(updated 9/8/25)

In the summer of 2024, the United States Men’s Gymnastics team broke a long medal drought and won the bronze medal at the Summer Olympics in Paris.

The final performance was by pommel horse specialist, Stephen Nedoroscik.

Nedoroscik is a two-time NCAA national champion and four-time US National champion for the pommel horse.

Nedoroscik is also asthmatic and has enough issues with his vision that he is unable to obtain a drivers license.

But that’s alright, because his team only needed him to do the one thing: 

Pommel his ass off.

While many members of the team competed in multiple events (rings, vault, floor exercise), Nedoroscik sat with his eyes closed, meditating like a Jedi.

When it was his time to compete, with Team USA needing a great performance from him to secure third place, Nedoroscik nailed his routine.

The result: a bronze medal for Team USA and invitations to every talk show in America for Nedoroscik along with internet meme immortality).

I felt a sense of admiration watching Nedoroscik do his one event, and not just because he also spells “Stephen” the right way (other favorite Stephens include Stephen King and Stephen Wilson Jr.).

But, also because his story is a pretty fun parable for the best career advice I’ve ever heard. Advice I wish I had really absorbed a decade prior.

“Become a Glass Cannon.”

(Don’t worry, I’ll explain what a glass cannon is below).

In today’s current environment, it turns out that becoming a Glass Cannon is likely the only way to separate yourself from the pack and make a name for yourself.

Note: “success” is a weird metric, and yes, there’s so much more to life outside of just “more money” or recognition!

For this essay, I’m talking about success within the context of professional success, particularly for creators, writers, or people who share their work with an audience!

Stop focusing on your weaknesses

On an episode of the Sharp Tech podcast, co-host Ben Thompson shared the best career advice I’ve heard in a long time.

He talked about how most people are given terrible career advice:

“People are so hyper aware of what they’re bad at.

They spend so much time trying to get better at what they’re bad at.

You will never [receive outsized returns this way].

Figure out a series of hacks, systems, put yourself in a position where your weaknesses don’t matter…

and what matters is your strengths… so that you become so unique and powerful that companies will hire a hundred people to take care of everything you’re bad at.

They don’t want you wasting your time on what you’re bad at, they want you doing what you’re great at.”

We often spend our time trying to fix the things we’re bad at, at the expense of getting better at the thing we’re already good at.

Doing lots of things “okay” is how to end up stuck in the middle, or getting replaced.

There’s not a lot of success to be had in “got less bad at many things.”

There’s much more success to be found in “became the best at.”

Thompson is channeling comedian Steve Martin who said “Be so good, they can’t ignore you.”

That advice is so good professor Cal Newport wrote an entire book around that one line!

For Thompson, that’s Stratechery – a tech analysis newsletter I gladly pay for.

For the past 12 years, he’s published multiple high-quality essays each week that are the best in the industry.

He also appears on multiple podcasts each week, which I initially worried might dilute his writing and analysis.

The opposite happened:

• These podcasts and conversations are downstream of Ben’s main directive of writing the best tech newsletter on the planet.
• They all IMPROVE his writing or provide him with deeper analysis or sharing more battle-tested insights.
• He has become world-class at his thing, and has found ways to get better and better at it.

It reminded me of this quote from renowned fantasy author Brandon Sanderson: “Everything at Dragonsteel HQ is built around ‘let Brandon cook.’”

He’s structured his work life around this one thing: if he has more time to write, EVERYTHING else in his life and work will be better:

Keep the main thing the main thing

I started NerdFitness.com in 2009 by writing about topics that interested me. 

I wrote two lengthy, researched articles a week, every week, for about a decade.

It was my top priority:

Each article was 2,000+ words, full of research and studies, humor, personality, and more.

It came before everything else.

As a result, I got pretty good at writing enjoyable articles about important topics.

I built a large audience (1.5 million visitors a month), and a community popped up around my writing.

I then started hiring people to help me serve the audience.

And this is where I got sidetracked.

As my responsibilities grew the team got bigger, I wrote less and less. I spent more time trying to become who I thought the company needed: a CEO, a manager. I spent more and more time in meetings and teaching others.

I read books on leadership and management and company building, instead of books on philosophy and nutrition and behavior science and things that interested me.

