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A couple of years ago, I came across a fascinating piece of research that completely shifted how I think about career growth. It wasn’t about grit, networking, or even working longer hours—though those things help. It was about position. Specifically, the idea that your upward mobility isn’t just determined by your effort or talent, but by where you choose to stand in the social and economic landscape.
Think of it like a game of Tetris. No matter how fast you move or how clever you are, if you’re stuck in a narrow column with no room to rotate, you’ll never clear a line. The same goes for professional life. You can be the most skilled coder in the world, but if you’re coding for a dying industry, you’ll still hit a ceiling. The real question isn’t “How do I get better?” It’s “Where do I need to be?”
This insight comes from a mix of economics and sociology—people like Gregory Clark, who tracked social mobility across centuries, or the more recent work on “opportunity structures” by scholars like Robert Putnam. What they consistently find is that the position you occupy—your industry, your geography, your network density—often matters more than your individual attributes. A person born into a high-opportunity environment has a radically different trajectory than someone with the exact same skills but born into a low-opportunity one.
So how do you find your position? The answer isn’t simple, but there’s a framework that helps.
First, look for scarcity. Not just any scarcity—the kind that aligns with your own comparative advantage. For example, the most valuable positions are usually at the intersection of rare skills and growing demand. This is why data scientists at a biotech startup earn more than data scientists at a legacy bank—the former has a tighter match between what the market needs and what few people can do well. The classic advice “find your passion” is too vague. Instead, ask: “What is something the world needs a lot of, but not many people are willing or able to provide?” That’s your scarcity sweet spot.
Second, consider complementarity. In complex systems, the most powerful positions are often those that connect different domains. Think of a translator between engineering and marketing, or a generalist who understands both machine learning and supply chains. These roles don’t require being the best at any single thing, but they become indispensable because they reduce friction. The people who occupy these bridge positions tend to climb faster—not because they’re smarter, but because they’re more connected in a functional sense.
Third, pay attention to accumulation. Some positions have a compounding effect: the skills you learn, the relationships you build, and the reputation you earn all pile up over time. Other positions are dead ends—you trade time for money, but nothing carries over. A job in early-stage venture capital, for instance, might pay less upfront but gives you pattern recognition and a network that multiplies in value. A job in high-frequency trading might pay well initially but offers little transferable skill outside those specific algorithms. The trick is to choose a position where the learning curve never flattens.
One more thing: the search for a good position is itself a skill. It requires experimentation. You can’t find the right spot by staring at a spreadsheet or reading career advice (irony fully acknowledged). You have to try multiple angles, collect real-world feedback, and adjust. The people who succeed are not those with the most polished five-year plan—they’re the ones who treat their career like a series of quick prototypes, failing fast and pivoting toward better-fit positions.
This way of thinking is deeply optimistic. It means your current place in the world isn’t a verdict on your potential—it’s just a starting location. The goal isn’t to “level up” in place; it’s to move to a place where leveling up becomes easier. And once you start viewing your career through this lens, you realize that the most important work you do is not inside your job—it’s finding the job that amplifies everything you do.
So the real question is not “How hard should I work?” It’s “Where should I stand?” And that’s a question worth spending serious time on.