Welcome Avatar! This has been another popular topic and something we’ve written about for years. The entire idea of “work hard and you can be anything you want” is insane. The real game of life is to find what you’re exceptional at, then find a way to monetize it.
If you don’t have any interest in doing this yourself, at least do it for the next generation. Your own kids or people you see in your neighborhood.
Unless you’re a pure NPC, you would know that anyone Endomorph will never run a fast marathon, mile or even 800 meter. No chance. The heart has to pump too hard, the bone structure is too large. So on and so forth.
Similarly, the Ectomorph will not be seen in a single offensive or defensive line in the NFL or College. It doesn’t exist and will not exist with a 99.99999999999999% probability.
Autist Note: The only reason we didn’t put the word “Never” in there is because we’re sure at some point in the history of the world there was one weird exception to the rule with some genetic gift that allowed them to compete in something extraordinary.
If someone doesn’t understand this basic concept and wants to claim that Lebron James could break the world record for the mile if he “wanted to”… Just smile, nod and agree. You’re talking to someone living in a world of pure delusion.
Taking it a Bit Further: You can expand on this easily by just looking at body measurements. If someone has extremely long legs and a tiny torso, they will not become the next Michael Phelps. If someone has an extremely long torso and short legs, better believe that sprinting is not on the table.
Once again, if anyone believe this is “debatable”… time to move on from the conversation entirely.
Autist Note: You can do the same thing for arm length. If someone has a tiny wing span the chances of having a heavy serve in tennis or being able to throw a Javelin declines massively. If someone has extremely long arms, there is once again a trade off, harder to bench press. The range of motion is much higher and leverage on the bar is easier with *short* arms, not long arms. This is all simple physics
Now Onto More Advanced Stuff
Now that we’ve gotten rid of the exception to the rule guys who will mention Isaiah Thomas in the NBA (ignoring his 40” insane jumping ability) we can create a checklist for you to find clues.
Over a long enough time horizon, people do figure out what they are good at. This is actually evident in career choice. Work backward about 3 generations. Ask your parents about their parents… about their parents. Do the work.
In addition to doing that, go through the history of your own DNA. If you’re a mix of German and Russian at least that is a starting point:
Germans: Known for engineering, punctuality, directness, Beer/Sausage and Philosophy/Music (Beethoven, Bach, Goethe, Kant, Nietzsche)
Russians: Known for being extremely rugged/tough, Vodka, classical music (Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff) and being cold/unemotional
Roots as Starting Point
Majority of people just like to make excuses. Or they find some exception to the rule related to the ancestry. Therefore, if you start with basic historical research, at least you’re not guessing on day one. You have enough knowledge to know where to *test for talent* (no different than testing Demand for your next E-com venture!)
From the above, a basic starting point for our fake person who is 50/50 German/Russian? Math and Music
Math and music are heavily related. If you were to go and find high performing pianists the chances of having good math scores is higher.
Put the Person Into Piano Lessons: Simple as that. The reasoning is sound as well. If you start with Piano and some math lessons what is the downside? Nothing. They will likely get better at math and piano, two skills that are useful for pattern recognition and quick calculations later in life. If the person picks it up quickly, then you’ve got a path to go down. If they do not, then you’ve improved their pattern recognition and reading skills. No loss.
Move Onto Design
Again. Easy to do. You go and get complex building set. For kids it could be legos and for older kids it could be wood craft, pottery, etc. Anything that requires building from scratch.
People will say “but robots can put together a lego set, no point!”. Yes. There is a point. The point is the speed at which the person can solve the puzzle. In the more advanced version of wood work/pottery it would be the creativity of design.
If the person can come up with interesting new designs that are aesthetically pleasing then you’re onto something (IE. German Engineering - Autos).
You simply transfer this skill/talent into Computer Aided Design (CAD). While the robots can put together a blue print faster, it has to be given the blueprint.
Jony Ive is probably the most famous designer in the Corporate world. Just because he isn’t physically making the design, doesn’t mean he has no value.
