Cut-Through on Crappy Tasks Most people max out at about 10-20% of their peak capacity when they’re working on something they hate.

But a lucky few people can reliably hit 80-90% of their peak on work that they despise.

Some work just sucks – they don’t pay you for it because it’s never-ending fun. The suckiest part of a project turns into the rate limiting step. In engineering, think of things like meticulously QAing a complex feature or writing a thorough test harness. People who can cut through the most painful parts of a project can meaningfully increase the overall velocity of your team by preventing you from getting stuck in the inevitable ruts in the road.