What matters more in career: Content or contacts?

For the longest time, it was believed that ‘who’ you know matters more than ‘what’ you know. To paraphrase: A good lawyer knows the law, but a great lawyer knows the judge. Your network could get you to places because, in the absence of formal institutions and prohibitive transaction costs, personal ties and social alliances made the difference between relevance and obscurity.

People doubled down on expanding their contacts, offering currency in exchange for networking events, agencies, clubs and rituals. If one were to make a choice, contacts triumphed content, hands down. But is it so today? Let’s see what has changed.

The advent of pervasive, highly affordable means of communication and transportation, coupled with easy access to information and the widening of the opportunity base, has resulted in rapidly declining search and transaction costs. The emergence of formal rules of engagement and emboldened economic institutions has enabled many more people to participate in value creation. This puts a premium on specialisation and on developing and retaining content.

Let’s take an example. In the heyday, if I were a carpenter, my market discoverability would be limited unless I also published myself as a plumber, electrician, mason, painter, and interior designer, all rolled into one. I would rather have multiple tentacles to increase my searchability — hoping that something would click. But in today’s world of the Internet and smart devices, what will increase my market value?

On the demand side, I would search for the best carpenter in town, rather than settle for the one who is also a carpenter. The premium of specialisation pays off owing to the marginalisation of search and transaction costs. This leads to the emergence of specialists — because somebody else, or rather something else, has taken care of your contacts. 

Across fields, whether it be sports, as seen in the IPL, teeming with talent from tier-2 cities and towns, to open source development forums, where top contributors are mostly individuals labouring at their own accord, what you have are dwarfs who you know. In chess, the eight-year-old Tamizh Amudhan from Sivakasi beats World No. 7 Vincent Keymer in an online blitz tournament. All he had was his Internet connection, powered by a mobile hotspot in a darkened room, and a brain brimming with ideas. No contacts, only content.

The tale of Indian Chess Grandmasters is that of content over contacts,  because one can learn the game through pretty much any means, play from pretty much anywhere, and defeat anyone. This was not possible in the 90s — one had to be in the right place, with the right people, blessed with the appropriate patronage, coached in the legitimate schools of chess, to get a fighting chance.

Nowadays, chess players are demolishing pieces right out of their bunkers in war-struck Ukraine. The top programmers in the world come from Siberia, Poland, and Hungary — places that are not exactly the hotspots of technological revolution. Linux was written by a single person, Linus Torvald, sitting in his dorm in Helsinki, with a cat for company. So much for being ‘connected’. 

If you have enough content, contacts will follow. If you don’t have content, your contacts will disown you in no time. Your content is like the fragrance that attracts people. As long as you keep your content fresh and relevant, by constantly investing in yourself, you won’t have to chase people; they will rather sniff you out.

So, when you visit conferences and are busy shaking hands and dishing out cards, bear in mind that people do not remember your card; they remember ‘you’. Instead of maximising reach, focus on having one or two deep, meaningful conversations, and you will return wealthier. 

Neither content nor contacts come cheap; they both require considerable and consistent efforts. The critical distinction, however, is that contacts you share, while content you own.

When you leave an organisation, what do you carry with you — content or contacts? You may argue that you carry both (which is not really the case). Your contacts are valid till you can dish out something meaningful to them, something asymmetric.

Otherwise, over time, if the contacts do not see the goods, they will lose interest. As you leave a firm, you carry the content, and this might, in time, revise your contacts.

Casting the question back to your career: Do not chase people, chase excellence. If you are great at your craft and honest in your approach, the appropriate people will discover you. Content is indeed the king, and even more so in a connected world.

As for the content, it is not just knowledge but contextual knowledge. It is the knowledge that works, solves problems, and moves the world. Everything else is a flux.