The Skill Stack Manifesto (Part 3)
Unlock Your Unique Edge
You've got all these skills. Some you've spent years developing. Others you've picked up along the way. But how do you combine them into something extraordinary? How do you take what you already have and transform it into a category of one?
That's the million-dollar question. In parts one and two, we saw how top performers like Mark Rober and Jack Butcher found their winning combinations. We unpacked the fundamental equation: combine skills to make a unique stack, create value solving real problems, and dominate your category.
But theory only gets you so far. You need a practical blueprint for building your own stack. That's what we'll tackle here - specific strategies and frameworks for crafting your unique combination. We'll dissect real examples, break down the math, and give you concrete steps to move forward.
Building Your Unique Stack
There’s no perfect step-by-step process that will lead you to know what stack you should build. And that’s because it has to fit you and what feels right to you. In reality, it’s a messy process filled with iteration, exploration and discovery. Some people start with a clear vision of the value they want to create and work backwards from there. Others follow their curiosity or lean into what they’re already good at and look for that extra skill or two to make it unique. Here are proven strategies that can guide you through this messy process:
Your Zone of Genius — Where Your Passion Meets Potential
Building a category of one isn't just about what you can do - it's about what gets you excited to jump out of bed in the morning. That spark of enthusiasm that makes the hard work feel like play. And here's why that matters: this is a long game. It takes thousands of hours to build up each skill, figure out how to combine them effectively, and understand how to provide real value with that stack.
Too often talented people chase skills that look good on paper but bore them to tears. Skills that were "smart" choices but left them feeling empty. Your stack needs to fit you — not like those skinny jeans you bought because they were cool…more like that old hoodie you actually want to wear. The one that feels just right.
Mark Rober is actually a perfect example of this. He had his engineering job which paid the bills. But then he’d build cool stuff on the weekends. His first viral hit was a Halloween costume that made it look like he had a hole right through his chest. He put one iPad on the front of his chest and a second iPad on his back. Then he wrote some code to take what the camera was seeing on one iPad and display it on the other one (and vice versa). The result: a costume that looked like he had a hole right through his chest. Genius. Talk about using your smarts to be the coolest guy at the party.
What’s important here is that Mark was just following his curiosity and doing what he thought was cool and fun. That’s a pretty good starting point.
Does this mean that every element in our skill stack is something you love? No way. There’s going to be skills that you need to include which you’re either neutral or maybe aren’t crazy about.
And should you build your stack around your championship battle-ax throwing skills? That would be cool and maybe, but probably not. MKBHD is a world-class ultimate frisbee player — he plays for team USA. (I know, cool, right!). But that’s not something that he builds into his skill stack. There are practical considerations.
Copy, Paste, and Make It Yours
A smart strategy is to find someone with a proven skill stack and remix it with your own unique twist. Jack Butcher is a good example of this. Jack was inspired by Naval Ravikant's ability to compress profound insights into memorable wisdom that he Tweeted out. Jack took that basic idea but transformed it by leaning in to his design skills, turning those philosophical insights into striking black-and-white visuals. He understood that the key ingredient that made it work was the distillation of complex ideas down to their essence — he made sure to keep that and get that part right. The result? Jack became a category of one with viral tweet after viral tweet ultimately leading to a million dollar brand.
The beauty of this approach is that the stack is already validated. You just need to find a way to make it yours:
Pick one of the core skills and then switch it for something similar but different.
Take one of their average skills and crank up the proficiency to world-class.
Add something that’s unique about you such as a character trait or specialized knowledge.
Apply it to a different audience.
Own the Value Chain
You know why Apple's stuff 'just works'? It’s because they control everything — the whole value chain. The chips, the hardware, the software - they're like the control freaks of tech. And weirdly, in this case anyways, that's a good thing.
Think about someone who can both code an app and design beautiful and useful interfaces. They can iterate in real-time which leads to a better quality, more cohesive app and it’s done much quicker too.
Nathan Barry used this approach to build ConvertKit into a $30M+ business. He combined design skills, coding ability, and deep marketing knowledge to create email software specifically for creators. While others might have had two of these skills, Nathan's control of the entire value chain let him build, design, and market a solution that precisely met creator needs. Then he added his unique perspective as a creator himself, putting him in a category of one.
Now, this idea of owning the value chain seems contrary to the advice from part two where I said to find skills that are not commonly found together. There’s nuance and judgment here. Having skills in adjacent parts of the value chain might not be unique, but it creates a foundation you can build on. When you add that extra element - like Nathan's perspective as a creator - that's when the magic happens, transforming a solid combination into something extraordinary.
Look for Bridges
Sometimes the fastest path to a category of one is finding creative ways to bridge what you’ve already got into new domains.