Complex Riddles and Puzzles
These are quite useful. With computers they are less useful since everyone cheats. You’d want to test the person’s ability to solve increasingly complex riddles and puzzles. This is similar to the stereotype of playing chess out of the womb in Russia.
The calculating aspect and looking for clues is a big part of the culture. Lets just say that Russian Hackers isn’t a meme.
Forced to Look for More Info
At this point if someone is ultra lazy they already have a few items to test. Now we have to make some assumptions. Everyone reading this is going to have a different family tree.
We learn later that one of the grand parents was a professional heavyweight boxer. We also learn that one of the uncles was a well known architect.
If alarm bells are not going off at this point… Not sure what to say.
New Information Has Presented Itself: With this new information? It is highly unlikely that the person will ever waste time playing soccer or playing the violin. Outside of some strange exception to the rule it means they will have shorter legs, thicker fingers and a natural heavy build.
We also know this is likely because it says grand parent. 50-80 years ago you would look up film of the body type you’re dealing with. While sports do change over time, the film does not change. National Class/World Class in any sport will have a general strategy at that particular time frame.
Onto Architect Information: Since we know that the person is likely much larger on the Endomorph side, we can make a calculated assumption on the type of architectural work person was doing. Much more likely to be related to large presentation type models (think concrete and wood structures). While you should always check if you can, this is the likely answer just based on those two pieces of information.
Congrats you just saved a ton of time. You’re not going to waste thousands of dollars on violin lessons. You’re actually going to scratch the Piano idea and move to Drums. Instead of throwing the person into a race, you’re going to put them into throwing type events (no pun intended).
You’ve Now Narrowed the Pathways
This seems like it is obvious but you’d be surprised. People just go down paths with absolutely no self awareness. If someone had the opposite information (thin long fast fingers, you leave them in piano).
Think that’s it? No not really can narrow it even more.
You continue to research and find the common thread seems to be larger torsos and large designs. Fantastic we’ve already solved a bunch of problems at once. Unless the person is legitimately the exception to the rule we know that good ideas for the future are:
Designs for sky scrapers, cars/trucks and mechanical equipment (think Caterpillar)
For exercise they’ll focus on Shot Puts, Discus, Javelin, put them into swimming for the butterfly, etc. (yes boxing as well)
Look into construction/concrete work/excavation
Perhaps even logistics/transportation since that involves large scale precision and movement
Get Feedback: Think of this as a large Venn Diagram. You’re now inside the first set of circles.
While everyone else is paying for lessons in all these activities from piano to soccer to baseball to math to chemistry to poetry… You’re already ignoring 80% of activities. Have you figured out what you’re world class at? Nope. Is it increasing the probabilities of finding it? Yes
Some Time Goes By: After messing with everything within the two connecting black circles, you get some feedback: 1) you’re able to construct things and *deconstruct* them quickly without any loss of speed/precision, 2) you’re finding that your performance in a discus is notably better than the shot put, 3) you play some video games and at the end of the game, the levels are in reverse but you see *no* change in the difficulty. It feels boring and 4) when you’re designing anything in 3D you can make it symmetrical with ease
This sounds “meaningless” to 90% of people. Maybe even 95% of people.
However from this you can actually deduce a good career option. We’re not saying you end your career here or you never go to a new area.
The big strange item here is in point 1 and 3. For some reason doing something backwards or inverted doesn’t make any task harder. This is a big clue. If you’ve built anything in your life, imagine trying to do it while standing on your head and getting the same performance. Ignoring the physical aspect of that, it still isn’t as easy as it sounds.
Answer: Satellite or space system design.
Starting to Sound Less Crazy? It Should
Some people have a knack for these things. They can run a system in one direction and backward at the same brain processing power. Satellites and spaceships are good examples of that specific and “weird” situation. There is no gravity so everything gets inverted and moved around in different ways than it would on earth (where this is a standard gravitational pull).
