[Twitter alpha by moots]Thoughts by main_horse, tokenbender
Intro
This post is mostly me thinking out loud on a couple of thoughts by my internet friend main_horse. I hope we meet some day soon haha. I am still thinking on these things and yet to reach a full understanding. DM me if you have something to add.
TODO: post is complete, need to rewrite for clarity and think more on the ideas.
Opening thoughts
I once posted this because I thought I was not smart enough to work with the smartest people (which is not wholly true). I think if you work in a field of interest and put enough effort in it and then yap about it in the right places, you can get great opportunities and can get to the top in the long run. Increasing luck
Relevant
Sometimes there are windows of technologies, when things are rapidly growing, when it's the "foom" era like AI as of now. You can enter a field during this time, ride the wave. Chris Albon's thread on same
Had discussion with this with Tokenbender senpai.
main_horse's thoughts
main_horse gave the following reply to that tweet
apply leverage in new developments where your peers inherently cannot have any advantage
— main (@main_horse) February 13, 2024
I still think about this often. I think his reply and Chris Albon's thread have a lot of similarities. Basically when the fields are new, there are a lot of things going on and you can become expert in a few of them and then leverage that. As Naval would say, gather specific knowledge.
Since you are early, even starting or spending 1 month more than your peers will make you ahead.
this does not save you if the people you're around are so good that their sheer adaptability exceeds your alpha, but it does save you from workplaces where your learning rates are roughly equal despite having drastically different levels of experience
— main (@main_horse) February 13, 2024
I also like this comment from Rahul
this is great advice, investing in areas where conviction consensus doesn't exist but has good chance to be valuable is the most underrated way to build competitive advantages.
— Rahul Chhabra (@rahulchhabra07) April 2, 2024
I liked a quote by Tokenbender senpai. -
The alpha is not just present in things people aren't an expert it, the alpha is also present in doing things others would dislike doing or cringe at
I think this is relevant to main_horse's idea too.
Slight digression
Main also pointed me to a nice blog
The screenshot he shared says that when we have an internal hierarchy running in the mind where we are happy if we get external validation. If we don't get that, we resort to self-loathing, depression. And this somehow feels better/more comforting than the mental work of change (which means you work / upskill and fix your problems)
The insight is that sometimes we can use our defense mechanisms as an excuse to prevent us from working hard. Self-hate is easier than putting effort but it's the wrong direction.
Don't self-loathe. Don't get into a rut. Start working towards change. It might feel uncomfortable but it's the best way to go forward. Solve your skill issues. Find your strengths.
Second thought - Seek out global minima when given the chance, do not roll head-first into the next attractor basin you find
what I wish someone had told me: your preferences are malleable under pressure and this is a good thing. seek out global minima when given the chance, do not roll head-first into the next attractor basin you find pic.twitter.com/yuISRkAryF
— main (@main_horse) December 22, 2023
Honestly, this is still not clear to me.
I just think of it as a combination of thought 1 + then think of what's the highest leverage thing you can do (instead of just getting stuck in local minimas)
I think Tokenbender is correct on this idea:
#twitter #alpha