Malcolm Gladwell—writer, runner, car enthusiast—says that in every job interview at his production company, he asks one question: “Can you drive a stick?”
With that single question, he assesses honesty, curiosity, and—pun fully intended—drive. He even offers to teach candidates on the spot, using his own 2003 BMW M5 (E39) as the classroom, which he considers the greatest sports sedan ever built. His logic is simple: manual transmission drivers have to put their phones down. Both hands are on the wheel. Full attention is required. There is no coasting.
I can drive a stick, though probably not well enough to land a gig at Pushkin Industries. These days, I settle for paddle shifters on the steering wheel and tell myself it counts.
But the question stuck with me. There is something to the idea that certain skills demand complete presence. You can’t drive a manual transmission distracted. You can’t write a great brief distracted. You can’t really listen in a client meeting distracted. The skills worth having (the “sticky” ones) are the ones that demand you show up with both hands on the wheel.
So, I’ll ask you a version of what Gladwell asks: what is a skill you have that demands your full attention? What is something you do that refuses to let you get away with “halfway”?