Ask HN: What should I learn in next 1 year to become the top one percent | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What should I learn in next 1 year to become the top one percent

7 pointssamrohn9 comments

Given that I can consistently dedicate 1 hr every day, what 'tangible' skill I should master to become top 1% or even 10% in a particular field. I am a python developer with 4 years of experience.

edit: Why? If you are the top one percent in any competitive field, income and freedom will follow the same without much effort. Of course, this is one reason. But I recently read about the power of playing the long game here: https://fs.blog/2018/10/long-game/.

So my assumption here is if I am able to put consistent effort towards something in long run, it shouldn't be difficult to master.

edit2: Okey. I think I underestimated what it takes to be the top 1 percent. What about top 10 or 25 percent? I think there is enough you can achieve with that level of mastery.

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I recommend Scott Adams’ advice.

If you want an average successful life, it doesn’t take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:

1. Become the best at one specific thing.

2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.

The first strategy is difficult to the point of near impossibility. Few people will ever play in the NBA or make a platinum album. I don’t recommend anyone even try.

The second strategy is fairly easy. Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort. In my case, I can draw better than most people, but I’m hardly an artist. And I’m not any funnier than the average standup comedian who never makes it big, but I’m funnier than most people. The magic is that few people can draw well and write jokes.

It’s the combination of the two that makes what I do so rare. And when you add in my business background, suddenly I had a topic that few cartoonists could hope to understand without living it.

https://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/car...

As nobody answered with a technical aspect, I would recommend you to watch the tendencies: what are the fields with the higher salaries?

For the US, for example, it seems that mastering AI/ML is one of the ways to go.

This might depend on your country. In mine (France), it seems that being good technical dev with pure-python and full stack skills with a touch of project conception/management skills.

Our startups have a lot of trouble in finding developers and we don't need that much of one particular special skills (which might be true for big companies, but the salaries there are not that high when you start and it takes years to obtain one).

The best Python developer in the world could be toiling away in their parent's basement when not working for substandard pay for some game company. Being the best at something does not equal income and freedom.

Provide value to someone (or, better, many someones), is the best way towards better finances. You can save aggressively and retire. The more value you provide, the more you can financially win.

Again, no need to be the best. Probably not even top x%. The big secret nobody tells folks: Everyone is winging it.

If you want to master a craft, you could leverage that craft to provide value. But it is not some one to one magical coupling.

I'm reminded of: is it better to be good or lucky? I'd say lucky, and luck favors the prepared. I was lucky enough to practice coding and solve a few people's problems with it and when a recruiter sent me to a promising startup, I was able to get in early. Lucky me Through very hard work, I kept up, grew professionally, and thrived in that environment. Again, lucky me. And through more luck (coupled with the skills of those running everything), the org IPO'd. Again, lucky me. At this point in my career, as long as there is a tech sector working with distributed systems, I should be able to obtain gainful employment (again, lucky me). I'm still not entirely sure how to provide value outside of that circle, but if I were to figure it out, I could likely achieve financial freedom much faster.

Sorry for the rambling. Just woke up. Time to get back to the grind (which I enjoy fwiw).

"income and freedom will follow the same without much effort" - you are very wrong here. getting to 1% takes as much effort as staying there. sacrifices you make getting there will take away some of your freedoms. income of 1% is subject to change. there is no final win in life after which you can just "settle". the only certain thing is death.

Something you're interested in that's completely unrelated to programming. Let's be honest, you're almost certainly not going to become a top 1% developer with just 5 years of experience. However you could easily become one of the best programmers who's also an expert within a certain niche of botany for example. There will always be a niche demand for people that really understand X and can program, for almost any value of X.

One hour a day probably isn’t enough to master any useful skill.

How would you measure the top 1%? Income? A lot more than skill goes into success, or making a lot of money. Luck and circumstances and who you know, for example.

I don’t think of programming as a competitive field. You can either add value that someone will pay for, or you can’t. Perceived coding ability usually has little to do with it.

You need to elaborate more, the question as it stands right now is a bit nonsensical. What is the criteria you are using to meet who belong to the top 1% of a field? is it income? is it mastery of a particular skill?

You want to be top 1% but you don't know why, so you don't have any reason to do so and you don't know what you want to be top 1% of.

Whats the point?

be a good parent

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