Life has no useless experiences: How your failures, niche interests, and seemingly useless knowledge can become superpowers

Have you ever felt guilty for learning too many things? Have you been advised to “specialize in a field”? Do you doubt that all your experiences and attempts have been wasted—because they don’t directly point to a clear career path?

The reality is: there are no experiences in life that are useless. The problem isn’t that you’ve learned too much, but that you’ve never been taught how to activate the true value of these experiences.

The Black Hole of Wasted Experiences: Why You’ve Learned So Much but Gained Little

We live in a contradictory era. On one hand, the cost of acquiring knowledge has collapsed—thanks to the internet, anyone can learn anything. On the other hand, most people still live according to the scripts of the industrial age: choose a major, deepen in one field, until retirement.

This system is based on a fatal assumption: that what you’re doing now will be what you do forever.

But we all know that’s not right. You can feel society changing. Mechanical jobs are disappearing, while those with complex skill sets are rising. All your experiences—including those “useless” ones—are shaping your unique way of thinking. The problem is, most people have never learned how to turn these experiences into real value.

They keep learning, keep trying, but life remains unchanged. They feel like they’re accumulating knowledge but actually declining. Why? Because they lack a “carrier”—a system that can channel all these experiences into meaningful work and generate income from it.

The Three-Factor Model: How Self-Education, Interest-Driven Motivation, and Independence Activate All Your Experiences

Personal success doesn’t depend on deep expertise in a single skill. Instead, it relies on three mutually reinforcing factors: self-education, self-interest, and self-sufficiency.

Self-education is easy to understand: if you want different results, you must control your own learning. Schools teach you “how to obey commands,” not “how to think.” Every time you learn something out of genuine interest—rather than because someone told you to—you’re building a unique knowledge framework.

Self-interest may sound selfish, but it truly means “caring about your own growth.” It’s not greed, but a refusal to be hijacked by others’ agendas. When you follow your interests, you often inadvertently create value for others—because the problems you solve matter to many. In contrast, those driven by “shoulds” tend to just repeat what others have already done.

Self-sufficiency is the final cornerstone: it means refusing to outsource your judgment. When you can make decisions within domains you understand, you hold real power. These three factors naturally attract polymaths—those with broad interests.

Why? Because self-interest drives self-education. You learn not because someone assigns you homework, but because you genuinely want to grow. Self-education leads to self-sufficiency. You can only stay independent within domains you truly understand. Self-sufficiency clarifies self-interest: when you no longer rely on others’ explanations, you see what truly benefits you.

This cycle naturally filters out false interests. Most people chase multiple experiences to escape their current jobs; but when your interests become your career, unrelated experiences are naturally eliminated. What remains are those experiences that truly define you and shape your worldview.

From Da Vinci to Today: How Cross-Disciplinary Experiences Combine into Unique Competitiveness

Why is the era of the multi-talented person now?

The answer lies in: the ultimate competitive advantage is perspective. And perspective cannot be copied because it comes from your unique life experiences.

Every interest you pursue leaves a mark. Each experience adds new connections in your thinking. Someone who understands psychology and design sees user behavior differently from a pure designer. Someone who understands sales and philosophy has a different logic of closing deals than a simple salesperson. Someone who knows fitness and business can create health-related ventures that traditional MBAs can’t grasp.

This is exactly what happened during the Renaissance.

Before the printing press, knowledge was extremely scarce. Books had to be handwritten, taking months to produce a single copy. Libraries were rare, literacy was limited. If you wanted to learn outside your profession, it was nearly impossible. Then Gutenberg changed everything.

Within 50 years, 20 million books flooded Europe. Ideas that once took generations to spread could now be disseminated in months. Literacy rates soared, the cost of knowledge collapsed. For the first time in history, a person could pursue mastery in multiple fields within a lifetime.

Da Vinci didn’t “choose just one thing.” He painted, sculpted, engineered, studied anatomy, designed war machines. Michelangelo was a painter, sculptor, architect, and poet. Their genius wasn’t in deep expertise in a single domain, but in their ability to connect ideas across different fields.

We are now in the “Second Renaissance”—the internet is our printing press. The cost of acquiring knowledge no longer exists. Anyone can learn anything. Every experience you’ve accumulated from birth onward is shaping a way of seeing the world that others can never copy. This is something AI can never automatically generate—unless you tell it how to think.

Your advantage isn’t in “expert-level single skills,” but in the intersection of these diverse experiences.

Why Now Is the Best Time to Activate All Your Experiences

The Industrial Revolution left us a curse: specialization. To improve factory efficiency, a worker would do only one repetitive task. This increased output but destroyed human cognition. Economist Adam Smith himself realized this: “If a person spends a lifetime repeating a few simple operations… he will generally become as dull and ignorant as possible.”

Ironically, this describes the outcome of the industrial system we built for him. Under the guise of “specialization,” we turned humans into nine-to-five assembly line workers. Schools, companies, governments—all systems designed to produce “punctual, obedient workers,” not thinkers.

But this era is ending.

As automation knocks on our door, pure specialization becomes a fragile advantage. Any single skill you possess can be replaced by a cheaper worker or an AI system. The only irreplaceable asset is your unique perspective—the worldview shaped by your entire life experience.

So the real question becomes: how do you systematize this advantage?

