I’ve had similar success with this. Being the programmer with system admin and org dev skills has served me well! Similarly I think I do well in my research being the AI safety phenomenologist.
To say a bit more on this, I think there’s also an adaptive behavior some people pick up in this direction that leads them to seek local uniqueness. Sometimes this backfires and the person becomes ostracized as a weirdo, but when it’s successful they have something that makes them unique, special, and, importantly for their chances at success in survival and reproduction, indispensable.
Of course I don’t think most people think of doing this deliberately in this way. I myself feel it as a motivation to be special, so sometimes pursuing a skill feels worth the effort because I expect it will make me special. But that’s a difference of reasons why this behavior might be selected for and what it feels like to perform the behavior.
I’ve had similar success with this. Being the programmer with system admin and org dev skills has served me well! Similarly I think I do well in my research being the AI safety phenomenologist.
To say a bit more on this, I think there’s also an adaptive behavior some people pick up in this direction that leads them to seek local uniqueness. Sometimes this backfires and the person becomes ostracized as a weirdo, but when it’s successful they have something that makes them unique, special, and, importantly for their chances at success in survival and reproduction, indispensable.
Of course I don’t think most people think of doing this deliberately in this way. I myself feel it as a motivation to be special, so sometimes pursuing a skill feels worth the effort because I expect it will make me special. But that’s a difference of reasons why this behavior might be selected for and what it feels like to perform the behavior.