Chris Voss is a great example. Chris was an FBI hostage negotiator — the guy on the phone getting deep into the psyche of the hostage taker. Figuring out what makes them tick. Working to come to a resolution…all under unimaginable pressure. (I've had some meetings that felt like hostage situations...wish I'd had Chris on speed dial.) But his genius move wasn't just being great at hostage negotiation - it was realizing these same skills could be applied to the business world. He bridged his specialized knowledge to an entirely new domain, creating massive value in the process.
Now, Chris didn't just copy-paste his FBI techniques into the business world. He got to work…studying the traditional business negotiation methods by taking courses at Harvard and seeking out the best to learn from. He identified ways to blend and extend his real-world experience with the theory. The result? A unique approach that put him in a category of one. Now he’s one of the world’s most sought-out experts on negotiation, written the bestseller “Never Split the Difference” and even has a Masterclass on negotiation (and it’s great).
This idea of "bridging" is broader than just taking knowledge from one domain and applying it to another. Here are five powerful ways to bridge your existing skills into something new:
Implementation Bridge: Turn theoretical knowledge into practical solutions. Dr. Peter Attia takes cutting-edge medical research and translates it into actionable protocols for patients, blending medical expertise with an engineer's systematic thinking.
Scale Bridge: Transform individual expertise into systems that work at scale. Alex Hormozi didn't just master business growth - he figured out how to systematize and teach those insights through YouTube and books, reaching millions instead of just his direct clients.
Interface Bridge: Deliver expertise through novel formats that unlock new value. Take Julia Evans - she teaches system engineering by creating educational comics ("wizard zines"). Or Hans Rosling, who transformed dry global health statistics into compelling visual narratives that changed how people understand world development.
Trust Bridge: Convert domain expertise into broader influence. Naval Ravikant leveraged his success in tech startups to become Silicon Valley's philosopher. His insights carrying extra weight because of his proven track record.
Market Bridge: Find new audiences where you adapt your existing expertise to solve their problems. Chris Voss did this by bringing hostage negotiation techniques to business.
The key insight? When you bridge skills to new domains or formats, you need new supporting skills to make it work. That's where your unique stack emerges. Chris Voss didn't just port FBI techniques to business - he had to learn traditional negotiation methods, develop teaching skills, and master business communication. Those additional skills, combined with his unique background, created his category of one.
Not in a Category of One? (Don't Panic, Here's Plan B)
Being in a category of one is hard - no surprise there. What if you're close but not quite there?
Remember that example from part two where I showed how Ramit Sethi is in a group of about ten authors competing for the same market. Imagine you were one of those other nine authors competing with Ramit. You've got the financial knowledge, good writing, and psychological insight. But you're nowhere near his marketing genius. What then?
There are four paths that you could take:
1. Make It Objectively Better
The obvious move is to upgrade your stack. Develop deeper audience insight or level up your writing to world class levels. This would make your product objectively better. You’d probably get more word-of-mouth and maybe better reviews. But is it enough? If no one knows it’s better, probably not. You'll still need solid marketing skills to showcase that quality.
2. Upgrade Your Offer
Channel your inner Alex Hormozi — instead of upgrading the core product add layers of value to make your offer irresistible. Make it so good it feels like a no-brainer. Add free video courses. Throw in valuable extras. Guarantee results. Make it dead obvious you’ll deliver and can get them results faster. These are all technically “marketing” but they are all creative ways to upgrade your offer without rapidly building traditional marketing skills.
3. Shift to a Different Category
Sometimes the answer is to be different. A different audience. A different perspective or concept. A different format. If you can’t be in a category of one is there an adjacent category you can shift to where you can? Usually this means adding new skills (knowledge of a different audience, different ways to format your book etc.) but not necessarily. Sometimes it’s just a shift in product positioning.
4. Hire the Missing Piece
If you can't be world-class at marketing, hire someone who is. Yes, it's gonna cost you. But it fills that critical gap that’s holding everything back. (I have more to say on this below).
So if you're not quite a category of one yet, you've got options. Keep working, finding solutions and moving forward. But there's one strategy that deserves a deeper look: teaming up with someone else.
Don’t Go It Alone - The Power of Combining Stacks
There’s a lesson that I, an introvert and control freak, need to keep learning the hard way: you can’t do everything yourself. I know, I know - this news hits some of us harder than others. I'm still in recovery.
There are two situations where bringing in help changes everything.
The first: when you’re trapped doing low-value work instead of the stuff that moves the needle. Ali Abdaal talks about how his YouTube channel took off when he finally gave up the editing to focus full time on content. More time on high-value work = faster growth.
