# Soft skills vs. hard skills Which is more valuable? Candidly I'm not sure. The [soft skills]([Soft skills - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft_skills)) - integrity, honesty, leadership, influence, charisma, ability to learn, etc. - are incredibly important, and nobody is going to be able to find any sort of success without them. Yet the [hard skills]([What Are Hard Skills? Definition & 51 Hard Skills Examples (resumegenius.com)](https://resumegenius.com/blog/resume-help/hard-skills)) - copywriting, smart contract development, accounting, video editing, engineering - are what build our society and get things done. In my own life, I feel like I've focused a lot more on the soft skills than the hard. And it has definitely led to an easier time surrounding myself with incredible people who are open to interacting in some way, shape or form. This in turn creates opportunity and optionality, which have been incredibly valuable. Secretly, I've always wanted to be more technically proficient in the hard skills too. But every time I endeavor to do so, outside of investing and finance, I feel drawn back to the other side. And even investing feels more so like a function of being able to learn about the world and make a call about the future, then rely on inner fortitude to not be swayed by the opinions of others. The killer for me on devoting myself too deeply to any one hard skill is the question - can I hire somebody to do the thing I'm about to invest a tremendous amount of time into hopefully becoming not horrible at? For example, many times in my life I've been fascinated with the idea of becoming an attorney like my Dad. Until I remember he had an hourly rate which others paid to own his time. Which then adds on to the debt taken or cash deployed to obtain the degree needed to get the license to practice. No thank you. The great Andrew Carnegie's epitaph read "A Man Who Knew How to Enlist in His Service Better Men Than Himself." This is the type of person I want to be for a few reasons. First, it is the most efficient use of my time. I don't ever need to master hard skills if I can instead work with great people who know the hard skills. Maybe it is a limiting belief that I don't need to master them, but at my current perspective it seems to hold up as long as I know enough to not be fooled. Second, there exists in this world only 4 forms of leverage: 1) Other people's time 2) Other people's money 3) Code 4) Content If I can again work with great people and they are gracious enough to share their time with me, together I can find people who are great at using and/or creating the other 3 forms of leverage. There are people who specialize in fundraising, writing code, and creating content. Third, I love being around people who are better than me. It is a great joy in my life to be surrounded by incredible humans, and life is too short not to go after what you want. Reflecting on this problem again, it appears to me the soft skills are, at least for me, the more important and valuable skills to develop. This doesn't ring true for everyone, and I would encourage each person to think this through for themselves. You may find out you're doing exactly what you want to be doing...or not... Regardless, I would argue it's better to know now.