I’ve previously written that the formula for success is to leverage the multiplicative effects between convex dispositions and talent stacks. This article advocates for a new approach to starting one’s career based on that insight.

Over 40% of the Harvard class of 2022 went into finance or consulting. Whether these students were building career capital, seeking status, or chasing money, the path is often justified in students' minds because they want to keep their career options open. By starting in consulting or investment banking, they can build a range of valuable, broadly applicable skills which they can carry with them to their next job as they determine what they want to do.

Criticism against this approach of “maximizing optionality” isn’t new. Even HBS professors have warned against it. Most of the criticism encourages students to pursue higher-risk paths, like working at a startup or “chasing one’s dreams,” instead of following more established routes.

I want to make a similar, but different, argument: one that is both more radical than these previous critiques and, in some cases, lower risk — an argument for an alternative career approach that, while not right for many, should be taken by far more of our most capable young people.

If the mantra of the standard approach is “maximize optionality,” then the mantra for which I advocate is “race to the pareto frontier.”

In economics, a pareto optimality is a situation in which no reallocation of resources can make one person better off without making another person worse off. The pareto frontier is the subset of points in the set of all possible solutions that are pareto optimal.

When thinking about skill sets, the pareto frontier is the set of people who are the best in the world at some intersection of skills. Therefore, to be at the pareto frontier is to be the best in the world at something.

Think of the pareto frontier as an n-dimensional surface in skillspace (the space of all possible skills). Each of our personal skill sets sits inside of this surface. As we improve at some skill, say carpentry, we move further away from the origin on the carpentry-axis. The person who is the best in the world at carpentry touches the pareto frontier surface on the carpentry-axis.

“If you have a 10-year plan of how to get [somewhere], you should ask: Why can’t you do this in 6 months?” - Peter Thiel

On initial impression, reaching the pareto frontier may seem difficult: the best carpenter in the world has likely spent decades practicing their craft, starting from a young age. How could we ever compete without putting in our 10,000 hours?

Reaching the pareto frontier becomes easier as we add dimensionality. Instead of becoming the best in the world at a single skill, we should aim to be the best at some synergistic set of skills: what Scott Adams calls a Talent Stack.

“Consider: becoming one of the world’s top experts in proteomics is hard. Becoming one of the world’s top experts in macroeconomic modelling is hard. But how hard is it to become sufficiently expert in proteomics and macroeconomic modelling that nobody is better than you at both simultaneously? In other words, how hard is it to reach the Pareto frontier?” - Being the (Pareto) Best in the World

The high-dimensionality of skillspace means that reaching the pareto frontier is far more achievable than you expect — you can become the best in the world. Perhaps even more surprisingly, a well-chosen pareto frontier can be reached in months, not years. Doing so isn’t easy, but it is possible.

But what makes for a good pareto frontier?

A common strategy for startups is to target a small market with low competition. The market’s small size dissuades participation from incumbents and provides new entrants with the opportunity to insert a wedge. The bet that startups take is that their initial market will grow or that winning it will allow them to break into larger adjacent markets.

This same strategy can be applied to our careers.

Instead of entering a large labor market like consulting, you should identify a small market that you can quickly break into.

There are at least 5 properties that make for a promising pareto frontier:

1. Low competition - If you have a lot of competition, you’re either late or targeting too large of a market.

2. Related to an exponential technology - Technologies moving along exponential curves are the most likely to be important in the future and to face talent shortages, providing unusually high chances for massive returns. Look for exponential scaling curves (AI), adoption curves (crypto), or cost curves (genomics).

3. One of your skills has a zero marginal cost of production - Examples include writing or programming. Having one of these skills allows you to scale as your market scales.

4. You have a natural disposition or interest in it - It’s better to bet on what you are naturally good at or enjoy doing. Personal fit matters.

5. The lack of rate limits - Rate limits are barriers that restrict the speed at which you can grow. These are most commonly found in more mature markets. For example, no matter how hard you work, you cannot become a medical doctor without an MD, which takes years. For the same reason, avoid hierarchies.

Markets with these properties are both comparatively easy to enter and likely to expand. Remember: don’t just climb the hill; let it grow under your feet.

At the start of their careers, young people face two big problems. First, they’re highly fungible since they haven’t built much unique experience yet. And second, they require years, if not decades, to rise within established hierarchies. Racing to the pareto frontier solves both of these problems. Targeting a small market allows you to build unique experience, providing career defensibility. It also allows you to rise quickly as your market grows, avoiding the rate limits of more traditional career paths.

But what if your market doesn’t actually pan out? In practice, you’ll still end up far ahead. The same work ethic, the same zero marginal cost skill, the same obsession used to reach one pareto frontier is transferable to other career paths too.

Those who can reach one pareto frontier can reach many.

In this sense, even if the targeted market is niche, building a pareto optimal skill set is less risky than it appears. If one’s particular intersection of skills ends up in low demand or not being a strong personal fit, it’s possible to quickly iterate.

So: race to the pareto frontier. Use that unique skill set and experience as your wedge into the talent market which you can build upon. Specialize, then generalize. Don’t “keep your options open.” Pick something, and become the best in the world at it.

