I wanted to share a key idea that helps us all understand talent better.

Talent is really hard to understand. The reason for that is surprisingly simple: as a person becomes better at what they do, it becomes increasingly difficult to explain why.

Let's walk through this...

The first thing we do is gain skill. We learn how to talk, write, do math, maybe write code, build, design, etc.

With those skills in our memory, we can begin to make.

At the lowest levels of viable skill, we can do the job. We can be given a task or even a challenge and we can take something yet to be done and make it done.

To the layperson, minimum viable skill is often acceptable...at least for now.

Did you want that roof to not leak? Did you want that code to not crash? Did you want that data to be findable and usable? Did you want those brakes to still stop your bike even when they are wet?

We do learn how minimum viable skill isn't enough, but usually when it's too late.

We learn that minimum viable skill and the appearance of being able to do something (often cheaply) isn't anywhere near enough. Unfortunately, we learn this after something breaks. It's an expensive lesson, and usually we realize that we have to have someone better redo the work.

People who "do the job" don't have particularly high standards. In the kitchen, they chop vegetables coarsely and oddly, not with precision. In the machine shop, they weld pragmatically and unevenly. In code, they create bloat and leaks and messiness.

The people who do the job exceedingly well are actually doing the craft, not just the job. They consider their work important. They work artfully and precisely. They care a great deal how the food tastes and looks. They care that the welds are smooth or the code is elegant.

Practicing the craft is a whole other level than doing the job. It's a blend of the physical (action) and the metaphysical (intelligence, creativity, elegance, polish,...)

When we learn that need to fix things, we finally (hopefully) hire someone who does the craft, not the job.

But above that are the superstars. They transcend the job and the craft entirely to create experiences, not just outputs or outcomes. Their minds are drawn to the purely metaphysical world of how work "feels," and this is what makes them extraordinary product people, musicians...

...or whatever they happen to be.

For them, it's a whole other mindset, not an added layer of skillset.

Music proves this relatively well: many successful musicians aren't advanced players. Dave Grohl from Foo Fighters notoriously says he doesn't know how to play guitar.

But what Dave can do is create a feel. He can play around with what he does know, using more basic skill than a highly-trained musician, and can craft an experience that brings out an entirely different outcome than musicians technically much better than him.

The same is true for almost any field. The shift from skillset to mindset and the shift from physical output to metaphysical output elevates exceptional work to a whole other world, often inaccessible by others without similar mindset.

When challenged to explain this excellence, people normally struggle. There are bits and pieces of best practices and frameworks, but in the end, their right prefrontal cortex can do things others seem unable or unwilling to try. That's where this experiential mindset comes from.

The difficulty of explaining the value of experiential, metaphysical thinking results in us not hiring the best people ALL THE TIME. It has us breeze right on by great ideas that would transform us and allow us to innovate. It has us prioritize poorly.

As human beings, we have a bias issue here: we believe people able to explain things clearly are better at things. It simply isn't true. It causes us to ignore track records and pay attention to words instead.

But experience makers have track records. They are usually long track records of amazing ideas and outcomes. We chalk it up to luck. Taylor Swift isn't luck. Wolfgang Puck isn't luck. Elon Musk isn't luck.

What it is instead is a focus on the metaphysical aspects of experience over the job or craft itself. That's the secret. It's a wholly different focus, not on code or welding or profits or shareholder value but on human experience.

When we can see on the outside that a person isn't trying to just do a job or even live the craft, but that they are principally concerned with the experience of it all, we are working with a person who simply gets it on a different level.

Punchline? Hire as many of those people as you possibly can.

Other punchline? Be one of those people. Enter a different mindset. Focus on experience rather than the job or even the craft. It changes the game.