self-development——Kan

Be a Hero on your own - Maximize your superpower

Everyone has a hidden superpower: a combination of what you’re good at!

I recently learned about “unfair advantages” in the bootcamp I’m attending. To explain, people are born into different environments and develop skills that can improve their quality of life. An unfair advantage makes you more distinct in the real world. There are five unfair advantages. Let’s see how many you have.

1. Money

  • You may have come from a rich family
  • or already have a high income
  • or have no family responsibilities
  • or have privileged access to capital

2. Intelligence & Insight

  • You can easily understand a body of knowledge and express it as a framework
  • You can spot trends and seize opportunities

3. Location

  • You live in a city center or an area where you can find inspiration and opportunities, e.g. Silicon Valley
  • You own a golden spot for an offline store

4. Education & Expertise

  • You’ve gained skills that are useful to an industry
  • or graduated from a famous university
  • or your work is top of mind for a group sharing a common interest

5. Status

  • You’re publicly recognized
  • You have a personal brand
  • You have beauty privilege

Most people have multiple unfair advantages, but not everyone does. So your job is to evaluate what makes you stand out, then pick those as your weapon to win in the real world. However, it’s inevitable to compare yourself with others (I know you may disagree, but social media sometimes makes you do it), which can make you doubt yourself.

Fortunately, I found a video on the YouTube channel ‘9arm’ that illustrates the above conversation as a graph, using this Claude artifact.

The application is easy to use. You define an axis as a skill (or unfair advantage) you want to compare with others, such as technical skill, communication skill, or education. You can add as many axes as you want, and the program lets you toggle each axis ON/OFF to compare them separately.

Then you add points to the graph, each representing a person (you vs. Mr. A, Mr. B, and so on). You give each point a score on each axis, which moves the point to its position on the graph.

After that, you can see where you and the others are located, in 2D or 3D, to find the right spot. Analyze which skills give you the higher potential to win, and don’t chase what you can’t overcome. This helps you decide which path to develop to maximize your output so you won’t lose in a real-world battle.

What if you choose and it’s unsuccessful?

I understand you’ll feel like you failed, but it’s recoverable. Spend a little time on regret, then move on, learn, and start another path. But bear in mind that it’s a trade-off with time, so choose wisely; otherwise you may not have time to restart in your late 30s.

You and I are still on the survival path of life, even after the pains we’ve been through. However, I believe we each have a unique value to deliver to society. Make it better, and one day it will be your turn to shine.