Tech Skills alone are Useless
NNeetCodeIO@NeetCodeIO · 352K subscribers
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- Mar 14
- Saturday
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The hook
0:00–0:26I'm younger than you, but I'm not, I guess like a brand new developer. I remember when I was in school, the thing I heard a lot about, and I didn't quite understand it at that point, was that people would say coding is actually not the most important part of being a developer. They would always say that actually the other skills are the harder parts, like figuring out what to do, how to do it, how to communicate, how to work with other people. And I would say that, you know, it's true and not true, because I think, I mean, coding matters.
Structure
I'm younger than you, but I'm not, I guess like a brand new developer. I remember when I was in school, the thing I heard a lot about, and I didn't quite understand it at that point, was that people would say coding is actually not the most important part of being a developer. They would always say that actually the other skills are the harder parts, like figuring out what to do, how to do it, how to communicate, how to work with other people. And I would say that, you know, it's true and not true, because I think, I mean, coding matters. Like you you you have to have the technical skills, but it's true that the technical skills alone actually don't really get you anywhere if you're just working on the wrong problem. They actually have a like zero value. They could have negative value. And so Yeah. Yeah, one of the things that I I I've said is I felt like in a lot of ways a lot has changed, a lot of ways it also feels like nothing's changed, where the thing rattling around my head and like sucking up all my energy is what should we be doing, what's going on, are we doing the right thing, are we working on the wrong thing, and like 95% of my brain was that, and then 5% was like on actually doing it. And now it's like, okay, 96% of my brain is that, and now 4% is now actually doing it. So it's it feels that way. Uh cuz that's that that's always been the hard part. It's always been what sucks your energy and like kind of keeps you up at night. Right. What are the other skills? I know you kind of touched on it. Like what actually like matters?
Watch from 0:00Are there other things, I guess like in your career from when you started to now and with the introduction of AI, what what are the other kind of main skills that you think are important? And how do you acquire those skills? Cuz it's not as straightforward as learning how to code. There's no sort of direct way to learn those things. Yeah. So I don't often give that much career advice cuz I feel like the world just shifts a lot. And like whatever I made sense for me like might not even be relevant anymore. But I will say one thing, one observation I made early on was you could just work on the programming skill and like just be a really really good programmer, and that can get you to a pretty good spot um like career-wise like depending on what your goals are. It probably get you everything that you want. But for people that like break through to like like like a 10x that that ceiling, it's always because they became an expert in a second thing. Um and like there's there's there's like generic skills like like product and business and strategy and positioning all that, but there's also some very tangible stuff, right? Like if you are a really good programmer and you also understand the finance industry inside out, you're like in like this top 0.1% of people that just does not exist cuz you're an expert in two things. Um so I've always been a big fan of like whatever industry you're in, you have an opportunity to learn a ton about it that nobody else really does.
Watch from 1:18Uh and cuz cuz as a programmer, you can like kind of get into you can get one you can get to any industry. Every industry needs programmers. Um not many fields let you enter any industry. Uh if you're like a medical professional, you it's like very hard to enter tech or the finance field or like oil drilling or whatever it is, but as a programmer, you can do everything across the board. And when you're in this position, you should like really try to become an expert at it cuz when you understand both these things together, you just can identify you like have this map of the industry and all the players and the incentives and then whatever and a like a glaring hole will pop up at some point of like there is an insane obvious gap that everyone is overlooking. And you can then go fill that gap. Whether it's just like something smaller where inside your company, whether you're founding your own company, um those opportunities are what gives you that's kind of what gives you like a once-in-a-lifetime situation, right? Um and I feel like a lot of programmers because programming was so enjoyable, maybe didn't spend as much time doing that or like just weren't weren't as intrigued. Um but if you feel like programming is getting kind of boring and you're doing prompts all day, the field you're in probably is very interesting. Like you can probably find uh if you're curious, you can probably find like a lot of value in in exploring that and becoming an expert. Um and there's like a big reward at the end of that. So that's that's probably how I would I would look at things.
