19: ranking skills

I have an almost obsessive need to constantly rank and re-rank myself in the skills I care about. Why? It’s analogous to the need for introspection: namely, that knowing oneself will lead to improvements in all areas of life. That really is a cop-out answer. A more honest answer would be, like introspection, it’s impossible for me not to.

I created my ranking system early on, borrowing parts from the Imperial examination, Judo, the Air Force, and Go. Two main themes emerged, summarized here. In Chinese culture, Wushu, there are three main ranks. The first is for students with some years of experience. The second is for teachers with roughly ten years of experience. The last is for masters with a reputations in the Wushu community. In Japanese culture, there tends to be a dualistic separation between student and master. One is classified within the kyu-ranking system until one can make sizable contributions to the community, either as a teacher or as a researcher. There are obvious parallels to the American higher education system.

So, without further ado, the ranking system. I did it out of ten points purely out of simplicity.

Ranking

  1. Freshman (complete novice) — can at least state why they’re personally interested; commitment to learn more.
  2. Sophomore (surveyor) — able to enumerate and describe all sub-areas within the given subject; explain major unsolved problems and importance.
  3. Junior (exploration) — complete mastery of vocabulary: ability to converse fluently; huge itch to explore unsolved areas of interest and contribute.
  4. Senior (conquering) — equivalent to bachelor’s degree: chosen and completed at least one capstone project or thesis; 10,000 hours of practice.
  5. Masters (limbo) — understanding the community, find own place, name starts to become known; contributing back via research or teaching; viability of career in subject.
  6. PhD (commitment) — this is the rank of commitment; targeted interest and contribution.
  7. Associate professor — one sizable contribution to field; considered a “lifer,” invested unrecoverable amount of time .
  8. Tenured professor — put in their time and recognized for excellence; set for life as a master in the field.
  9. Distinguished professor — seen as a giant in the field, moves and shakes it; cited all the time.
  10. Nobel peace prize winner — seen as a giant even outside the field; dedicating your life to reach this level is still difficult.

The ranks from 1 to 5 are analogous to kyu ranking. One can advance purely based off breadth of knowledge. From 6 to 10, advancement in the field is largely determined by your peers and mentors. As people recognize you, you will be granted advancement. You notice a huge jump in difficulty between 4 and 6. This is intended. This is the hazy time when one knows enough to make a contribution and may improve by either learning more or networking and working. Either way, 6 is the crucial level to reach, where you have definitely committed to the subject area.

Current Skills

  • (5) Web Design — already pretty committed to it as a career in some aspect; started at 11; tons of projects listed at friedneko.com; capstone on working at Google and Yahoo!.
    • Design/CSS
    • Javascript
    • MVC, Ruby on Rails
  • (5) Computer Science — bachelor’s degree from CMU; aged ten years in one semester while creating my operating system.
    • Systems Programming — Operating Systems
    • Functional Programming
    • Software Engineering — Project Management
  • (4) International Development — many books (End of Poverty, Bottom Billion,…), course on ICT4D; capstone on DSO, huge learning experience.
  • (3) African History — read Fate of Africa and other books, publications from independent study with Dr. Fields-Black; capstone on informatiques & maps in progress.
  • (3) Psychology — can state basic vocabulary; focus on MBTI, research in statistics; comfort area.
  • (3) Writing — can explain differences in writing style, ability to emulate; passion to find own voice; capstone on poetry, meditation, blog.
  • (2) Literature — still exploring, need to read the Great Books, classics.
  • (2) Business Strategy — bachelor’s degree (in BA) from CMU; read BCG’s On Strategy, HBR; can explain major themes and frameworks, interest.
  • (2) Leadership — still exploring, some initial experience from DSO.
  • (2) Networking — started to formalize a system using Highrise; understand the art, give and take; personal theory on roles.
  • (2) Photography — fluent vocabulary, technical expertise; needs creative touch; capstone on photologu.es.
  • (2) Entrepreneurship — definitely have the spirit, just needs direction and additional implementation skills. Getting good at business sense as well.
  • (1) Journalism — have always been interested because of friends, never had time.
  • (1) International Relations — started reading Foreign Affairs, really need to read The Clash of Civilizations: could be one of those mind-altering experiences.
  • (1) Philosophy — can cough up major ideas; need to codify beliefs somehow.
  • (1) Design — basic skills in Photoshop, InDesign; needs more formalism.
  • (1) Chinese (Mandarin, Shanghainese) — basic listening and speaking. Not much else.
  • (1) Music, Classical — Just like going to live bands increases sentiment, I’d love to learn the history of classical music and some of the theory. Maybe write some music-based work.

Completely Clueless (but want to learn)

  • Human Anatomy
  • Music, Instruments

TODO(eshao): Put this into tree format. Maybe post a MM.