Cracked Engineering
In the past few months, I’ve gone all in on learning more about software, systems programming, AI, and more.
This was partly inspired by talented developers I follow on X that are building incredible things every day. The quality of software, the rate of output, and the profundity of their knowledge — it was all something I aspired to. With some free time on my hands, I decided I would dedicate every spare hour to becoming “cracked”.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term, the term “cracked” originated in gamer culture, meant to describe players who were top of their game1. The term slowly made its transition into the software world, ultimately describing software engineers with a tremendous aptitude for computer programming and many associated branches of knowledge.
With no strategy whatsoever, I began reading everything I could find in the spirit of becoming cracked. There were many different opinions as to how it could be achieved; some recommended I start with compilers to understand how computers worked. Others recommend starting with projects to apply knowledge. Others recommend learning math, since that is the foundation of computer programming. Where to begin?
I eventually went with a breadth-first approach. If I could get a lay of the land, choosing the mountain I wanted to climb would be much easier to do. Therefore I dabbled in ML, compilers, design engineering, and few other fields of interest. As I learnt more about each new domain, I asked myself: Do I see myself doing this for 2 years? 5 years? 10 years? If the answer was yes, chances are I would be on to something.
Fast forward 2 months later, I believe I have finally found a problem space that I deeply care about. It involves all my interests converging on one point, and is a problem that I am uniquely suited to solve. This has been tremendously rewarding — with ones calling comes clarity.
If you are interested in finding your life’s work, I have outlined some of the key lessons I have taken away during my phase of exploration.
Excellence takes time.
Excellence is an emergent property of time and dedication. Many of the engineers I look up to have been engineering within one domain for upwards of 10 years (see George Hotz).
Explore if you haven’t found your life’s work.
It took me many software projects before I found what I would be working on for years to come. It was only after the process of lateral exploration that it would became clear to me (see MVP here). Go lateral until something sticks, then go vertical.
Starting and stopping projects is fine.
When I was exploring I would inevitably start a project in a particular domain to deepen my understanding. I built some AI projects in python, re-built a good chunk of git in rust, and completely failed to build a 3D reading interface. Instead of persisting through each project with some vague idea of completion, dropping it and moving on to the next thing is a sign of an explorative state of mind. Reframe this process as one of exploration, and you’ll approach each project with lower expectations. Eventually, you will land on something you deeply care about (see my tweet here).
Hard work is composed of interest, ambition, habits, and dependents.
When I was young, I was baffled how people like Elon Musk were able to work 100 hour weeks. It was only after I started aiming for higher work week hours that it began to click. Focused work and longer work hours are byproduct of these four pillars. Different types of work will require different distributions between these pillars, and can be optimized as needed.
Interest
A deep interest in your work is a massive productivity enhancer. This is why I recommend lateral exploration first — your most interesting work is work you are called to do.
Interest in and of itself cannot be relied upon though, since not all work is interesting2.
Ambition
Projects with high ambition leverage willpower in order to make forward progress. Although this is good to have, this is difficult to sustain in the long-term.
Lack of forward progress negatively affects ambition.
Habits
Stronger work habits enable faster forward progress. There are many resources on this topic; I recommend reading Deep Work by Cal Newport.
Dependents
Entities that depend on you operate as a forcing function for hard work. This can include a family that requires support, investors awaiting returns on their investment, or clients with high project expectations. Although this can lead to hard work and longer hours, it restricts autonomy and therefore leads to burnout — there are many studies to prove that job autonomy is negatively correlated with burnout3.
The type of work you are doing can be optimized based on its distributed between these pillars. If your project is very ambitious, but you are not interested per se, then ensuring your project is consistently making forward progress will keep you inspired. If your project has many dependencies, ensure you take time to decompress to avoid burnout. If the project is something that must be chipped away at each day (ex. 100 day challenges), then creating a daily work rhythm is key.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself when working on any given project:
What kind of project are you working on (interesting, ambitious, habitual, dependent)?
How is it distributed across these pillars?
How can the project be optimized for its given category?
How can awareness of its category alter your approach to the project?
This has been a very helpful framework for me. If I can tell I am taking on too many projects within one pillar, I try adjust my approach so one of those projects move to a different pillar and slightly change the nature of the work. This keeps my efforts balanced, and has been an effective long-term strategy.
To learn more about working hard, I highly recommend reading Paul Grahams essay, How to Work Hard.
Conclusion
The convergence of all your interests into one point is a sign you have found your calling.
This doesn’t have to be divine intervention — it is just work that you called to do. Although I’m not much closer to being cracked then I was before, discovering work I deeply care about has absolutely been worth it. I highly encourage you to take time to explore (however long it may take), until you find what makes you tick. In all likelihood, it will be something only you are uniquely capable of solving.
Make a dent in the world, and let excellence follow.
“The true origin of the gaming term "cracked" had its origins from the game Apex Legends. In Apex, when you break an opponent's shield, an audible cracking noise occurs, indicating the opponent has about 100 health remaining. When Apex players would cross over to play Fortnite and play random squads, they would often shout during heated mid-game fights "He's cracked!" to indicted to teammates that the enemy has no shields, just like in Apex. The Fortnite players who did not play Apex, and were unfamiliar with the term, thought the player making the expression was giving a heat-of-the-moment complement that the opponent was very good. As time went on, more Fortnite players would start using the term "cracked" in this misunderstood context.” - Urban Dictionary
“A deep interest in a topic makes people work harder than any amount of discipline can.”
- Paul Graham
Job autonomy is negatively correlated with burnout: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/362237332_Job_autonomy_and_employee_burnout_the_moderating_role_of_power_distance_orientation