The Limiting Factor isn't skill, it's will
For positive outcomes, there’s often an overvaluation in skill correlation.
Surely, you need a couple full-stack SWEs, a designer, a PM…etc with all the right skillsets to make the project succeed?
However, I found that is not the case.
The biggest limiting factor isn’t skill – it’s will.
Willpower, force of will, and conviction – are one of the most limited and rare character traits I found in people I’ve worked with.
Motivation is fleeting, I am talking about the steel and determination within a person.
With enough will,
- A beginner can learn a new skill or technology and deliver in limited time
- A constraint or blocker can be overcome
- A team can build a winning MVP in 1/10 the time allocated
- A team can simply output more productive hours by minimising sleep and giving up opportunities
- The unlikely becomes likely
- The paradigm is shifted
- Limits can be surpassed
Skill is not the issue. Knowledge is near-limitless and highly accessible.
Before LLMs, this held true – granted with some friction. One could find hacky and innovative ways to make things work out. I often up-skilled in whatever was needed by asking a sponsor representative to guide me in using their tech in a hackathon to build a feature. Or maybe it was about ruthless prioritisation, tons of Stackoverflow, and lots of Googling.
Now especially, in the age of LLMs, most answers and how-to-do’s can be found with a couple prompts. It’s practically spoon-fed.
What I have found to be the limiting factor in teams is the force of will.
- when other priorities come into play
- when the going gets hard
- when conflict arises
- when team morale is low
- when difficulties emerge
- when that easy task turns out hard
- when you’re doing something you’re not familiar with or don’t enjoy
- when you’re still in the valley of despair
- when the code isn’t working
- when the task isn’t your scope
How hungry are you?
When I try to get a sense of alignment informing teams, people usually fall into low/medium/high in how much they want to win.
- low: here for fun/learn/network
- medium: would like to win, but busy with other commitments
- high: “I am in it to win it”
I’m speaking about the high sayers.
The low and medium types are expected to lack the will – because their will is obviously in an entirely different direction in the first-place.
The high sayers say they want to win and will do anything – but often you see the limiting factor play out in some way or form.
It plays out in me too, and those are the moments I have to truly pause and consider if it’s important enough to push through.
context
I see this everywhere. In work, uni, army, hackathons..etc.
I’m talking about patterns I’ve observed first-hand.
In uni, I often observe most of the students studying in the library late at night are usually asians – whether it’s a cultural thing, or whether some are international students needing to put more effort in studying in a second language is irrelevant. From doing my primary schooling in Singapore, and as a Summer au pair in China – I can tell from first-hand experience that these Asian countries are simply more hungry than what I observe on the whole in many Western countries. I also think it’s a blessing that a country like Australia exists. Where one doesn’t have to push their childhood as hard into the extreme of academics and can pursue their own paths of development.
In hackathons, I have had teammates willing to practice our pitch and demo until the judges arrive – while others who want to chill. Some teammates are willing to open up their code editor and tweak the minor design detail, while others tell you to do it yourself. The spectrum of mindset is wide.
The Limiting Factor is one of mindset.