Why being good at several things beats mastery of one

Think of the world’s best chess player: one skill honed to perfection. Now consider entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs or Oprah Winfrey—they weren’t just brand builders or speakers. They mixed vision, communication, technical insight, and emotional resonance. That unique blend is their skill stack.

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, popularized the idea that stacking several good skills outpaces being a superstar in just one area. Imagine you’re in a city of one million: if you rank in the top 10% in six distinct skills, math shows you’re effectively the single person who combines them all—because 1,000,000 × 0.1^6 equals roughly one. You don’t have to be the absolute best coder or speaker; you just need to be really good at both.

This concept reshapes how you approach your career. Instead of grinding to master one tool for decades, you identify a handful of complementary abilities—like analytics plus storytelling, or marketing plus empathy—and lift each to a high level. Over time, the intersection of these skills makes you uniquely valuable.

You might be the best teacher in your field because you speak clearly, write smoothly, and connect emotionally. Or you could stand out in a crowded marketplace by pairing your design flair with data analysis. By designing tasks that use multiple skills at once—like running a data-driven design workshop—you strengthen your entire stack simultaneously.

Behavioral research on multiplex skills and career success underscores that versatility combined with depth breeds opportunity. When you build your own skill stack, you become irreplaceable in ways a single specialty never could.

Begin by listing your six strongest skills and rating each from one to ten. Spot which combinations offer the biggest strategic advantage and choose one skill gap to work on regularly. Then design a small project that uses at least two skills together and schedule practice sessions. As you build each layer of your stack, you’ll find opportunities opening up that single-specialty experts can’t reach. Try mapping your skill stack today.