The second: when combining your stack with someone else’s creates something truly unique. The perfect example is the story of FeedbackPanda.
The story starts in Germany, 2017. Danielle Simpson, an opera singer, is sidelined with a leg injury. She needs money to live and so she’s desperate to find some work. She starts teaching English online to Chinese kids. It’s intense — back-to-back 25-minute lessons, 5-minute breaks, 10 hours a day. Right away she discovers a problem. The parents of these kids expect written feedback every day on how their kid is doing and she doesn’t get paid unless she does it. It’s not that hard to do but it ends up taking Danielle an extra 2 hours every day (all unpaid). Danielle cobbles together a solution with Excel and Word templates duct-taped together. This is where her boyfriend, Arvid Kahl enters the picture. Arvid’s a software developer and our boy’s a pro — he can code. He puts together an app which cuts that 2 hours down to 10 minutes. They call it “Feedback Panda” and they launch it as a SaaS.
But at first they get no response....crickets. That's when Danielle dives deep into the Facebook groups and she’s really good at it — listening, sympathizing, persuading. These teachers are telling her exactly what they need. They iterate on the product and eventually, they start to see some growth — bit-by-bit, all organic. Danielle’s hard work in the Facebook groups starts to pay off. It turns out that teachers trust other teachers…a lot…and so the word-of-mouth is insane. Word spreads about how great Feedback Panda is and sales take off. Two years after starting it, Arvid and Danielle sell FeedbackPanda for a life changing amount of money.
From a skill stack perspective neither Arvid nor Danielle had the abilities to pull this off. Not even close. But together? Magic. Together they were a category of one.
That's the power of combining stacks. Sometimes the fastest path to a category of one isn't building every skill in the stack yourself - it's finding the right person to build it with.
Case Studies
Case Study: Lenny Rachitsky
Lenny went from being a software developer and then product manager at AirBnB to running the biggest business newsletter on Substack. He also runs one of the top business podcasts “Lenny’s Podcast” and a bunch of other valuable stuff…he’s the go-to guy in the tech product management space.
Lenny’s core skills are content curation, network building and branding with a personality that exudes authority and trust. The value is clear: in the tech industry good decisions = big money. That’s what Lenny delivers — he helps product managers make better decisions. He shares frameworks and proven best practices from the top minds in the industry. That leads both to better products for the companies these product managers work for as well a strong reputation and more influence for that person. Win-win (and I would tack on a win for Lenny too).
Category of One Math
Starting pool is people with technical product management expertise: 500K with Lenny in top 20% of that group leaving 100K.
Skilled at content curation: 80% of those leaving 80K with Lenny in top 5% of that group leaving 4K.
Networking ability (attracting top PMs and leaders): 10% of those leaving 400 with Lenny in top 2% leaving 8.
Brand + character traits of authority, credibility and trust: 50% of those leaving 4 with Lenny in top 5% of that group leaving only 1 — Lenny.
Key Lesson
Lenny exemplifies a category of one. His journey highlights how a thoughtfully constructed skill stack, built over time, can establish unparalleled expertise and influence.
Looking at the math here there are about 4 people in the world who could compete with Lenny at building a media business based on technical product management. But Lenny’s relatable, unassuming style and authority builds an amazing level of trust that puts him above the others into a category of one.
One of the things I love about Lenny is that he talks openly on his podcast about how he’s working to get better. Take, for example, the episode with Tristan de Montebello who runs a course called “Ultraspeaking”. Lenny brings Tristan on and they’re dropping value bombs left and right. I urge you to give it a listen because it will show you some quick and fun ways to be a better speaker right away. The amazing thing here is how Lenny’s built a virtuous flywheel. Every episode delivers great value AND he himself upgrades his skill stack. Lenny's not just winning - he's widening the gap.
Case Study: Grant Sanderson
Grant Sanderson's 3Blue1Brown channel (6.6M subscribers) does something magical - it makes math beautiful. Not just clear, actually beautiful. He transforms boring equations into visuals that make you go 'ohhhh, now I get it!' That's his superpower.
Grant’s core skills are mathematical intuition and teaching and building stunning math visualizations with programming. The value Grant provides is that he turns mathematical concepts into visual masterpieces. His animations reveal the deep beauty and elegance hiding in complex equations. For people who love math, his videos aren't just explanations - they're revelations, showing how abstract concepts connect in ways textbooks never could.
Category of One Math
Starting pool is university level mathematicians: 250K with Grant in top 50% leaving 125K,
Skill at teaching math concepts: 80% of those leaving 100K with Grant in top 1% leaving 1K.
YouTube video production skills: 10% of those leaving 100, with Grant in top 50% of those leaving about 50.
