The problem this solves
Salary is a fragile asset. It depends on a role staying valuable, a company staying solvent, and your skills staying competitive — three things that look more uncertain every year. A high-income skill — rare, compounding, and resistant to AI substitution — is the real long-term moat.
This micro-course teaches you to identify which of your current skills compound, which are commoditising, and which to invest the next 90 days in deepening. It treats AI not as the enemy but as the test your skill stack is being measured against.
A taste of the exercise
The preview lesson walks you through listing five skills you already use, scoring each on compounding, rarity, and AI exposure, and picking one to deepen for the next 90 days.
Key concepts
- Compounding skill
- One that improves over years and where each new skill builds on previous ones. Writing, judgement, taste, sales, system design.
- Commoditising skill
- One that's becoming cheaper / faster to do without you. The list grows every quarter.
- AI resilience
- The degree to which the skill benefits from human judgement, taste, trust, and presence in ways AI can't cheaply replicate.
- Public visibility
- Whether evidence of the skill exists outside your head — writing, code, talks, portfolio. Invisible skills don't get hired.
- Distribution moat
- An audience or network that travels with you across employers. Increasingly valuable.
- T-shaped vs comb-shaped
- Deep in one, competent in many (T) vs deep in several adjacent (comb). Comb-shaped wins more durably.
Common mistakes
- Confusing a high-effort skill for a high-leverage one.
- Picking a skill because it's trending rather than because it compounds in your hands.
- Hiding the skill — not publishing, not building a portfolio, not getting visible.
- Trying to develop five skills at once.
- Defining yourself by your job title rather than by what you can do.