I’ve previously written that the formula for success is to leverage the multiplicative effects between convex dispositions and talent stacks. This article advocates for a new approach to starting one’s career based on that insight.

Over 40% of the Harvard class of 2022 went into finance or consulting. Whether these students were building career capital, seeking status, or chasing money, the path is often justified in students' minds because they want to keep their career options open. By starting in consulting or investment banking, they can build a range of valuable, broadly applicable skills which they can carry with them to their next job as they determine what they want to do.

Criticism against this approach of “maximizing optionality” isn’t new. Even HBS professors have warned against it. Most of the criticism encourages students to pursue higher-risk paths, like working at a startup or “chasing one’s dreams,” instead of following more established routes.

I want to make a similar, but different, argument: one that is both more radical than these previous critiques and, in some cases, lower risk — an argument for an alternative career approach that, while not right for many, should be taken by far more of our most capable young people.

If the mantra of the standard approach is “maximize optionality,” then the mantra for which I advocate is “race to the pareto frontier.”

In economics, a pareto optimality is a situation in which no reallocation of resources can make one person better off without making another person worse off. The pareto frontier is the subset of points in the set of all possible solutions that are pareto optimal.

When thinking about skill sets, the pareto frontier is the set of people who are the best in the world at some intersection of skills. Therefore, to be at the pareto frontier is to be the best in the world at something.

Think of the pareto frontier as an n-dimensional surface in skillspace (the space of all possible skills). Each of our personal skill sets sits inside of this surface. As we improve at some skill, say carpentry, we move further away from the origin on the carpentry-axis. The person who is the best in the world at carpentry touches the pareto frontier surface on the carpentry-axis.

“If you have a 10-year plan of how to get [somewhere], you should ask: Why can’t you do this in 6 months?” - Peter Thiel

On initial impression, reaching the pareto frontier may seem difficult: the best carpenter in the world has likely spent decades practicing their craft, starting from a young age. How could we ever compete without putting in our 10,000 hours?

Reaching the pareto frontier becomes easier as we add dimensionality. Instead of becoming the best in the world at a single skill, we should aim to be the best at some synergistic set of skills: what Scott Adams calls a Talent Stack.

“Consider: becoming one of the world’s top experts in proteomics is hard. Becoming one of the world’s top experts in macroeconomic modelling is hard. But how hard is it to become sufficiently expert in proteomics and macroeconomic modelling that nobody is better than you at both simultaneously? In other words, how hard is it to reach the Pareto frontier?” - Being the (Pareto) Best in the World

The high-dimensionality of skillspace means that reaching the pareto frontier is far more achievable than you expect — you can become the best in the world. Perhaps even more surprisingly, a well-chosen pareto frontier can be reached in months, not years. Doing so isn’t easy, but it is possible.

But what makes for a good pareto frontier?

A common strategy for startups is to target a small market with low competition. The market’s small size dissuades participation from incumbents and provides new entrants with the opportunity to insert a wedge. The bet that startups take is that their initial market will grow or that winning it will allow them to break into larger adjacent markets.

This same strategy can be applied to our careers.

Instead of entering a large labor market like consulting, you should identify a small market that you can quickly break into.

There are at least 5 properties that make for a promising pareto frontier:

1. Low competition - If you have a lot of competition, you’re either late or targeting too large of a market.

2. Related to an exponential technology - Technologies moving along exponential curves are the most likely to be important in the future and to face talent shortages, providing unusually high chances for massive returns. Look for exponential scaling curves (AI), adoption curves (crypto), or cost curves (genomics).

3. One of your skills has a zero marginal cost of production - Examples include writing or programming. Having one of these skills allows you to scale as your market scales.

4. You have a natural disposition or interest in it - It’s better to bet on what you are naturally good at or enjoy doing. Personal fit matters.

5. The lack of rate limits - Rate limits are barriers that restrict the speed at which you can grow. These are most commonly found in more mature markets. For example, no matter how hard you work, you cannot become a medical doctor without an MD, which takes years. For the same reason, avoid hierarchies.

Markets with these properties are both comparatively easy to enter and likely to expand. Remember: don’t just climb the hill; let it grow under your feet.

At the start of their careers, young people face two big problems. First, they’re highly fungible since they haven’t built much unique experience yet. And second, they require years, if not decades, to rise within established hierarchies. Racing to the pareto frontier solves both of these problems. Targeting a small market allows you to build unique experience, providing career defensibility. It also allows you to rise quickly as your market grows, avoiding the rate limits of more traditional career paths.

But what if your market doesn’t actually pan out? In practice, you’ll still end up far ahead. The same work ethic, the same zero marginal cost skill, the same obsession used to reach one pareto frontier is transferable to other career paths too.

Those who can reach one pareto frontier can reach many.

In this sense, even if the targeted market is niche, building a pareto optimal skill set is less risky than it appears. If one’s particular intersection of skills ends up in low demand or not being a strong personal fit, it’s possible to quickly iterate.

So: race to the pareto frontier. Use that unique skill set and experience as your wedge into the talent market which you can build upon. Specialize, then generalize. Don’t “keep your options open.” Pick something, and become the best in the world at it.