Watch from 2:47I think a lot of people would describe you as sort of an elite developer. I don't know how your coworkers would describe you, but I'm I think most people like honestly would describe you as an elite developer, but uh what does that mean? Like what makes you good at what you do and why? Like were you just are you just a natural-born genius or is there something more to it than that? Like what's what what separates you from some average other developer? Yeah, it's it's like a funny thing cuz um you know, as our company's got bigger and we've had more resources to hire kind of whoever we wanted, we've been able to go after like people that we've always admired and they've joined our company and like now we work with them. And these people like are clearly better than me. They're like when I see the work they produce and I'm like I like wouldn't have ever produced that or like I probably would have given up or I wouldn't have done this stuff. So that does have me introspecting a lot like what do like what is the thing that I'm good at? Um and it's really hard I don't know I I can't I don't even know how to answer your question. I think I'm decent at programming. I think nowadays that's not really how I even think about my job. Um I think what I've been pretty good at is the thing I said earlier like I really study the environment some in.
Watch from 4:08Um I really study all the players. Like you can ask me anything about any company in my space. Like I like know a lot about them. I know who works there. I know their history. I know like what they care about. I I can kind of imagine what they're motivated by. Um so I think like my ability tends to be more just having the larger context and like seeing what might happen, being able to kind of place bets in in in the right area. And it's not just me, it's like my my two other co-founders are also really good at this and I think together we kind of have improved each other in this way. Uh So yeah, like kind of like just kind of getting looking at the world and like seeing how chaotic it is and like trying to make some sense of it, understanding what fundamental truths are always true, understanding what things that people believe to be true are only temporarily true. Um I think yeah, our team like spends a lot of time like me and my co-founder will spend hours talking about this stuff and we find this very interesting and stimulating and we spend a lot of energy there. Um And that like informs every aspect of your life, whether it's programming, whether it's business, whether it's personal, whether it's you know, you're hiring someone, you know, these are like things that you can kind of carry everywhere and I think that's maybe what gives me an ability, but it's like hard for me to say like, "Oh, I'm a really good programmer." when I see people like even on my own own team like out executing me.
Watch from 5:25Right. Um in terms of like those things that you mentioned that you're good at, are they things that just come naturally to you or was there sort of a deliberate effort that you made along the way to actually get good at those things? And if so, is that something everyone can just make a deliberate effort to improve at? Yeah. Yeah. And this is another another thing that speaking of like truths, this is one of the things that we talk to talk with each other about our company a lot. You go talk to anyone that's like elite, top of their game and it feels like they have a natural born gift. And you go like really talk to them and they'll all almost always say like, "Oh no, like I used to suck at it and I just like kind of got better at it over time." and they maybe became more obsessed with this thing than than everyone else. Um I think for me the specific skill, the thing that it comes down to is really caring about being right. And this is like a weird way to phrase it because of course everyone wants to be right. Um but I'm talking right in the end. I'm not talking right right now. I'm not talking about winning a single argument. I'm talking about ultimately knowing that you had the correct model of the world. And if that's what you really clear care about, you work backwards from there. It's all about clarity, like understanding yourself, like what are your own insecurities? Your own insecurities really bias your way of thinking. Like you want to believe certain things are true. Like you'll take any evidence of something as definitely being true cuz that's how you want the world to be.
Watch from 6:43Um, and this just takes years and years of like growing as a person. Like you know, when you're younger you're a lot more insecure. My ability to see clearly, my ability to like really understand what's going on was really weak back then. Um, as I became more confident, as I like, you know, uh, had some stuff under my belt that I could point to, that kind of improved my my my way of thinking. Um, being really diligent about the stuff that you're consuming and what like anything you consume poisons your mind in a certain way. Like it biases you in a certain direction. Um, really limiting that. You know, you need to like interact with the world, like get stimulus, but like doing that too much, you get drawn into echo chambers and bubbles and like monocultures and it's uh, yeah, it's really being self-aware and like thinking about that stuff. Like it's it's hard work and you're being I think the way society is now like you're that stuff is being assaulted like every second of the day that you're awake. Uh, probably in your dreams too. Like you're prob- they're probably going to get us there next, but uh, yeah, it's it's very hard and it takes like a deep commitment to wanting to be right in the end uh, to actually, you know, do all the things that it takes to to let it be true.
