Fungible Identity
Abandon the idea of strengths and weaknesses. Become whatever it takes to win.
This concept comes entirely from Charlie Songhurst, a brilliant mentor and investor in Story.
Fungible identity is the idea that the best founders evolve without a second thought to be the exact person that the company needs at any given point in time. As Charlie puts it, "you are just a perfectly responsive competitive entity that becomes whatever is needed to win."
Abandon the idea of strengths and weaknesses. Abandon the idea of a fixed personality or identity. Do what it takes to win, and in the process, naturally become whoever you need to be to win.
Focus purely on outputs (winning), not on inputs (your identity).
There are a couple takeaways from this simple yet powerful concept:
1. Skill development is useless. Survive long enough and you will find yourself elevated as your competitors die. You will find yourself surrounded by the best people and in the process, you will become skilled. Do not spend time trying to clamber up some skill tree explicitly. Focus purely on outputs, not on inputs.
2. A concept borrowed from Thiel, but interiority is overemphasized in modern culture. Meditation and journaling have their place, but they can quickly become a waste of time. Instead of reflecting on your strengths and weaknesses, just get the job done, and you will have leveraged your strengths and overcome your weaknesses.
Keep your identity fungible and focus solely on the task at hand.
Overall, sure. But a dose of pedantry: “Skill development is useless” does not seem to be the best title for that point, given that it argues gaining skill indirectly is useful. But I agree with the admonishment to just do the damn thing directly, not requiring yourself to have X degrees in Y fields before you even try. Just find what you need to know, and learn exactly that.
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