The case for specific Knowledge
You couldn’t have been part of the tech landscape in 2010s and escaped the powerful philosophical framework of Naval Ravikant. Today, I woke up to Eric Jorgenson’s compilation of Naval’s philosophical musings. trending on product hunt.
While there are many concepts - the two of the most powerful ones are. “Wealth” and “Specific knowledge”.
Wealth is having assets that earn while you sleep.
This is something most people understand by the age of 13 or earlier if they read rich dad-poor dad. For me, seeing my parents grind in their well paying corporate gigs, I knew that is not the path to create significant wealth. The key to wealth is owning assets that earn while you sleep and leverage. I still rate this as one of the most important lesson in the book since many smart people don’t seem to apply this.
But the next one is what always gets me thinking, and I thought I will write about it.
Specific knowledge is something you learn and knowledge you cannot be trained for. Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your genuine curiosity and passion rather than whatever is hot right now. Become the best in the world at what you do (your specific knowledge) and keep redefining what you do until this is true.
There’s a lot more in Naval’s Almanac and I would encourage you to read it if you haven’t. If you have been thinking about life and greatness since young age, you will agree with a lot of it, disagree with a few of them and then some will really make you think.
So the question I am pondering over is - what is my specific knowledge. What are the things I have been doing as a kid - repeatedly, without prompt and seem to be really good at.
Math
Algebra, numbers and understanding mathematical principles. My mom tells me when I was a kid that I would always be solving math problems - from my book, from her GMAT books or any math problems I could get my hands on. My first memory of ambition is reading about my first mathematical theorems when I must have been 8 or 9 and feeling strongly that like them, I wanted my name in the book with a cool math theorem. I must have spent several after school school hours multiplying / dividing numbers (for example special patterns that emerge when you multiple by 111111… or 999…. or 1234…. ) and trying to see if I can find a rule that no one has found so far. I wanted my name in the books. I still do, just different books. I failed then, but I was soon in Math Olympiad and for next few years - the top 5 mathletes were allowed to skip morning assembly to do an extra class of advanced math based on rapid mental calculations. Result: I almost always score 100% in competitive math exams, I am really fast crunching numbers and can think really fast using mathematical principles.
I still solve math problems for fun, I still hate using calculators and love doing rapid mental maths. This is not work, I don’t have to plan to solve a math problem, I do this as relaxation in my spare time. So this is definitely a form of specific knowledge.
Managing Uncertainty
The one thing I hear very commonly from my co-founders, friends and colleagues is how calm I can be in chaos and how much I embrace it. I have always enjoyed uncertainty and embraced it and certainty bores me, I have no desire to work or excel when things are well laid out, planned and predictable. I get bored easily because I learn quickly. No doubt, I have barely worked for others - and spent all my working life in start-ups or starting my own companies.
This helped me start my first company just a year or so out of college and second one last year. This has helped me move countries, find amazing romance, invest in some amazing people and gifted me lots of adventures.
While others sometimes view my steps as as reckless or as unplanned - I think what allows me to deal with uncertainty better is my ability to break it down into simple things.
What is my down side and what is my upside: I like those uncertain situations, that when viewed with a 10-20 yr impact on your life have limited downside but provide unbounded upside. Whenever I find this to be true in a field I am excited about, I love to embrace it.
What are fundamental drivers of this uncertainty and what happens when those drivers become certain. Understanding drivers of system and really being certain about what bet you are making is helpful. For example, most people view starting a company as making a bet on the idea. I view it is making a bet in the people and the market. If you have picked the right market, and the right people - since life is a set of repeated games - your chances of winning over a long horizon is very very high.
Learning social systems
I have always been very interested in philosophy and specifically how people transact and how they define values and morality. This is one of the reasons I chose economics, and didn’t pursue computer science after high school. I was deeply interested in how societies work, how people interact, how they trade values, what they value. Microeconomics fascinated me way more than macro-economics. Microeconomics has fundamental truths about individual behavior.
I have always had a faster intuitive understanding of systems. It has helped me move countries and adjust very quickly, it has helped me understand organizations and I do read a lot about how people define values, morality, greed and how they transact these in their day to day life.
Sales
Even though, working in sales is not something I enjoy. I have always been good at selling ideas to people. I enjoy the act of selling, just don’t enjoy it as a job. I was able to sell the first 10 customers including some Fortune 500 companies in my first start-up. I was able to sell customers in USA when I moved here and in Europe when I lived there. I am also selling on behalf of m current start-up, helping contribute to a decent chunk of our existing customers.
I have been able to attract people to join my companies, raised multiple rounds of financing and sold major newspapers on our story to earn free PR for my first company.
I do love talking to sales people, I do enjoy seeing them in action and learning from them.
Reading about entrepreneurs and business
I don’t know if this is a specific skill, but I love learning and reading about successful people, businesses and thinkers. I have been obsessed with them since I was a kid. My friends will attest to the fact that I can have encyclopedic knowledge about technology founders and business greats from late 1900s. My book shelf is filled with them and I spent countless hours on Youtube listening to these people, or about these people.
Endurance Sports
I have also always been in it, and been compounding this for a decade. I don’t know if this qualifies for specific knowledge but pushing my body to its limits and masochistic pleasure derived from the pain drives me. It helps me stay focussed.
What is not my specific knowledge.
Engineering or coding: I have coded in my life and can build some basic stuff out - but there’s a reason I never went deep enough to pursue it as a career.
Music or Arts: I have never been able to play music, I have tried. I enjoy consuming them, have no ability to create. I do enjoy writing though. I have written on-and-off since I was 16.
Science fiction or video games: I love to understand the world around me, I do not usually indulge in escaping to other worlds to explore dimensions. I can see a lot of merit in fueling your imagination by doing it, but I have never had a natural inclination.
Large groups or caring too much about other people: I care very little about large group gathering, their opinions and how they view me or the world. I think there are people who are really good at this, and many of them are good candidates might be great candidates for starting a burning man camp.
Nature, Environment, or geography: I travel, I enjoy nature, but I have never been curious to go too deep. I don’t spend my free time thinking about it. When I crave nature - I go for a run in the park, by the beach or take my bike and ride the hills of silicon valley.
Emotions: I am less emotional than most people and show surprisingly low level of empathy for those I don’t care about. I should never chose a profession where understanding other people’s emotions is a key to success. I am much better at understanding their motivations.
Financial modeling: I trade markets, like I live life. Understand and distill few things that are true and then let them guide your trades. Technical analysis has never interested me despite my love for math.
Now the key question is how to I define my specific knowledge and apply it to achieve my goals. A topic for another post.
