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Currently on the built-in ‘to do’ application on my N95 I have 25 items.
Most of these are minor, website-related things like reminders to tweak an image or try out a different Wordpress theme. Some are prompts to write certain articles or ideas I’ve had about changes I can make to application code.
And there are also notes on there for me to buy some things I want, or to pay bills or fill in application forms for this and that.
And the first thing on the list, “Sort out Life Insurance”, has been on there for three months. And every so often, mostly to make myself feel less inept (as opposed to, you know, picking up a telephone or spending ten minutes on Confused.com), I slyly change the date on this item, so it remains ‘fresh’ in my list, and continues to remind me.
Of what, I’m not entirely sure, as I’m clearly not getting around to it. At all. Maybe tomorrow.
(Although Sod’s Law now says I’ll be dead by morning.)
I have some personal constants in my life that seem to bring me nothing but headaches.
CONSTANT #1 - I seem to be eternally trapped within the time-deteriorative closing walls of being a “Jack of all trades”.
Jack of all trades, master of none is, generally used as a term of insult. It’s interesting, then, that the term has become short-handed over the years, and the original
Jack of all trades, master of none, though oft times better than master of one
was actually a compliment. The theory was, back then at least, and possibly on paper, that a Jack of all trades has enough skills, knowledge and wisdom to pack a far greater punch than your average Tom, Dick or Sally, who may have only mastered one discipline.
That’s the idea, anyway; the reality is often that Jack is, by default, far from a master in anything, but also likely to be little more than slightly above-average - or worse - in all the things in which he perhaps claims to be competent.
There’s the rub; while being Jack is - or was - a good thing, the concept has lost its way on the same path that has led to the insult (and the cliché). It’s fine, even admirable, to be good at many different things. The key part is ensuring that you are actually good in the first place. There’s a world of difference between being competent at something and simply doing it.
Hence, considering one’s self a Jack is almost about making excuses. It’s like saying I’m kind of good at these things, but not genuinely great at any of them, which in today’s specialist-demanding world is essentially useless. In 1983, Matthew Smith wrote the seminal platform game, Manic Miner, all by himself. As well as probably hundreds of coders, graphic artists, musicians and God knows what else, Halo 3 had about fifty people providing voice talent alone. (Including, frighteningly enough, Jonathan Ross.)
Both of these games were classics of their day. In the early-to-mid 1980s, a few software houses had teams working on games but we’re talking a handful of people and they all multi-tasked. In 2008, Bungie probably hires people to boil the water for the guy who makes the coffee.
But is being a Jack normal? Aren’t most people average at (or at least know about) a great many things, as opposed to being world-class at one? Knowing more and more about less and less seems to be the human way. But I’d wager that if you consider those people, personally and professionally, that you feel are a success inevitably you will be able to pinpoint one main thing that perhaps explains why. Indeed, often that one thing is so unique or dominant that it has helped overcome other areas that may actually be mediocre, or worse, even if historically these are considered vital in that career choice (consider the number of famous ’singers’ that are in command of extremely dubious voices).
CONSTANT #2 - I promote a cannabalistic relationship between interest and enthusiasm, and time.
This looks a bit like this:
What this means is that I constantly get interested in new things which always leads to these amazing ideas all the time. Some of these ideas are genuinely decent. I believe I’ve had several winning formulas for money-making bonanzas over the years.The problem is that no matter how fantastic that concept is, or how excited and obsessed I get about it in the early stages, my dwindling enthusiasm will always - always - see that it is either never completed or will not be finished in the way in which I originally intended. (Indeed, as per the image above, I’ll often get so disinterested I’ll end up hating the god-damn thing.)
Which reminds me of a third.
CONSTANT #3 - I’m a tweaker.
Being a tweaker sucks; nothing you’ve done is ever really good enough, and so you constantly make little, sometimes completely unnoticeable changes (at least to others). Combine that curse with the rise and fall of your current obsession with a sneaking suspicion that that site you stumbled across an hour ago did what you want to do a lot better, and it’s a package that leads to a lot of wet cats in bags and abandoned dogs in woods. Typically followed by the late-night decision to buy another dog and start the entire thing from scratch.
Recently I’ve been thinking about the choices I made that led me to where I am now. When I decided to turn my back on 15 years of bond market analytics and trading in December 2006, I didn’t really have any kind of idea about what I wanted to do instead. I just knew I didn’t want to do that any more.
I drifted for a bit but inevitably one needs an income and I can distinctly recall at the time, February ‘07, feeling that I needed something that would, at least in part, match-up to the rush of my previous life. Becoming a door supervisor seemed as sensible an idea as anything else. And so I got licensed.
That’s just over a year ago; already, I’m feeling pretty jaded about this business. It can be an amusing distraction at times but the endless onslaught of sheer wasters wears you down eventually. I was never somebody who did this for the possibility of violence. The job to me is really about diffusing that; the art of fighting without fighting, and what have you. I did it because I felt like I could. It was, in short, another feather in my bow.
Another trade.
Which takes me full circle, of course. And has triggered some serious soul-searching this week. Is there any one thing I can truly master, or can I actually get pretty darn excellent at the several things I’m kinda-okay-at-if-you-squint-a-bit, and can I do it within a time frame where it’ll still be of use?
That aside, is anybody a master of one thing? I can’t think of any person I’ve ever known who I’ve considered a master of anything. They must have kept it to themselves. Or maybe they didn’t know.
Can one become a Jack of all trades, master of some?
What am I good at? What could I become great at? If I was a product in a store, like the Shéamus 2009 or somesuch, what bullet points would go on my tag to ensure a speedy sale?
- Has strong leadership skills!
- Is rock-solid in a crisis!
- Has strong managerial experience!
- Has also worked well in a team!
- Knows a lot about computers, and the Internet! Particularly building websites!
- Can write well, in detail and at length, about pretty much anything!
- Has detailed and lengthy opinions about pretty much anything!
- When focused, is a total machine!
- Lost 41 pounds in just over 13 weeks! Ask him how!
- Makes a great sandwich!
All of which prompts the advertising slogan: Does Many Things Quite Well.
Would you rather excel at one single thing or be ‘pretty good’ at many?
(Bonus points to the first person to identity the paraphrased quotation used in the title of this post.)
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Ahh, that quote is from “Reality Bites.” Good stuff.
I’d rather be a jack - a jack can bounce back. What happens to a master of a trade when that trade goes under or if his mastery of that trade succumbs to obsolescence?
Rob - you win the bonus points! Spend them wisely.
He learns a new one? One wonders if the path to mastery is as important as the thing that is ultimately mastered; a bit like having an honours degree: the subject is largely irrelevant. It’s the getting there that matters.
If one can master the path to mastery, it’s all good!