Also from that Tim Urban article:
Chefs look at the world with fresh eyes and build conclusions based on what they observe and what they’ve experienced. Cooks arrive at conclusions by following someone else’s recipe—in the case of careers, the recipe is usually conventional wisdom.
[…] cooks improve at a snail’s pace, because their strategy is just following a recipe which itself barely changes. What’s more, in a world where career games are constantly evolving and morphing, the chef’s tactics can evolve in real time and keep up. Meanwhile, the cook’s recipe just grows more and more outdated—a problem they remain oblivious to. This is why I’m pretty convinced that at least for less traditional careers, your level of chefness is the single most important factor in determining your pace of improvement.
Cooks get a bad rap there, but I reckon your best bet for becoming a successful online entrepreneur is to start off as a cook and gradually become a chef.
Or to paraphrase Mason Cooley, “Begin with imitation and end with innovation.”
That is: you see something that’s working well for someone else and you try to do similar, put your own spin on it, constantly test and experiment, and eventually find yourself with a profitable business that’s a unique expression of you.
But you have to be careful that you’re a good fit for the kind of business you’re considering; that you have similar strengths, weaknesses and goals to the person you’re trying to emulate.
Oh, and you also have to be sure that said person isn’t full of shit and just trying to sell you a course (like this guy) 🧐
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