I spent half a decade trying to improve my weaknesses, at the expense of improving my strengths:

After years of feeling miserable about how I spent my time in my own company, I finally accepted reality and made some changes:

I sat down and thought about my strengths, what I enjoyed, and what I would be proud to have focused on improving.

• Creating: Writing! I love writing! I’m damn good at it! And the more I write, the better I get at it. And the more it resonates with readers.
• Enthusiasm: When I do things I’m excited about, I will run through brick walls to share that excitement, which is contagious.
• Connecting: Meeting up, connecting, and spending time with other creators. Connecting with readers (through my writing) or sharing my ideas on other platforms.

So, my life for two years has been completely rebuilt around those three things professionally (and personally taking care of myself), at the expense of everything else.

It meant saying no to lots of interesting things, or allowing others to lead in areas that I had been in charge:

1) Focus on my strengths: I doubled down on my efforts with my newsletter. It goes out every Monday to 100,000+ people! It’s the most important thing I do each week.

I have also been working on a secret writing project for 3 years, due out in 2026. I cannot wait to talk about it.

2) Everything else I work on has to improve or amplify my writing and enthusiasm, not detract from it. I’m posting again on Social Media (Instagram and Threads, mostly), but it’s all done to share my ideas with a broader audience or connect me with other creators. I’m prioritizing FUN and enthusiasm first.

3) Protect against my weaknesses. I’m a crappy manager, I lack focus, I’m a people-pleaser to a fault, I’m kind of forgetful, I am very disorganized, I don’t love social media or making. videos.

So I’m only interested in doing social media or video in a way that plays into my strengths, instead of chasing trends.

Here’s the big one: somebody else (shout out Matt!) who is far more organized and capable than me runs and manages Nerd Fitness.

I’m also hiring an executive assistant to help me get out of my own way and focus on my strengths.

I also protect against my weaknesses:

I use apps and post-it notes and calendars and automated tools to protect myself against myself.

I even have an “absent minded” savings account, for when I forget a charger (and have to buy a new one) or forget to pay for parking and get a $50 violation.

I have people or remind myself to ask the question “is this helping or a distraction?” Or asking “Does this bring me closer to Maximum Steve?”

It’s gonna happen, so my savings account mitigates the problem.

How To Become a Glass Cannon

*NERD ALERT!*

In video games or Dungeons & Dragons, a “glass cannon” is a character (often a magic spell-caster) that has immense power, but almost no defense.

They have put all of their skill points into one singular focus: doing the most damage. As a result, they are “made of glass” and can be killed just as easily.

But because they are SO POWERFUL, teams are often built around protecting them long enough to “let them cook” and cast their powerful spells and win the fight in just a few hits.

As somebody who makes a living on the internet, I think about Glass Cannons in terms of standing out in a crowded field:

These days, “average” unfortunately means “replaceable” or “forgettable.”

There’s too much content, people are too distracted, there are too many people vying for attention, etc.

Making mediocre content for 10 social media platforms is dumping effort into the void.

You’re going to lose out to people who are great on each individual platform. Instead focus on the one platform you can become great at, in your own unique way. And then get great at it.

If you work for a company, getting better at your weaknesses can only get you so far. If you are so dang good at something, they (should!) help shore up your weaknesses, and protect your schedule so that you can get better at your strengths.

If you want outsized returns, double down on your strengths. Get really, really good at them. Getting 20% better at your strength might create a 10x outcome.

Alternatively, take two things you’re “pretty good at,” and combine them so that you’re the ONLY one in the world who can be the best at that combo of things!

I took a love of writing and passion for “nerd culture” and combined them to be THE BLOG for Nerds who want to get fit. And built a 17+ year full time career (and company with 20+ team members) off that strength.

Next, understand your weaknesses enough so they don’t “kill” you. Not in a “I can now be an a-hole and everybody must conform to me” way.

But rather, “these are my blindspots and challenges and weaknesses…here’s what I can do to mitigate them.”

Maybe it’s using apps, or hiring help, or putting systems in place so that those weaknesses don’t create chaos.

Most importantly, “keep the main thing the main thing.”

And get better at it.

Unless your “main thing” is pommel horse.

I think that one’s already taken.

-Steve

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