Ask HN: How did you find what you were good at? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How did you find what you were good at?

10 pointsculopatin15 comments

I am inspired by specialized and talented people who are masters of their craft.

My problem is that I am equally attracted to 3 somewhat unrelated fields that I would like to master and I have become static in the sense of not being able to choose one as my path. I've bounced between mechanical engineering, physics and computer science and have made meaningless progress in all of them.

If you were in the same boat, how did you find that one thing that you're good at?

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It's understandable that you're struggling to pursue either of those three subjects - they're too vague and abstract. What does crafting in mechanical engineering look like? In physics? In computer science? What is it specifically that you want to be able to craft? Whatever it is, it might even incorporate elements of one, two, or all three of the subjects you mentioned.

The first carpenters didn't say, "I'd like to become a master of carpentry", no, they probably said something more like "I want to build a workbench". Ok, how do you learn to build a workbench? By building workbenches. Then you build a cabinet. Then you build a house. You do this for years - now you're a master.

You want to make a house? Go apprentice with the carpenter. You want to make a wind farm? Go apprentice with the mechanical engineer. You want to make money in finance as a quant? Go apprentice with the physicist.

Why choose? There's a place for people with a foot in two (or even three) worlds. I'm pretty sure that somewhere like CERN has need for people who sit at the intersection of mechanical engineering, physics, and CS.

Maybe you can't commit because these fields are so similar? They're all analytical, and for example mechanical engineering is just applied physics and physics in practice is often about programming simulations and data processors. So, in a way, it doesn't matter that much what you choose, as these fields have very similar "feel" to them, and also you can fairly easily change fields in the future.

My original career choice was to be a teacher.

After doing it for a few years, it became clear that teaching as a career was not for me even thought there were aspects of it that I really liked (the material, helping students navigate life, thinking about teaching). Other aspects were not for me (bureaucracy, high maintenance parents, etc).

You might find that while those individual subjects interest you equally, careers in those fields might have different parts to them which you are not suited to (public speaking, grant writing, research).

All that said, I’m not really sure that I’m good at my current career itself but more that the individual things that make it up suit me better. One thing in particular is that I am able to grind at the same task for many days in a row to meet my goal. This has crossover utility in other fields too but has served me well in my current one.

You get good at what you repeatedly practice. But I don't think that's what you're really asking--it sounds like you want a career focus, which is different (and might be entirely unrelated to what you're good at).

What do you enjoy doing over and over, where you lose track of time? What do other people tell you you're good at? When you were young, what did you most enjoy doing? Start with those kinds of questions, and give them some real thought.

Based only on long personal experience, I'd also say: don't waste time looking for an epiphany. That's just not how things work. Also, often motivation follows commitment, not the other way around. In other words, we paradoxically often like and become good at what we decide to do.

Ask yourself what you would do with your time if money weren't an issue. In my experience it's easier to get good at things you want to be doing, and it also keeps you from getting tricked into doing things that everyone else is doing or things that will make money but make you unhappy. If the thing you want to do tends to generate money (CS for example) then you're all set, if it doesn't (music for example) then figure out how to solve the problem of making money with that skill, otherwise you are more likely to be mediocre at multiple things because you'll be forced to do something you don't want to do to pay the bills.

Perhaps you are not good at just one thing, perhaps you need to find a focus area where the three topics in which you are interested are combined. Robotics springs to mind.

I too feel inspired by talented people, and stand in awe of experts. Through feedback from others, I found that I was rather good in an area I would never have expected earlier, namely managing people and later building teams and running projects/companies. Perhaps your true talent lies elsewhere as well?

These fields align quite well, IMHO. Take, for example, the development and operation of robots cleaning up the Fukushima nuclear aftermath. It is a very, very tricky environment where most normal assumptions of using materials and methods of communication that work in the normal world, don't apply.

My perspective: unless you have iron self-will or insatiable curiosity there's only 2 ways to make meaningful progress in those fields: school and job. If you're still in school (or can go back) it's easy, just start taking classes in the subject you want. Getting a job will depend on qualifications.

Masters of a craft may be very good at a number of different crafts. The only difference between "master of" and "good at" is often how you feel doing that activity. Pick the one that you enjoy most and mastery will come.

In the same boat with even bigger interest net(finance,science,general art). Still no clue

I think on top of learning separate domains, the real juice is in finding select intersection points that piques your interest.

To find the thing which you are good at - is to find the thing which every single amount effort feels well spent even when disregarding any progress.

I’m just not particularly good at anything. Unfortunately, I feel this may simply be the reality for many people.

I kept doing things I wasn’t good at. Eventually found something.

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