Our makeshift Russian/German person is now on his way to go into something related to aerospace design. Luckily he recognized he had longer arms than his grandparents which is causing a lot more torque and force from the discus. This weird ability gets him a basic scholarship (50% off) to three universities. His performance is realistically not going to get into the olympics (he’s #35 in the nation).
Answer is once again pretty clear. One of these three schools offers a top rated Aerospace program. He goes and focuses there.
Bonus: If you’re ultra autist, you would note that training for Discus is not going to be as time consuming or taxing as playing baseball or football. Unless you’re on a NIL deal making millions, the ideal situation is to do something that can get you in but not drain your future (not going to win a Gold Medal).
Some More Time Passes
After working in a complex space/satellite design position, he’s saving some money. Call it $20K a year. Not going to get rich, but has enough to invest in himself later.
After a few years, since satellite/space is typically deep on the edge of tech, he learns about tons of other robotics/systems that are available. The general public is not aware of them since they are busy asking “grok is this true” to scrape historical information which will always be a step behind innovation.
He finds that more and more people are glued to screens, betting their paychecks on DraftKings and complaining on the internet that home prices are too high. He also realizes that people are living alone for longer periods of time.
It hits him like a brick!
He already has the skills to design complex systems, how hard would it be to build a *High-end Modular House*
Bingo. Slowly but surely he designs out a new modular home build that will work out in Texas. Calculates the cost of these items and makes a mock up.
Tests Demand: While 90% of all our stuff is basic E-com where you get instant feedback his strategy is simpler. He builds one for himself to live in and then plans on selling it after 6 months.
Finds the areas with the most search volume for modular homes
Looks for areas that sell a high number of “tiny homes”
Buys a tiny piece of land to build this
Builds the home and puts it up for sale the day it is finished.
Hammered with phone calls and emails
Great strategy. Downside was living in a modular home himself, upside was selling it quickly and now having a business. Asymmetric
Home sells within 45 days at a 60% profit margin.
Spins Up Website and Begins to Scale
You can already see the copywriting. It practically writes itself
“Modular homes built by a rocket designer” - sounds good just writing it out
As you can see this angle would crush. If the person can build satellites and rockets that survive, how hard is it to build a safe modular home? Modular homes are also limited in space, design to maximize living conditions is paramount. All of these items are present in a satellite or rocket (whatever word you want to use for space item)
Pause and Stop
Can already hear the moans from the computer screen. “Not everyone can be a rocket designer”. Yeah… That isn’t the point. It is all the same process.
The vast majority of people are much more likely to go into E-commerce because they will know some small niche that is easy to sell to. We wrote about a major option yesterday (source) and others in the past as well (source)
E-com: Since the focus here is on the WiFi/Internet side just step back and ask “which group of people can I predict the best”. Since we know that 80-85% of consumer purchases are made by women, you just narrow that down. Which group is easiest to predict from a behavioral point of view?
If you don’t know then try. When you’re out getting a coffee, just walk by several stores. Try to guess which products are selling the best. Which ones are selling the worst. Repeat this over and over again.
After a few months you’ll have real time feedback. If you’re constantly correct about sports ware… guess you’re starting in apparel first. If you’re constantly correct about the type of lipstick, you’ll be starting in cosmetics. If you’re constantly correct about the right kitchen items… you get the idea
You might be laughing at how simple it is but it works. Instead of wasting time trying to be “correct” about the latest sports game spread, do something with a positive return. The bookies win over the long-term and will ban any consistent winner (sharps) anyway.
Instead find what you’re good at, narrow that thing down over and over again and you’ll see that you have a knack for something.
We give a 0% chance that someone is entirely talentless. We give a 95% chance that the majority don’t even filter their own environment via self discovery.
It’s a crime to deprive the world of your talents and gifts.
The price for this crime is heavy. Working for 40+ years with nothing to show for it in the end.
Good luck anon.
Follow your talents, not your dreams.
Disclaimer: None of this is to be deemed legal or financial advice of any kind. These are *opinions* written by an anonymous group of Ex-Wall Street Tech Bankers and software engineers who moved into affiliate marketing and e-commerce.
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