Advice for young people: Get good at many things | Rob Reid and Lex Fridman

Lex Fridman Podcast full episode: • Rob Reid: The Existent...
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Rob Reid is an author and podcaster.
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[@asmitachatterjee8979]

Oh, my god. He actually didn't say he went to Harvard. Lex said it. It was really nice and refreshing. I immediately hit like at that moment.

[@hardip5523]

It's a good way to weed out pretentious people.

[@angus928]

I remember Naval Ravikant have said similar things before, be very good at 2-3 fields instead of competing in one field at the top level. There is still so much untapped potential in these intersections, in terms of both economic value and innovations.

[@liva971]

Yeah, as well as David Epstein and Tim Ferris actually :)

[@lystic9392]

I wholeheartedly support this idea for young AND old people. You are rarely ever too old to learn and discover. I know someone who is turning 65 and is going to go to university to study psychiatry.

[@kylechen9573]

This is similar to what my dad tells me; he talks about "intersections" and the demand for skills, how your chosen path to pursue has just as much to do with success as your effort due to the competition involved

[@shaunheileman4394]

Love this question especially as a young person but even for older people keep asking this

[@tohespidhire3808]

@@gial8862 Indeed, the title of this video is incorrect and misleading. Rob Reid stated that you want to have an INTERSECTION between TWO fields, where there are opportunities for both those particular skills, yet few individuals capable of leveraging the combined knowledge of both areas. To "get good at many things," this is actually a flawed regurgitation of the phrase, "Jack of all trades, master of none." Nobody should be aiming for this because employers will automatically reject you, due to the uncertainty about your abilities (i.e., you have no focus).

[@tohespidhire3808]

@@gial8862 Yes, the problem with having a high intelligence is that one can find themselves dissatisfied with a given position, leading them to change jobs, even forgoing well-paid positions. Having multiple skils might have worked in the past, but my comments are directed to young people today, specifically that you are not seen as employable unless your skills are directly applicable to the work involved.

[@iuk4280]

Some young guys like me need things like this. Thanks

[@shanlynwebb]

I agree. This makes things a lot more pleasant across the board.

[@RCTricking]

This matches my early career experience, very well put!

[@lampleather2574]

I’m so glad lex asks this question to most of his guests

[@crazywilly85]

Man, I wish I had youtube and people like this to listen to when I was a teenager.

[@MiguelFernando]

Except unfortunately most teenagers just get sucked into watching gamers screaming non-stop instead :)

[@MiguelFernando]

Except unfortunately most teenagers just get sucked into watching gamers screaming non-stop instead :)

[@crazywilly85]

@@MiguelFernando Fair point, lol.

[@kobejordan5518]

@@MiguelFernando Its sad really.

[@feralaca123]

It's never too late. You can learn so many things at any age

[@william420adam]

Yeah Naval talks about this also. This is a great idea

[@LadyShar]

Great advice

[@AtypicalPaul]

He seems like a unique person in that he's intelligent, creative, and successful yet humble.

[@PMMM9]

Great ideas.

[@Soulen1986]

You cant get good at many things at once. You can get really good at one thing and through it understand how to get really good at somthing else. Which is a separate time consuming process. Choose wisely.

[@AlienInsect]

Tell that to painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, sculptor and architect Leonardo da Vinci.

[@Outplayedqt]

@@AlienInsect And just how many modern-day da Vincis do you see running around these days?

[@AlienInsect]

@@Outplayedqt Polymaths aren’t that rare.

[@Artaxerxes.]

@@AlienInsect Sure. I found a polymath yesteday. A stones throwaway at that. A polymath is an exceptional individual who has distinguished himself/herself at highest level in 5-6 fields. John von neumann is widely known to be the last of the great polymaths. So stop deluding yourself.

[@AlienInsect]

@@Artaxerxes. Where’d you pull that 5-6 number from? A polymath is simply someone whose skills and/or knowledge spans a number of different fields. There’s no requirement for “exceptional achievement”, however that might be defined.

[@jacom9223]

Somebody should make a compilation of these clips

[@ehnonyhumus]

Former COBOL developer here. #MainframeForever

[@timothyroy20111]

Thank you for that advice. I have recently realized that in my career.

[@moshefabrikant1]

6:20 finding an intersection of two things you can be pretty good at but is a rare intersection and a special intersection is probably a much easier way to make yourself distinguishable and in demand from the world THEN FOCUSING ON ONE THING

[@CaptainAHD]

Yes

[@JesseNickelltheFourth]

Rob seems super intelligent!

[@mangarific1]

As Peter Thiel puts it: competition is for losers.

[@petrij7660]

I’ve been occupying one intersection for a long time, and I can tell you that large corporations don’t like it. Intersections are only truly valued in startups and small companies. Large corporations only want specialization unfortunately. But it is true that if you can do more than one thing, you will essentially have more opportunities because you can look for several roles at the same time instead of just one.

