There is a skill you’re proud of.
You invested time in it.
You practiced.
You improved.
You identified with it.
It became part of your professional identity.
And it might be worth nothing.
Not because it’s useless.
Not because you’re bad at it.
But because value is not defined by effort or pride.
It’s defined by the market.
Pride Is Personal. Value Is External.
You measure your skill by:
- How hard it was to learn
- How long it took to master
- How confident you feel using it
- How much recognition it once brought
The market measures something else.
- Is it scarce?
- Is it urgent?
- Is it hard to replace?
- Is demand growing or shrinking?
Your pride does not influence these variables.
Skills Decay Quietly
No announcement.
No warning label.
No public funeral.
A skill doesn’t lose value dramatically.
It erodes silently.
New tools emerge.
Automation replaces tasks.
Supply increases.
Demand shifts.
And suddenly, something that once differentiated you becomes common.
You don’t notice immediately.
Because from the inside, you’re still improving.
From the outside, the market has moved on.
The Emotional Trap of Identity
The most dangerous skills are not the weakest ones.
They are the ones you built your identity around.
When your skill becomes part of who you are, questioning its value feels like questioning yourself.
So instead of reassessing, you defend it.
You double down.
You specialize further.
You ignore early signals.
By the time reality becomes obvious, adaptation is harder.
Experience Doesn’t Guarantee Value
Ten years of experience in something declining does not create demand.
It creates attachment.
The market does not compensate loyalty to a skill.
It compensates relevance.
A skill can be:
- Technically impressive
- Historically respected
- Personally fulfilling
And still misaligned with current demand.
Effort Is Not a Market Metric
Hard skills.
Soft skills.
Hybrid skills.
The type doesn’t matter if the signal doesn’t convert into demand.
You can work harder than ever and still see:
- Fewer opportunities
- Lower negotiation power
- More competition
- Diminishing leverage
That doesn’t mean you lack ability.
It may mean the skill you built leverage on has lost momentum.
The Comfort of Familiar Strength
People prefer improving what they’re already good at.
It feels efficient.
It feels safe.
But safety is deceptive when the market landscape is shifting.
Improving a declining skill increases mastery not necessarily value.
Without visibility into demand dynamics, you are optimizing in isolation.
The Illusion of Stability
If you are currently employed, you may feel secure.
If you receive occasional validation, you may assume relevance.
But stability can hide stagnation.
The absence of crisis does not mean the presence of value.
Markets reposition silently.
What feels stable today may be oversupplied tomorrow.
The Question Most People Avoid
Not:
“Am I good at this?”
But:
“Is this still worth something?”
Those are different questions.
One protects ego.
The other protects positioning.
Most professionals ask the first.
Few confront the second.
Value Is Dynamic, Not Sentimental
The market is indifferent to your journey.
It doesn’t reward how hard it was for you.
It doesn’t care how proud you feel.
It reacts to alignment.
And alignment changes.
The skill you’re proud of might still be strong.
Or it might be quietly losing leverage while you’re busy perfecting it.
Without visibility, you won’t know which.
The uncomfortable possibility is not that you lack skill.
It’s that the skill you rely on no longer carries weight.
And until you can see how the market evaluates it,
confidence is just an assumption.
Source : Medium.com
