Beyond talent, hard work, and luck, success depends on surface area—the connections you create with the world. More touchpoints mean more opportunities.
Like a tree spreading branches to maximize sunlight exposure, humans thrive by expanding their reach.
Your surface area includes your network, skills, projects, ideas, and solutions—each creating potential connection points for opportunity.
Two equally skilled developers will have different outcomes: the isolated coder versus the one who contributes to open source, blogs, speaks, mentors, and engages with communities. The latter naturally attracts more opportunities.
Creating interfaces with the world doesn't require extroversion—it's about making your work visible. Researchers publishing papers, artists exhibiting work, consultants sharing case studies all increase their surface area.
Opportunities rarely follow formal paths. They emerge from unexpected connections and chance encounters. Serendipity isn't random but a function of exposure—more surface area puts you in opportunity's path.
Building in public works because sharing your process creates connection points. People reach out with similar challenges, collaboration opportunities, or unexpected offers.
The effect compounds. Each connection multiplies your reach through extended networks. Skills combine uniquely. Past projects seed future ones.
Multiple touchpoints create resilience. Industry shifts, obsolete skills, or dried-up opportunities affect you less when you have diverse connections.
Be intentional about creating surface area. Ask: How am I interfacing with the world? Expand by sharing work, contributing to communities, developing adjacent skills, or broadening your conversations.
Success comes from how discoverable your value is. Increase your surface area and opportunities will follow.
Choosing future workforce shouldn’t just be about skills, but adaptability, especially with how fast technology is evolving.
E.g Providing constructive feedback during the interview/test process and then monitoring growth iteratively.
The growing problem of exclusivity, cultural biases, and democratic concerns in AI systems calls for a solution. We need a wide variety of AI systems, and this can only be achieved through open-source approaches to ensure broader access and inclusivity.
$400 drones are taking out multi-million dollar armored tanks. Omooooo!
Innovation in defense must focus on speed rather than perfection to keep up with the transformation of destructive technologies.
An idea may resonate with a leader, but effectively communicating it to followers, customers, and investors in different ways without losing the main point is crucial.
Had an amazing time at #AbujaCyberMeetup organized by @DoHAfrica. Met my chief @MJOfCyber, had fun with the CTF and grabbed cool stickers on my way out🤩
Come be like na only me no snap picture🥲
Anyways... toddles!