I have always considered myself a jack of all trades. I have been and still am a writer, reader, philosopher, cricketer, politician, strategist, painter, photoshop artist, collector of things, singer, dancer, stock trader, blogger, biker, and a lot many things that I cant recall at this moment.
As I always say there are two sides of a coin - a good one and a not so good one. Good one is easy to see and interesting to know about. To start with I know and get to know a lot of things about lot of subjects (had I been a management consultant, I could have called myself a 360 degrees consultant). Secondly I can stand in a mob and talk about things (and I would be a wrong a lot of times). Thirdly I can move from one thing to other and then another and never get bored of things. Fourth and most importantly I would have good memories of doing these things.
And since there are proverbial two sides, I should also talk about things I think are not good about being a jack of all trades. First and foremost you are not considered an expert or an authority on a subject until or unless you show the world that you have spent all your life in pursuing higher truths in a particular subject. For example I can be a remarkable photographer (which I am not), I would not be considered even an average photographer till I have a huge website with million links to other photography websites and extensive articles talking about merits and demerits of different cameras and tripods and technical details of shutter speeds etc.
Ok so you are not an authority, what next? I think second people (read crowd) would fail to give you credit for some masterpieces that you might have produced. Again the basic assumption is I want credit and second (actually second should be first) I might actually produce some masterpiece. For simplicity (I love it), lets assume that both of the assumptions are true. What happens if you are not given due credit for your masterpiece? Me, I am just a mortal human being with all the feelings that intellectuals talk about, I would get hurt (to put it simply). And second I would not be given more work which I am sure I can do as good as anyone else (or may be better too).
Authority - no, credit - no, whats next? I think third worst thing about being a jack of all trades lies in the later part of maxim … jack of all trades but master of none. This one is more personal than the first two. I would not be very comfortable with a lot of things if I see gray matter. There should be two end to a point. You know it or you don't know it. If you are jack of all trades, there is a higher probability that you won't know it. There is still a chance that you might know it all and this is the place where I am trying to reach ... !
3 comments:
omygawd!
:p
I think your views are apt ... jack of all trades and master of none ... and being master is not really about being called so by others but also about u urself feeling so ... do u ? eom
Continuing canary expression (as I happen to know who that person is) omygawd! :p
Would prefer to differ... when you are a jack of all trades and reasonably good in all and exceptionally good in a few, maybe even one, you tend to be a master. You come to be acknowledged as a master of all trades, whose views are valued by the people (read crowd). And obviously you tend to be one... without being one! Only thing is the discovery by the people (read crowd) that you are reasonably good in all trades… might take a little time ;-).
Hope you are getting what I am trying to put across....!
Raj
www.ichp.in
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