Mathematical concept visualization with programming: 20% of those leaving 10 with Grant in top 0.1% leaving only 1 — Grant.
Key Lesson
Sure, many mathematicians can code, and many coders understand math - that's an obvious combo. But Grant does something different…he uses code to create stunning math visualizations. He created his own library to do this (called Manim). This is one of those stacks with two world-class skills: here the ability to teach math concepts and the ability to use programming to visualize math. Both world class that leads to the category of one.
It’s interesting to compare Grant to Mark Rober. Both of them deliver immense value through YouTube, leveraging complex, technical knowledge. However, their audiences and approaches differ significantly. Mark’s broad appeal, rooted in entertainment and inspiration, attracts millions and generates substantial income. Grant, on the other hand, caters to a more niche audience with advanced mathematical understanding, making monetization more challenging. Yet, Grant’s work has earned him immense respect, authority, and status. By offering his videos for free, he’s contributing profoundly to making the world a better place. I’m not saying one is better than the other. I’m saying you have choices.
Case Study: Naval Ravikant
Naval Ravikant is a successful tech founder who started AngelList. He’s been an early investor in numerous tech unicorns. He has since become known as a philosophical thought leader within the tech community. He has an ability to distill complex wisdom about topics such as wealth creation and happiness into memorable Tweets and sound bites that encapsulate a pearl of wisdom. This has earned him a massive following and influence.
Besides his core abilities to build tech business and investing Naval is a master at generating novel insights and mental models for business and life grounded in First Principles Thinking and packaging those complex ideas into compact, memorable, actionable nuggets. He’s also world class at understanding platform leverage and capturing attention.
The value Naval delivers is first principles insights boiled down to essential, memorable truths. His tech success gives him credibility, but it’s his ability to distill complex wisdom into actionable principles that makes his insights so valuable. He doesn't just share ideas - he changes how people think.
"The mark of a charlatan is to explain simple things in a complex way; the mark of a genius is to explain complex things in a simple way."
— Naval Ravikant
Need I say more.
Category of One Math:
Starting pool is set of successful people in the tech industry in the U.S.: 10 Million with Naval in top 1% leaving 100K,
Ability to get platform leverage and attention: 40% of those leaving 40K with Naval in top 10% of that group leaving 4K.
Ability to generate novel insights and mental models for business and life (First Principles Thinking) : 25% of those leaving 1K with Naval in top 1% of that group leaving 10.
Ability to package and communicate complex ideas into compact, memorable, actionable nuggets: 60% of those leaving about 6 with Naval in top 0.1% of that group leaving just 1 — Naval.
Key Lesson
Naval is an example of taking success and credibility in one area (tech business) and using that to create a whole new category of one. He doesn’t just drop wisdom — he’s got that street cred that gives what he says a lot of weight.
While other successful tech founders look for the next big exit, Naval’s built an entirely different kind of value: becoming the tech world's modern philosopher with his unique ability to distill wisdom and leverage social platforms. (Attention is the new oil.)
I think Naval is a great example where these different skills combine to make something exponentially better. Imagine Naval had great insights but he couldn’t communicate them as these little gems of wisdom. Or imagine he could do that but he didn’t have the platform leverage savvy — he doesn’t get on Rogan or Tim Ferriss’ podcast or leverage X like he does. All that wisdom would probably stay within a tight community of just his close friends. It’s this combination of those 3 skills that unlocks the extraordinary and gives him that category of one influence.
The Path Forward
We've covered the complete mental model: what skill stacks are, why they matter, how to build them, and what to watch out for.
The path forward is clear: Don't be the best, be the only. Combine skills strategically, create real value, and dominate your category. That's how you build something extraordinary. Combine, create, dominate.
I’m not saying it’s easy. Building a skill stack is way harder than describing one. Choosing the right skills to include, developing them to a world-class level, and combining them to deliver real value — all hard. And yes, success depends on many factors, including some outside your control. There are no guarantees.
Steve Jobs was a skill stacker — one of the best. In his famous Stanford commencement address, he tells the story of stumbling into a calligraphy class and how, years later, that experience shaped how fonts were rendered on the Mac. His insight:
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.”
— Steve Jobs
Look, you can sit around waiting for the dots to connect themselves, or you can get out there and start connecting them yourself. I'm firmly in the 'make stuff happen' camp. If you want to do something extraordinary, becoming a category of one by crafting a unique skill stack is not just a good approach — it’s essential. And I prefer to do that strategically, building and refining my stack with intention and purpose. Being open to curiosity and new discoveries and adjusting when I’m proven wrong.
It’s time to stop reading and start building. Go build your stack, become a category of one, and make something extraordinary.