Moses Joshua

Beyond talent, hard work, and luck, success depends on surface area—the connections you create with the world. More touchpoints mean more opportunities. Like a tree spreading branches to maximize sunlight exposure, humans thrive by expanding their reach. Your surface area includes your network, skills, projects, ideas, and solutions—each creating potential connection points for opportunity. Two equally skilled developers will have different outcomes: the isolated coder versus the one who contributes to open source, blogs, speaks, mentors, and engages with communities. The latter naturally attracts more opportunities. Creating interfaces with the world doesn't require extroversion—it's about making your work visible. Researchers publishing papers, artists exhibiting work, consultants sharing case studies all increase their surface area. Opportunities rarely follow formal paths. They emerge from unexpected connections and chance encounters. Serendipity isn't random but a function of exposure—more surface area puts you in opportunity's path. Building in public works because sharing your process creates connection points. People reach out with similar challenges, collaboration opportunities, or unexpected offers. The effect compounds. Each connection multiplies your reach through extended networks. Skills combine uniquely. Past projects seed future ones. Multiple touchpoints create resilience. Industry shifts, obsolete skills, or dried-up opportunities affect you less when you have diverse connections. Be intentional about creating surface area. Ask: How am I interfacing with the world? Expand by sharing work, contributing to communities, developing adjacent skills, or broadening your conversations. Success comes from how discoverable your value is. Increase your surface area and opportunities will follow.