Watch from 8:06Full transcript
- 0:00
I'm younger than you, but I'm not, I guess like a brand new developer. I remember when I was in school, the thing I heard a lot about, and I didn't quite understand it at that point, was that people would say coding is actually not the most important part of being a developer. They would always say that actually the other skills are the harder parts, like figuring out what to do, how to do it, how to communicate, how to work with other people. And I would say
- 0:21
that, you know, it's true and not true, because I think, I mean, coding matters. Like you you you have to have the technical skills, but it's true that the technical skills alone actually don't really get you anywhere if you're just working on the wrong problem. They actually have a like zero value. They could have negative value. And so Yeah. Yeah, one of the things that I I I've said is I felt like in a lot of
- 0:43
ways a lot has changed, a lot of ways it also feels like nothing's changed, where the thing rattling around my head and like sucking up all my energy is what should we be doing, what's going on, are we doing the right thing, are we working on the wrong thing, and like 95% of my brain was that, and then 5% was like on actually doing it. And now it's like, okay, 96% of my brain is that, and now
- 1:03
4% is now actually doing it. So it's it feels that way. Uh cuz that's that that's always been the hard part. It's always been what sucks your energy and like kind of keeps you up at night. Right. What are the other skills? I know you kind of touched on it. Like what actually like matters? Are there other things, I guess like in your career from when you started to now and with the introduction of AI,
- 1:26
what what are the other kind of main skills that you think are important? And how do you acquire those skills? Cuz it's not as straightforward as learning how to code. There's no sort of direct way to learn those things. Yeah. So I don't often give that much career advice cuz I feel like the world just shifts a lot. And like whatever I made sense for me like might not even be relevant anymore.
- 1:48
But I will say one thing, one observation I made early on was you could just work on the programming skill and like just be a really really good programmer, and that can get you to a pretty good spot um like career-wise like depending on what your goals are. It probably get you everything that you want. But for people that like break through to like like like a 10x that that ceiling,
- 2:09
it's always because they became an expert in a second thing. Um and like there's there's there's like generic skills like like product and business and strategy and positioning all that, but there's also some very tangible stuff, right? Like if you are a really good programmer and you also understand the finance industry inside out, you're like in like
- 2:31
this top 0.1% of people that just does not exist cuz you're an expert in two things. Um so I've always been a big fan of like whatever industry you're in, you have an opportunity to learn a ton about it that nobody else really does. Uh and cuz cuz as a programmer, you can like kind of get into you can get one
- 2:51
you can get to any industry. Every industry needs programmers. Um not many fields let you enter any industry. Uh if you're like a medical professional, you it's like very hard to enter tech or the finance field or like oil drilling or whatever it is, but as a programmer, you can do everything across the board. And when you're in this position, you should like really try to become an expert at it cuz
- 3:13
when you understand both these things together, you just can identify you like have this map of the industry and all the players and the incentives and then whatever and a like a glaring hole will pop up at some point of like there is an insane obvious gap that everyone is overlooking. And you can then go fill that gap. Whether it's just like something smaller
- 3:34
where inside your company, whether you're founding your own company, um those opportunities are what gives you that's kind of what gives you like a once-in-a-lifetime situation, right? Um and I feel like a lot of programmers because programming was so enjoyable, maybe didn't spend as much time doing that or like just weren't weren't as intrigued. Um but if you feel like programming is getting kind of boring and you're doing
- 3:55
prompts all day, the field you're in probably is very interesting. Like you can probably find uh if you're curious, you can probably find like a lot of value in in exploring that and becoming an expert. Um and there's like a big reward at the end of that. So that's that's probably how I would I would look at things. I think a lot of people would describe you as sort of an elite developer. I don't know how
- 4:15
your coworkers would describe you, but I'm I think most people like honestly would describe you as an elite developer, but uh what does that mean? Like what makes you good at what you do and why? Like were you just are you just a natural-born genius or is there something more to it than that? Like what's what what separates you from some average other
- 4:36
