roletype
Theory, methodology, and strategy for navigating technology hype cycles.
Not 'which tech job' — which role. Every technology wave produces the same 27 roles, and most people pick theirs by identity instead of fit. The full map, the fit criteria that actually matter, and three questions that narrow it fast.
Di Iorio ran meetups, Crain ran a podcast, Shuttleworth packaged Debian software — unpaid roles that converted into founder, CEO, and capital-provider positions. The best-documented pattern in tech waves: your first role is the entry ticket, not the destination.
Generic AI gives generic career advice — because it's advising a stranger. The agent-ready Markdown export fixes that: the five-minute setup for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, five prompts to try, and the pro corner for coding agents.
Linux, Bitcoin, Ethereum, AI. Different waves, strikingly similar cast of characters. The structural argument for why 27 roles keep recurring across every technology cycle.
77 behavioral questions, 5 equally weighted dimensions, 27 roles, capacity flags. The scoring mechanism, step by step — formula, weights, magnitudes. Only the full question-to-role map stays proprietary.
Every early team is really just three roles: someone who builds, someone who understands the market, someone who makes it desirable. Everything else — PM, UX, DevOps, sales engineer — is what those three become when a company scales. Those fragments are the 27 roles.
You're a lawyer, a doctor, an engineer, an accountant — and someone just asked you to join an AI startup, advise a crypto project, or jump to a 3D-printing venture. There's a right way in and a wrong one. The outsider's guide to entering any hype cycle without getting stuck as an advisor.
Well paid, technically deep — and watching the wave from an employee seat. 'Stay a developer, add AI' is the answer almost every developer gives, and for a third of them it's wrong. The four realistic directions, and how to tell which is yours.
Ikigai asks what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for. The assessment honestly measures the two circles that live inside you — and shows the other two as a separate market reality check.
Some roles generate cash on day one. Others build assets that pay off later. Neither is better — they suit different risk tolerances and time horizons.
roletype is an applied synthesis, not an invention from scratch. Where it sits relative to Gartner, Perez, Moore, Rogers, Amara, and Porter — plus the career-science and psychometric literatures — and the one question none of them ask.
Bootstrapped, autonomous, optimizing for freedom instead of market dominance. The Scaler fault line, the honest 12-36-month economics, and the failure modes that turn a product into a second job.
The Developer builds the second layer of every hype cycle: the products and tooling on top of foundational technology. The three subtypes, how the role actually earns, its failure modes, and how to start.
Merged PRs are credentials no résumé can fake. The Open-Source Contributor builds reputation in public and converts it into hiring, consulting, or founding. Subtypes, economics, and the failure modes that waste years.
Anthony Di Iorio ran Bitcoin meetups in Toronto — at one he met Vitalik Buterin. The Organizer builds the social substrate of a wave, and the network converts into founding, investing, and advisory positions.
Rigorous evaluation for decision-makers — and the map's only counter-cyclical role: skeptical analysis rises in value exactly when the bust hits. Independent vs. institutional, the economics, the failure modes.
CoinMarketCap started as a spreadsheet. The Curator creates signal out of noise — databases, leaderboards, structured overviews — and the trust asset can end in acquisition. The shapes, the economics, the failure modes.
The Educator is the translator layer of every hype cycle. This deep-dive covers the four subtypes, how the role monetizes, its failure modes, and how to get started.
The complete thematic bibliography behind the assessment: technology-cycle theory, innovation-ecosystem research, competitive strategy, career science, network theory, and psychometric methodology.
CareerExplorer's archetypes are RIASEC personality blends — who you are. roletype's roles are positions a technology wave needs filled — what to play, and when. Psychometric pedigree vs. ecosystem fit: a disclosed comparison.
Career Karma's 3-minute quiz maps 16 personas to one job title each — built to feed a bootcamp funnel, and honest about it. roletype ranks 27 ecosystem roles with timing attached. A disclosed comparison: where each one is genuinely useful.
16Personalities describes who you are (NERIS®/Big Five, 16 types); roletype describes which position a tech wave needs filled right now. A disclosed comparison.
CliftonStrengths tells you what you're naturally talented at — context-free talent themes that hold across every career. roletype tells you which position in a tech wave fits your fit and timing. A disclosed comparison: same person, different question.
RIASEC measures which activity types draw you — timeless, validated, designed for the whole economy. roletype measures which ecosystem role fits you in a tech wave — and when. Interest ≠ role.