Molson Hart

The more brilliant people you meet the more you realize there tends to be a mismatch between what they think their “edge” is & their actual differentiation. True 2nd level thinking (imo) is deeply rooted & has an “obviousness” to it that makes it hard to recognize it’s an edge.

It may seem obvious to that person (and hence not considered particularly special) but it’s really a brilliant 2nd level insight.

This is a random lesson I learned early in my career when interviewing. I thought I bombed an interview bc I didn’t give the “right” answer but was told later on that it was not the answer that was important but the question I posed while attempting to give the answer.

The question I posed implied I addressed a very foundational issue. There was an “obviousness” to the issue so didn’t dwell much on it. Incidentally that was the same question the interviewer was chewing on in real time and neither of us had the answer. Lol