[@friedricey]

This is my experience also. Old world enterprises don't like it because they see you as a threat to the whole chain, especially at the top. You'd want to look for innovative companies or industries with similar minded people. Those dinosaurs holding onto the status-quo are in the process of being deleted anyways. Evolve or die.

[@petrij7660]

@@friedricey I don’t think this has to do with leadership methods. I think it simply comes from the fact that a small company doesn’t have a successful product yet, so they have to be able to pivot very quickly and experiment to find a hit product. And they need to do all of that with a small group of people whily trying to compete with the big players. In large companies the situation is the opposite, where they already have a successful product and they just need to create stability to keep profiting from the successful product, and keep making small improvements to it. So if you look at it from that perspective, then it makes complete sense that large companies want further specialisation where small companies need generalisation. The only point where a large company needs generalized people is when the success product sales are falling and small improvements are not enough anymore. That’s when they need to create a small group of people to do radical experimentation, and hope one of those projects will become the next big thing. So in this sense the leaders in the large companies are doing exactly what is expected of them and what is best for the business. It’s not about dinosaurs.

[@wetalksports1128]

1:00 Be A combo of something in this thing, thats how you feel have your edge being good at many

[@KokeBeast23]

Tell that to the job market

[@kershaw1450]

How do people find willpower to get ACTUALLY skilled at multiple things? having a career and learning a trade takes 40-60 hours of my time and energy every week. The weekends are for joy and relaxtion.

[@CUB-qy2hj]

Yeah this is where inherited wealth and network comes in coupled with personal smarts and dedication. (subtly ignored pretty much everywhere). Plus your present location also matters. Following the path , you might not be as successful as the guy above but you can maximize the hand you were dealt with which is all that really matters personally to me.

[@RealmDesigner]

You are looking at it in a weird way. Those weekends for joy... you don't need to "get good" at multiple things you don't like. Yeash. Get good at things you love doing. and are happy to spend time on.

[@petrij7660]

Weekends are for fun, and that fun can then become a job at some point when you get good at it.

[@piotrkonieczynski]

They just curious and dont follow stupid career bcoz they not neurotic and have hunger to know more and more. Unlock and learn quicker and quicker. You follow like mechanical robot corpo ant etc.

[@frog6054]

@@RealmDesigner What if you have nothing you're passionate about?

[@bohdankhv]

You have to interview Sentdex

[@tomurphy8]

Very much like Tim ferris’ advice

[@nofurtherwest3474]

It's COBOL not Cobalt

[@Ayra_Is_Cool_lol]

Can't believe I've been doing this my whole life

[@felixgraphx]

If you don't know how to play music or how to do accounting and you only know how to program, you cannot write a music editing program, or an accounting program. What is needed is an overlap of specializations, or an "intersection of expertise" like they say, in order to get actual progress after the obvious or trivial aspects of a a field of activity has been found and exploited.

[@alex-er3de]

@Faucacius Sounds like a good strategy to me.

[@josyk2142]

Does somebody has good recommendations of KZbin channels about business ?

[@ai.simplified..]

Second time i heard from guests that they r saying the opurtunity is waiting for you at intersection of two things

[@periodictech4248]

There is crop insurance in India though. Efficiency is debatable.

[@PY-xm7fz]

Similar to Scott Adams Idea of being in top 25% of about 2-4 things. If executed this can make you really special.

[@k15400pr301]

Combine two good skills to become a great skill

[@gnutscha]

I am good at Hearthstone, MTG, Dota, PUBG and WoW. Is this enough?

[@TheSgrizli]

Rip battery

[@johnburman966]

There are people with a few dimensions, others with many dimensions. Their time on earth will be spent doing different stuff. It will happen by itself. For example one person may be a handyman to feed himself and family but his real effort and achievement will be to expand his consciousness. Another may be a scientist, win nobel prize, but have little personal growth in his life.

[@itsraahul]

Dude he literally talked about idea in my mind ! I wanted to apply crypto to agri in india

[@jeffreyvedha4871]

lets go man. you can do it.

[@OM4Rx]

1000th view I’m 22 & trying to do better

[@cn7abc]

OHH REALLY I HAVE TO BE GOOD AT THINGS, I HAD NO IDEA!!!

[@jimmc448]

Am I the only one who realizes they both said Cobalt?

[@bingobango4281]

Especially if you’re a natural!!! Options options options. But only pursue one! Huh?

[@logicmind1817]

Try to get good at many things once you're excellent at one thing. There is a saying. Jack of all trades, master of none.

[@ericantone8709]

Yep. Except for AI. Ai will be a master of all trades, far superior to any human.

[@stretch8390]

And the end of the saying is, "Often times better than master of one". People seem to just drop the end off of it now though.

