Human Capital
"I only invest in myself." - Elon Musk
Advantages & Disadvantages
- Uncapped ROI potential
- Deeply gratifying expanding your skillset
- Become irreplaceable
- Difficult to measure
- Difficult to quantify
- Does not pay immediate dividends
Importance
Your Human Capital is the sum total of your knowledge, skills, and abilities you have to offer in a competitive job marketplace.
Investing in your Human Capital is one of the highest leverage investments you can possibly make, but since it doesn't pay immediate dividends like stocks, investing in human capital goes largely ignored.
Different than formal schooling
When people think "I need more education" they immediately look at which degree they should apply for. The problem is that degrees are expensive and not always worth the cost (theater majors can tell you all about that).
The following chart shows the rise in price of a college education
A college degree is becoming more and more expensive at the exact same time as it's becoming less and less valuable.
That is a dangerous trend to invest in.
Free education
You can learn anything on google.
Deep Work
Your ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task is what will separate you from the chaff of employees. It's like Starting Strength for your brain. If you cultivate your deep work ability, you are able to produce work at a much higher quality and quantity than others.
Deep Work by Cal Newport is required reading for everyone.
This article on doist.com offers a great introduction to the concepts, as well as a cliffnotes version of the training regimen.
A recommendation for sustaining concentration is to listen to 40hz binaural beats, with noise cancelling headphones.
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