Brand, Content, Product: How to Turn All Your Experiences into a Profitable Life System

If you want to earn money from your experiences, the first step is to make others interested in them. But more importantly, you need a distribution channel. In today’s world, attention is the final moat.

You can have the best ideas in the world, but if no one knows about them, an average idea that captures attention will leave you far behind. That’s why “becoming a creator”—in my terms, “creating for yourself”—has become an essential survival skill.

Don’t think of it as “becoming an influencer” or “content factory.” I mean: treat social media as your stage for sharing ideas; openly showcase your learning process; use your experiences to help others facing similar challenges.

Today, every business is essentially a media business. And the framework connecting all this is: a system of brand, content, and product.

Brand isn’t just an avatar and bio. It’s an environment—a place where people come to experience transformation. Your brand is the impression formed in your audience’s mind through long-term content accumulation. You present this environment through every touchpoint—your story, your worldview, your philosophy. When someone follows you for 3-6 months, their mind begins to form a clear image of your brand.

Take a day to write down your story: where you come from, your lows, what you’ve experienced, what skills you’ve gained, and how these experiences have helped you. When brainstorming ideas, content, or products, filter them through your story. This doesn’t mean talking about yourself all the time, but aligning everything you say to keep your brand consistent.

Content is a high-density perspective. The internet is a firehose of information, and AI will only add more noise. This means information and signals are more important than ever. Your content should act like a lighthouse—curate your most valuable ideas into one place.

Build a “Thought Museum”—use note-taking tools to record ideas that resonate with you. No need for perfect organization; the key is to develop a habit of recording. Find 3-5 sources with high “idea density” (ancient books, curated blogs, high-quality social accounts), extract the essence from them, and practice expressing the same idea in different structures.

The same idea can be expressed from different angles; in list form, or through stories. Through this practice, you’ll discover which expression most effectively resonates with your specific audience. You’ll become an “idea curator”—not just a sharer of information, but a weaver of thoughts with a unique perspective.

Product is a validated system. In this “system economy,” people don’t want generic solutions—they want yours. There are thousands of writing courses out there, but the real value lies in a system built on your personal results. Your product stands out because it incorporates your specific methods, proven steps, and worldview.

This system can be a course, software, community, or consulting service. The key is: it must be rooted in your real experiences and validated results.

Practical Framework: Concrete Steps from Experience to Asset

If you want to activate all your experiences into sustainable income, here’s a basic framework:

Step 1: Start sharing your learning publicly. You’re already spending time learning; now turn that process into “learning in front of an audience.” Take notes on social media, write articles, record videos—make your learning process content. Boom—you’ve laid the foundation of a business without changing your daily routine.

Step 2: Build and maintain an idea library. Whenever you encounter a useful idea, jot it down immediately. This library will become your most valuable asset. When creating content, you won’t face a blank page but can choose from hundreds of validated ideas.

Step 3: Practice expressing ideas in different structures. Learn to express the same idea in 5-10 different ways. This way, you won’t be stuck on “how to create”—you’ve mastered the skill of turning ideas into content.

Step 4: Build a product around your core experiences. This can be as simple as a guide, a template pack, or a community. The key is that it’s based on your real experiences and proven results. Once you have a product, you have a real distribution channel; your audience will grow automatically.

Step 5: Establish a feedback loop. Use audience feedback to improve your products and content. This cycle will keep adding value to all your experiences instead of wasting them.

Why “Useless” Experiences Are Often the Most Valuable

Here’s a counterintuitive truth: those “seemingly useless” experiences are often the most valuable.

Why? Because popular, obviously useful knowledge is widely learned. Competition is fierce, and differences are small. But your obscure interests, failed attempts, off-topic learning—these make you unique.

Did you study psychology? Many did. But if you also studied graphic design and failed in entrepreneurship? No one can replicate your way of seeing problems. Do you know programming? Yes. But if you also understand marketing and humanities writing? You’ve become a unique resource—someone who can bridge different fields.

This is exactly why the industrial age demanded “deep specialization,” while the knowledge age demands “multidimensionality.”

In the past, depth was scarce. Now, depth is everywhere. What’s scarce is the ability to integrate multiple dimensions—those who see cross-field connections. Every “useless” experience is part of your unique perspective.

Life Has No Useless Experiences: Only Assets Waiting to Be Activated

One last point: the most important thing you’ve never been taught is how to systematically transform your entire life experience into real value.

Schools teach specialization. Jobs teach obedience. But no one teaches you how to be creative, independent, and able to choose your own direction. No one teaches that your failures, obscure interests, and “useless” knowledge are actually your greatest weapons.

Now is the time to change all that.

If you’ve ever felt guilty for not being able to “pick one thing”; if you’ve been advised to “narrow your field”; if you doubted that all your attempts were wasted—let me tell you: you’re right. Your experiences haven’t been wasted. They just haven’t been activated yet.

You already have all the tools you need: the internet allows anyone to learn anything; social media provides free distribution channels; AI can help you handle tasks that once required a whole team. The only thing missing is a framework—a system that can turn all your experiences, learning, and attempts into a sustainable, profitable lifestyle.

And that system is in your hands. Starting today, turn your learning into content; your content into a brand; your brand into a product; your product into real income and freedom. You’ll realize that life truly has no useless experiences—every experience shines brightly on the path to your authentic self.