What are you good at?

I like what Seth Godin says in What are you good at? Where he talks about the distinction between content (domain expertise) and process (emotional intelligence skills you have for managing projects, visualizing success, dealing with priorities and so on).

I've generally referred to the same concepts by distinguishing between Tangible and Intangible skills. I went to business school to learn the tangible skills (how to read a balance sheet, how to write a data model). My application emphasized this, and emphasized that I could bring my own intangible skills (specifically selling skills, most of which I learned apprentice-style from Jacob Farmer at Cambridge Computer Services) to the community.

Tangible skills can be learned readily (how to formulate a strategy) whereas intangible skills (how to formulate a winning strategy given a set of circumstances) require a mix of an individual's intellectual compass and their experience set (collectively, I think this is better referred to as Wisdom).

Seth says that the internet is useful for learning domain knowledge, which can be derived from content alone. I think the mix of blogs and wikis - the union of codified knowledge and the narrative around it, can, however, relay the experience necessary to develop tacit knowledge. In KM is the Forest, Enterprise Blogs are the Path, I quoted Gary Klein who said "It is usually easier to teach people by developing a series of vignettes that bring that tacit knowledge to life for others." The vignette approach is helpful for teaching domain knowledge and it's altogether mandatory to teach intangible skills like selling, strategy making, persuasion, priority management and so on.

There's a good debate to be had with respect to whether these intangible skills can simply be learned through reading vs. life experience or apprenticeship. But if they can be learned, the mix of blogs and wikis is just the right medium.

Seth says super-talented people become enterpreneuers, because "they can put their process expertise to work in a world that often undervalues it."

I think the issue is much greater than the matter of the world undervaluing intangible skills, it's about fitness for the job. I'd add that the successful entrepreneurs have the wisdom to navigate a market when there is little tangible data to support a well informed decision making process. Entrepreneurial ventures, by definition, require such wisdom, to simply get lucky, or, more often, both!