Knowledge Portfolio Series: Diversification
- Chief Noise Maker
- Apr 20, 2021
- 4 min read
Last time we discussed the decay of knowledge, and how it compounds as you acquire more. This time we discuss Diversification. Just like last time, investment portfolios are a perfect analogy, and we should all be aware that the biggest investment one can make is in themselves. So let’s talk diversification!
Investment portfolios should never lose everything by betting on one particular company, industry, country, or currency. Putting all your eggs in one basket is a recipe for disaster. The same is true for knowledge. This is particularly true in the world of technology where today’s hottest trend becomes yesterday’s old hat. I can see it in my own life. I became a subject matter expert (SME) at recurrent neural networks (RNN). I thought I had job security because I was the sole expert. I mean everyone needs me. Obviously! As a dear friend in HR told me, obsessing over a niche keeps you from acquiring skills. My focus was setting me up to be obsolete. Without growing, I would never make cross department connections and become an invaluable “hub” of the company. At the end of the day, they could always hire someone who knew one particular technology. However, replacing the “hub” of the company with a new hire is a tall order. Specializing in one particular area is like putting all of your money in Blockbuster.
Having all your money in one place seems like a great idea, but there comes a day when it bites you in the ass.
Another reason to diversify your knowledge is because you can’t solve every problem with a hammer. I would be rich if I charged technologists a nickel for obsessing about a particular technology. If you have coded for decades, you will use more than one programming language in your lifetime. I find it hilarious how often data scientists will argue about whether python or R is better.
I’ve used 5 languages over my career, and I find each useful depending on the problem I’m trying to solve. There is a similar concept with savings accounts, checking accounts and retirement accounts. No financial advisor in their right mind would only use a savings account. Savings accounts can’t solve all the various financial problems one has to solve over the course of a life. You need multiple types of accounts to handle your bills, emergency fund, retirement and travel.
Now that we destroyed the idea of focusing your knowledge in one area. How many different areas are there? Honestly, only two!
I’ve already alluded to the technical skills or knowledge. I’m a technical person. I enjoy that space. But I have to be honest. Every time I wake up to go to work. Guess who I have to work with.
GD PEOPLE!
That’s right. I was hired by people. I might be fired by people. I’ve solved problems with people. And I’ve made love to people.
I’m lucky. I’m a very technical person who is a social butterfly. And yet! I work with large groups of technical people who don’t really like to work with people. They like to say things like. “I‘m technical and I’m introverted.” As if getting a PHD in math should exclude them from having to learn about people. When you get to know people, you want to help them level up. All too often technical colleagues have no interest in building people skills. It’s no surprise that they have great ideas. But, they can’t get the people holding the purse strings on board. It took a stern conversation with a brilliant scientist to help them understand a simple fact of life.
A genius who is incapable of effective communication will produce the same impact as a complete idiot.
Effective communication connects with people. It gets them to invest emotionally and financially. Technical smarts without people skills should not be the end state of a career. Likewise, being great at people skills with no technical competency is a guaranteed way to lose trust. I’m not saying individuals working more in the soft skills area should become a technical geek, but they need a certain level of competency in order to help drive decisions and understand the impacts to their work. I heard about a young financial manager who lost a potential client because he shared his screen, and the client saw other people's sensitive information. The client never considered a word the financial advisor said after the advisor showed a lack of technical competency in using his computer. This may not seem technical to people from my industry, but privacy and all its implications is a big technical issue. I’m proud that for every technical book I’ve read I’ve also read a people skills book. I believe everyone should do the same. If there is a job that pays well without solving problems for people, I’m shocked! It’s absurd to be aloof and expect to solve people’s problems.
At the end of the day, there is a school of thought that imagines humans as becoming powerful due to specialization. This school imagines a beautiful world full of people learning one technical skill and performing it perfectly like a machine. While a society of people can gain from this phenomenon, it is due to a wide diversity of specialization across a population. For the individuals who are doing the specialization, they are going down the perilous path of the banana. Like most mono-agriculture, the banana is brittle, weak, and susceptible to extinction. Bananas are going extinct because it is foolish to grow one type of cloned plant for decades.
It can often seem like a pure lottery as to which specialization will become obsolete.
As such, develop yourself fully. You don’t have to be an expert at everything, but it helps to know a little about a lot.
Devote some time each week to learning and vary the diet of what you learn.
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