[@logicmind1817]

@@stretch8390 There is a reason it is drop off. It does not work most of the time.

[@turolretar]

@@logicmind1817 cope harder

[@piotrkonieczynski]

Excuser

[@denishujdur8652]

It's kinda beautiful how Lex Fridman himself is perfect example of someone who is great at more than one thing. He is a great programmer, has a black belt in BJJ, is well read when it comes to philosophy and is great at listening and asking the right questions. That combination creates a great and unique Podcast.

[@VGLV888]

✅☑️

[@jimboslyc]

So there's value to being a Jack of all trades after all

[@ferndog1461]

Advice for young people: most likely, you will be of average intelligence, I.Q., etc. Build disapline in oneself-very important. Learn how to have network/positive interactions Take psychology classes to learn how to deal with superiors with weak social skills. Study ADD, Mild Autism/photographic memory phenomena because those traits are Hallmark of the craftspeople that you will have to work with & support.

[@fdr100100]

appauling advice many implies quantitiative be good at being quantitative?!!!! no no no be good at being qualitative be good at being yourself this means giving kids as many avenues to go down with as much guidence as possible without hampering their path

[@eddieblanquito9800]

drop here what you would do

[@SystemicNuance]

Really? I didn't know.

[@AJScraps]

Being sarcastic towards one’s elders certainly doesn’t get you anywhere irl.

[@AmritGrewal31]

@@AJScraps my profession's elders are Euler, Bernaulli, Newton and many more who had more questions than answers, not some pretentious fiction writer who has an answer for everything

[@thoughtmechanic4838]

@@AmritGrewal31 you’re better off with an elder who can get you to be a little less of a bitter snob about things; that’s for sure.

[@SystemicNuance]

Just being snarky because he said he didn't want to be Hallmark, and he did it anyway. If you've spent the last few years seeking any advice in STEM, almost anyone successful will tell you this exact advice.

[@huntybangz]

Gee wow, be good at a lot of things - who woulda thunk it?

[@AJScraps]

Jordan Peterson says creativity and neuroticism are best modulated by conscientiousness. To me, I think both of the podcaster’s pov’s are pivotal to harnessing that creativity to become an asset in the neoliberal society we inhabit.

[@ericantone8709]

Not going to matter due to AI. It will be able to do everything better.

[@x0UncleSam0x]

I can't remember how many times I've head the opposite.

[@ferndog1461]

Jack of several trades, master of none.

[@stretch8390]

@@ferndog1461 but often times better than master of one. It's the rest of the saying!

[@roxikoko3744]

Denzel Washington would disagree. Fall forward.

[@zuldo8577]

WOw thAnkS dAD

[@gregstuart7444]

this guy moves his face like mark cuban. looks stoned but definitely isn’t

[@abdulelahsm]

is 30 still young? asking for a friend

[@thequestion3953]

Yes

[@SpecialEdDHD]

Don't listen to this guy. He's never struggled. Getting good at many things ain't worth shit unless you can afford to do so. You want money, a good job, get specialized. Or else you always starting from scratch,

[@tekannon7803]

Cheap shot! At 2 minutes in, Lex, you interrupt one of your most learned and enlightening interviewees because you're looking... for a Cobalt superstar. It shows you're tired. I say cheap shot, and I mean it, because you are showing burnout on the horizon. You must stay humble and respect every minute with these incredibly intelligent people you are interviewing and not take them for granted. When you see yourself doing this it's your intuition trying to connect. It's saying: You need time off. Unfortunately---and it's only protocol---but I am going to have to start billing you for... Okay, okay ending it with humor there. Lex? Lex? Is he... smiling? Lastly, the best advice I think you can give anyone of any age is to follow your heart---do what you love---and listen to your intuitive forces whatever they may be: gut feeling, solutions that come in dreams. One way to find what you want to do in life---and there are many---is to ask yourself before you go to sleep "What is it I'm supposed to do? What do I want to do?" Sometimes you wake up and you know what you're here for.

[@freakedout93]

Weird comment

[@kobejordan5518]

Good point.

[@dagoelius]

This is bad advise.- young people of today are attention deficit, are phone addicts, entitled and give up too easily. They need to invest learn to commit their time to mastering something, anything. Those who become masters of their craft create their own niche enterprise.

[@piotrkonieczynski]

This is not for everyone. Majority was and is like you write. This is for those who dare and are curious. Some are born gifted majority not at all.

[@abefroman8528]

Sorry but wrong. Human civilization doesn’t advance with a bunch of people being pretty good at a lot of things. Capitalism fails when it becomes a bunch of comfortable folks who don’t seek exceptionalism. The Soviet people wanted to have the ability to thrive and succeed, not wallow in low level basics equality.

[@Maarten8867]

You're not getting the point that if you are decent in two fields then you tend to be exceptional wherever those fields intersect.