider OGs so I thought I’d want to hear his views on talent. I was not disappointed at all. I think I will relisten to the book again in the future. It’s one of those books that can always provide different insights with every read.
This song slaps! That’s it. That’s my review. You need to just listen to get it.
What I am reading 📚
Blog post: How to Think for Yourself by Paul Graham
I resurfaced this post after having a conversation with a friend about contrarianism. It seems like being a contrarian is becoming trendy and we were wondering if being contrarian is still contrarian after all. I think this essay answers the question really well. It describes independent-mindedness, which can lead to contrarian thinking. Independent-mindedness is however mostly genuine and rarely correlated with trendiness.
Book: The Biggest Bluff- How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win by Maria Konnikova
I literally inhaled this book. Maria Konnikova is such a badass! Words are not enough to describe it. One of my favourite topics is decision making and in this memoir, Maria talks about decision making in the context of uncertainty (aka life) using poker. She got a PhD in Psychology with the intention of writing great non-fiction books and then went ahead to play poker full time with the aim of writing about her experience. I aspire to that level of dedication towards a craft.
Book: What I Carry by Jennifer Longo
This is a really heartwarming story about a teenage girl who has grown up in foster care and is about to age out of the foster care system. Reading it has been so delightful as it left me feeling very connected to my younger self. It’s the kind of book that pre-teen me would also enjoy. I often find myself smiling especially when I come across the main character’s internal monologues and mental models.
Blog post/Newsletter: Free Fall by Benn Stancil
There are currently loud whispers in the tech/startup space about an economic turndown. I thought this article gives a sober view of this anticipated crash. Benn writes really great newsletters about data and analytics on substack and his perspective is always eye-opening.
What I am watching 💻
I must confess, I haven’t done a lot of watching this past month. Or rather, I haven’t done a lot of watching that is worthwhile sharing. I have been watching a lot of movie recaps on YouTube (because am too lazy to get through the whole movie or series) and I haven’t come across anything particularly mindblowing.
If you have great recommendations, please share. Netflix is really not doing it for me at the moment.
I’ll therefore just leave you with this great music video:
Music Video: Ama Lou - Same Old Ways (Official Music Video)
I always look forward to this newsletter! So many gems!