A talent stack is a set of complementary skills that make you unique. The concept originated from Scott Adams, best known as the creator of the Dilbert series.

The premise is pretty simple:
It’s really hard to be the best (top 1%) at one specific thing. But it is much easier to be very good (top 25%) at two or more things.

Being the best is difficult to the point of nearly impossible. Few people will ever play in the NBA, win a Grammy or be the founder of the next tech unicorn. The alternative is far easier as everyone has at least a few skills that they could be in the top 25% with some effort.

This concept is similar to combinational creativity where a new idea is simply a combination of two or more seemingly unrelated things put together with a fresh perspective.

In the case of Adams, he’s not the best artist (in the traditional comics sense) and neither is he a business expert or a great writer. But few people are good at both drawing and writing. When you add in his ordinary business skills, his strong work ethic, risk tolerance and reasonably good sense of humor, you get the creator of a famous comic strip that appears in 65 countries with a personal net worth of over $75 million.

To identify you own unique talent stack, you will need a combination of skills from two broad categories:

1. Base skills:
   These are foundational strengths that help amplify and make all other skills better.

   • Reading/learning - A general curiosity and thirst for knowledge

   • Analysis and synthesis - The ability to unpack complex information, identify connections and combine different components together to form new thinking and ideas.

   • Work Ethic - Diligence and the desire to work hard

   • Persuasion - The ability to communicate well and use it to influence how others think. Part of this skillset involves being good in business writing and public speaking.

   • Business Acumen - Having an understanding of how businesses work
     

2. Domain specific or technical skills - These are hard skills that help you perform specific roles and responsibilities - e.g. design, marketing, technology, academia etc.

Your talent stack is the personal equivalent of an “economic moat”, a term popularised by Warren Buffet which refers to a business’ ability to maintain competitive advantage over its competitors in order to protect its long-term profits and market share from competitors.

Build your own “personal moat” the same way by thinking about a set of unique competitive advantages that you can accumulate that is not only durable but compounds over time:

• Identify the skills that you already have and are good at

• Which skills do you need to further work on and get better at?

• What complimentary skills could you add to the mix that would make you even more unique?

• Think about the things that you are really passionate about. What is something that comes relatively easy for you but much harder for others?

• What are the strengths or skills that you have that are difficult for others to replicate? i.e. It would take people a lot of time / effort to catch up or reverse engineer what you have.

• What is your Ikigai? Ikigai is the japanese term for “a reason for being” and refers to the source of value in one’s life or the things that makes one’s life worthwhile. It is derived from the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, what you can be paid for and what the world needs.