TFN#81: 🪜(Part-2/2) Increasing the surface area of luck

I love science.
I’m sure you’d have noticed that.
So, whether you love science, you have to listen to this incredible thing.

Our digestive organ–small intestine is 3-5 meters long, with a diameter of a mere 2-3 cm. That’s like a normal PVC water pipe in our home.
That’s not incredible.

The incredible part is this:
The small intestine’s effective surface area could be as large as several tennis stadiums!
Look at this image:
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As we zoom into the fine structures of the small intestine’s wall, we can see how even a small patch of wall is lined with thousands of folded structures–each increasing the surface area by hundreds of magnitudes.

So, our food passes through touchpoints that measure several tennis stadiums!
Who had thought that our tiny tummy space could encompass stadiums?

Everything starts making sense as soon as we start thinking in terms of surface area.​
One of the core ideas in influencing our luck is seeing it in terms of surface area.
So, let’s begin with understanding luck first.

100s of factors = luck

So many factors make up luck when it comes to career advancement.
Let me list out a few:

• Age
• Sex
• Languages
• Genetics
• IQ
• Appearance
• Health
• Personality and temperament
• Socio-economic background
• Parental influence
• Peers
• Natural inclination
• Years of work experience
• Domain of work
• Types of work/projects undertaken
• Network
• Publications
• Exposure to complementary fields
• Financial health

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list. It is impossible to account for all the factors that make up a person’s luck.
But you got the idea.

Also, let’s not mix the two types

If you think about the items in this list, you will quickly identify some factors that you CAN’T control:

• Age
• Sex
• Native language
• Genetics
• IQ (It is very tough to get a reasonable increase, so let’s keep on this list)
• and other relevant ones…

And then there are some that you CAN influence:

• Languages
• Appearance
• Health
• Peers
• Domain of work
• Types of work/projects undertaken
• Network
• Publications
• Exposure to complementary fields
• Financial health
• and we can come up with other related ones…

You can see that we have been mistakenly mixing them with other factors for a very long time.
Now, we have clarity over what makes up for career advancement:

Upskilling + Factors in our control + Factors outside our control = career advancement

The surface area of luck

Similar to the small intestine, the factors under our control may seem insignificant. Right now, the factors are just words. A bullet list. A 2D depiction of the concept.
But we have to think of luck–the factors–in terms of surface area. And quickly, you will notice things changing.

Let’s compare Jolly Joe and Worried Will

Two men, Joe and Will, are the same in many aspects:

• Both of them are men with similar age
• Both of them have 8 years of work experience
• Master’s Degree in a similar field
• Have worked in the IT sector
• Have a circle of supportive friends and family
  But, can you figure out why their career is on different trajectories?

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Worried Will is worried for a reason.

He doesn’t get as many opportunities as Jolly Joe. Because Joe has tried different domains of work, different companies, different colleagues…and he is in touch with things outside his full-time job.

In other words, the surface area, the literal touch-points for Joe to get better career opportunities are far more than William.
And things do not stop at just “opportunities”, Joe has developed confidence by:

• Taking risks of getting into domains other than his familiar ones
• Keeping the learning pace steady by working on side projects
• Building a protective financial shield by saving some money

Every single decision has increased Jolly Joe’s exposure to the chances of advancing his career.

Increasing the surface area

You’re smart enough to figure out what we need to do to increase the surface area of our luck.
If we had Rs. 1,00,000 and 1000 hours per year budget for career advancement, it would be wise to expend the money in a way that increases our surface area maximally.

Instead of putting all of the eggs in one basket called “upskilling”, we could have diversified a bit with some combination of:

• Working on a side project
• Learning new tools related to our fields
• Reading about things that interest us
• Watching movies, documentaries, and podcasts that interest us
• Writing and publishing our thoughts for a larger audience
• Taking up lead and responsibility at work
• Speaking our mind at work
• Assessing our financial condition before getting into debt
• Taking up work outside our field of expertise
• Spending time bonding with colleagues and friends that fulfil our lives

These things don’t provide certification. And that’s why they are more valuable.

Now, add upskilling to it

As discussed last week, the term “upskilling” is a catchphrase, a self-defeating spell for anyone who uses it. But still, let’s use it and discuss it a bit before winding down today’s letter.
Who do you think stands a chance to benefit more from “upskilling”: Joe or William?
I can’t think of any reason why William would benefit more than Joe. But Joe will benefit far more than William.
You can see, that “upskilling” doesn’t tip the scale that much.

A luckier tomorrow

Though we used a comparison between Jolly Joe and Worried William, in practice, I subscribe to the idea of comparing ourselves to our previous selves.
​Our today should be more lucky than our yesterday. And our tomorrow should be more lucky than today.​
A simple progression.
But compounding over time.

By the way, have you watched the famous F*** Around and Find Out graph? You can find the original one on YouTube, but I liked the one posted by this user. He’s right and it matches our discussion on increasing our surface area of luck:

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Personally, I’m not interested in the idea of “advance..advance..” war cries of career. Because that’s propagated by a specific group of people, for a specific purpose. Tomorrow, our hearts may stop in a split second and on our deathbed, we won’t recall the all-nighters we had pulled through. Life is richer than that.
So, to each, their own.

What have been your experiences and observations related to career advancement?

Hit Reply and share your thoughts with me.

Also, forward this letter to anyone who may find it useful.

Reads of the week:

​Link​
I knew that there were Aztecs some 500-600 years ago in Mexico, but I didn’t know about the Death Whistles thing.
The death whistles were made of ceramics or clay. Archaeologists have been unearthing the skull-shaped whistles since 1999, buried with human sacrificial bodies.
There are many plastic copies available in the market and you can hear their sound on the internet. The sound is exactly like how a person would scream if they were being killed.
It gives goosebumps.
There are many theories about the purpose of death whistles. The most believable and chilling explanation I found was in ESR’s post: