Latest / Career Skills with Fexingo: Hard Skills, Soft Skills, and Future-Proofing Your Career / Why Skill Subtraction Makes You More Valuable
Transcript
- Lucas: If I told you the fastest way to advance your career was to get rid of some of your skills, you'd probably think I'd been in the sun too long. Luna: I mean, it sounds backwards. We're always told to add skills, stack them, collect them like Pokémon. Lucas: Right, and that works — up to a point. But there's a concept I've been digging into called skill subtraction. It's the idea that deliberately eliminating low-value skills can make your remaining skills much stronger. Luna: So it's like pruning a tree so the fruit gets bigger? Lucas: Exactly. And I've got a concrete case. A management consultant I know — let's call her Priya — had accumulated over a dozen certifications over her career. Six Sigma Green Belt, advanced Excel, Tableau, some project management credentials, a few language certificates. She thought they made her versatile. Luna: And they didn't? Lucas: She hit a promotion ceiling. Her manager told her she was seen as a 'jack of all trades' but not a deep expert in anything. So she did something radical. She dropped six of those certifications from her LinkedIn profile, stopped maintaining the skills, and went all in on her strongest area — strategic pricing. Luna: She just... removed them? Like, pretended she never had them? Lucas: She stopped listing them and stopped practicing them. Within a year, she got promoted to director. Her focus made her more visible for high-impact projects. Luna: That's a great story. But I wonder — isn't there a risk you lose something you might need later? Lucas: That's the fear. But what Priya realized was that every skill you maintain comes with a 'skill tax' — time and mental energy spent staying current. If you're keeping up with six mediocre skills, you're stealing attention from the one or two that could make you exceptional. Luna: So it's not about forgetting forever. It's about choosing what to focus on right now. Lucas: Exactly. And this is where we can think about it like a product strategy. Apple famously killed off dozens of product lines when Steve Jobs returned — the Newton, the printer line, even some popular Macs. They subtracted to focus on a few core products. That focus is what saved the company. Luna: Right. And Spotify used to have tons of features — video, podcasts, lyrics, social. But they've recently started pruning back, removing features that didn't drive engagement, to double down on music discovery and podcasting. Lucas: Exactly. So the question is: how do you decide which skills to subtract? I think there's a simple framework. Look at each skill you have and ask two questions. First: does this skill differentiate me in my field? Second: does this skill have a high return on the time I invest in it? Luna: So if a skill is both low-differentiation and high-maintenance, it's a candidate for subtraction. Lucas: Precisely. For Priya, Six Sigma Green Belt was low differentiation — every consultant has it — and she was spending hours each month on refresher courses. Meanwhile, her pricing expertise was rare and high-value. By cutting the green belt, she freed up about six hours a month. Luna: Six hours a month that went straight into pricing work. Lucas: Right. And this isn't just about certifications. It could be a programming language you learned years ago but never use, or a social media platform you maintain 'just in case.' Luna: I think a lot of us hold onto skills out of identity. Like, 'I used to be a graphic designer' — even if you're now a product manager. It feels like losing part of yourself to let it go. Lucas: That's real. And you don't have to forget it forever. But you might need to stop actively maintaining it. The sunk-cost fallacy is strong here — we've invested time, so we feel we must keep it up. Luna: You know, this makes me think about the episode we did on skill dilution — how having too many skills can make each one weaker. This feels like the solution to that. Lucas: It really is. Skill subtraction is the practical move. And speaking of practical moves — I want to mention something that keeps this show ad-free. We don't run ads, and that's intentional. If you find value in episodes like this, you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a simple way to keep us independent. Luna: Yeah, it's true. No sponsors, no interruptions. Just the ideas. So if that matters to you, that link is there. Lucas: Anyway, back to subtraction. I want to give listeners a concrete exercise. Take out a piece of paper — or a note app — and list every skill you currently list on your resume or LinkedIn. Then mark each one as high, medium, or low in terms of: one, how much it differentiates you, and two, how much time you spend maintaining it. Luna: And then what? The ones that are low differentiation and high maintenance are the ones to drop? Lucas: Exactly. But don't delete them from your brain. Just stop actively maintaining them. You can always reactivate if needed. The key is to reclaim that time and mental bandwidth. Luna: I did something similar last year. I was maintaining a blog about data visualization — something I learned five years ago but don't use now. It took me hours to write posts. When I stopped, I used that time to deepen my SQL skills. That directly helped my current role. Lucas: Perfect example. And that's the core insight: subtraction isn't loss. It's reallocation. You're moving resources to where they have the highest impact. Luna: So if someone is listening and feeling overwhelmed by all the skills they 'should' have — this is permission to let some go. Lucas: Absolutely. And to be clear, this isn't about being lazy. It's about being strategic. The most successful people I know are ruthless about what they say no to. That includes skills. Luna: One thing I'm curious about — does this apply early in your career, or is it more for mid-career people who already have a base? Lucas: Great question. Early on, you need breadth to figure out what you like and what you're good at. But by year five or so, you should start pruning. Otherwise you risk becoming the generalist who never goes deep. Luna: So it's not a one-time thing. It's a periodic review — maybe every year or two. Lucas: Exactly. Like a spring cleaning for your skill set. And the data backs it up. A study from Harvard Business Review found that specialists — people with deep expertise in one area — earn about 15 percent more than generalists with the same years of experience. Luna: Fifteen percent? That's significant. And I'd guess that gap widens over time. Lucas: It does. Because as you get more senior, the premium on depth increases. Companies pay for people who can solve hard problems in a specific domain. Luna: So if you're feeling spread thin, the answer isn't to add more skills. It's to subtract. Lucas: Right. And I'll leave you with this thought. The next time you're tempted to add a certification or learn a new tool, pause and ask: 'What am I willing to stop doing so I can truly excel at this?' If you can't answer that, maybe don't add it. Luna: That's a good filter. I know I'll be using it. Lucas: Me too. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk next time.