Your Community Is Only as Effective as Your Most Frequent Interaction

I’m not a fitness guru, but there’s something to be said about the benefits of a high-rep workout. Do a bunch of curls and pushups and soon enough your arms can look like anyone up at the Crossfit Games.

Ditto for language learning. If you want to be fluent in Balochi (which only about 7 million people speak globally), you gotta get in those conversations. Do the work and count the reps.

The idea holds for anything we’re learning: ballet, welding, tax law, poaching eggs, or meditation.

Max loads are great, but won’t make you better at a skill. Learning the most complicated word in Sinhala doesn’t mean I’m ready for a trip to Sri Lanka. I’m only as fluent as my most frequent use of the language.

This is true of your community as well.

You may be proud that someone famous or rich or talented is in your world, but if you’re not interacting or hanging out with them often, you’re not deriving much benefit.

Rather, those you spend the most time with have the most impact on you and your opportunities. What person or small group of people are you near the most often? Based on who they are, who they know, their skill sets and values, you’ll be creating a sort of future for yourself.

High rep community directly impacts personal success. You’ll only be as successful as they’re able to help you be.

I’ve seen people complaining of late on LinkedIn that the content there is fluffy, or not as helpful, or trending toward click bait. LinkedIn may have written the feed algorithm, but you control the inputs. If someone is no longer adding value, drop the weight. Pick up a better one and rep it out.