developer? Yeah, it's it's like a funny thing cuz um you know, as our company's got bigger and we've had more resources to hire kind of whoever we wanted, we've been able to go after like people that we've always admired and they've joined our company and like now we work with them. And these people like are clearly better than me. They're like when I see the work they produce and I'm like I like wouldn't have ever produced
- 4:57
that or like I probably would have given up or I wouldn't have done this stuff. So that does have me introspecting a lot like what do like what is the thing that I'm good at? Um and it's really hard I don't know I I can't I don't even know how to answer your question. I think I'm decent at programming. I think nowadays that's not really how I even think about my job. Um
- 5:17
I think what I've been pretty good at is the thing I said earlier like I really study the environment some in. Um I really study all the players. Like you can ask me anything about any company in my space. Like I like know a lot about them. I know who works there. I know their history. I know like what they care about. I I can kind of imagine what they're motivated by. Um
- 5:38
so I think like my ability tends to be more just having the larger context and like seeing what might happen, being able to kind of place bets in in in the right area. And it's not just me, it's like my my two other co-founders are also really good at this and I think together we kind of have improved each other in this way. Uh
- 5:59
So yeah, like kind of like just kind of getting looking at the world and like seeing how chaotic it is and like trying to make some sense of it, understanding what fundamental truths are always true, understanding what things that people believe to be true are only temporarily true. Um I think yeah, our team like spends a lot of time like me and my co-founder will spend hours talking about this stuff and we find this very interesting and
- 6:20
stimulating and we spend a lot of energy there. Um And that like informs every aspect of your life, whether it's programming, whether it's business, whether it's personal, whether it's you know, you're hiring someone, you know, these are like things that you can kind of carry everywhere and I think that's maybe what gives me an ability, but it's like hard for me to say like, "Oh, I'm a really good programmer." when I see people like even
- 6:41
on my own own team like out executing me. Right. Um in terms of like those things that you mentioned that you're good at, are they things that just come naturally to you or was there sort of a deliberate effort that you made along the way to actually get good at those things? And if so, is that something everyone can just make a deliberate effort to improve
- 7:01
at? Yeah. Yeah. And this is another another thing that speaking of like truths, this is one of the things that we talk to talk with each other about our company a lot. You go talk to anyone that's like elite, top of their game and it feels like they have a natural born gift. And you go like really talk to them and they'll all almost always say like, "Oh no, like I used to suck at it and I just like kind of got better at it over
- 7:22
time." and they maybe became more obsessed with this thing than than everyone else. Um I think for me the specific skill, the thing that it comes down to is really caring about being right. And this is like a weird way to phrase it because of course everyone wants to be right. Um but I'm talking right in the end. I'm not talking right right now. I'm not
- 7:43
talking about winning a single argument. I'm talking about ultimately knowing that you had the correct model of the world. And if that's what you really clear care about, you work backwards from there. It's all about clarity, like understanding yourself, like what are your own insecurities? Your own insecurities really bias your way of thinking. Like you want to believe certain things are true. Like you'll take any evidence of something as
- 8:03
definitely being true cuz that's how you want the world to be. Um, and this just takes years and years of like growing as a person. Like you know, when you're younger you're a lot more insecure. My ability to see clearly, my ability to like really understand what's going on was really weak back then. Um, as I became more confident, as I like, you know, uh, had some stuff under my belt that I could point to, that kind of improved my my my way of thinking. Um, being really diligent
- 8:25
about the stuff that you're consuming and what like anything you consume poisons your mind in a certain way. Like it biases you in a certain direction. Um, really limiting that. You know, you need to like interact with the world, like get stimulus, but like doing that too much, you get drawn into echo chambers and bubbles and like monocultures and it's uh, yeah, it's really being self-aware and like thinking about that stuff. Like
- 8:46
it's it's hard work and you're being I think the way society is now like you're that stuff is being assaulted like every second of the day that you're awake. Uh, probably in your dreams too. Like you're prob- they're probably going to get us there next, but uh, yeah, it's it's very hard and it takes like a deep commitment to wanting to be right in the end uh, to actually, you know, do all the
- 9:07
things that it takes to to let it be true.
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