Just doin stuff
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I like this, it is deep without trying too hard.
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I do this too often lol, but I'm going to leave Range by David Epstein here as a decent read on the subject.
He partly frames it as a direct criticism of Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, but Gladwell goes pretty overboard on what the research says. (For the actual science, Peak is your alternative. K Anders Ericsson was involved with the actual research and doesn't take liberties and wildly over-generalize what it says.)
Anyways, the highly specialized and the broad knowledge base viewpoints aren't incompatible. Both have value.
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Not enough time and money for all of my hobbies and interests. Gotta come up with a way to earn money but not have to work.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
Okay this is actually what makes humans amazing. Btw the malört and Marx is talking now.
I feel like we are sold this idea to be purely a specialist because... It's easy to know that your tool does one thing and one thing well. It really is a mindset that benefits a capitalist that a worker is good for one thing. How many jobs have you been in that you felt never utilized your potential? That you had so many skills that weren't being utilized?
Marx characterized humans as being creative and diverse. We are amazing Swiss army knives, but so often our companies ask us to only be a screwdriver or a bottle opener.
Sadly if you are reading this thinking "I'm only good at one thing" it's not true and it's not your fault. You've been sold an idea that you bought into, and it may have even been beneficial financially. How many people are making $350k to turn a button blue and move it left 3 pixels? Our system rewards people when they are able to be tools for a specific purpose.
Oddly enough Marx predicted that the country most likely to be communist would be the United States. He actually really liked Americans, we were farmers in the morning, artists in the evening, and philosophers at night. We had overthrown the aristocracy, so it just made sense we would be the first to overthrow the Bourgeois class.
Turns out Marx couldn't predict everything
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
Hobbies are one thing, you don't need to be good at them to enjoy them, but being incredibly good at one specific thing tends to pay far better than mediocre at a lot of things.
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If I had all those skills, I would also try to climb up and look at butt mountain.
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I'm in this picture and I'm loving it
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Yes, it's important to skill stack in order to remain competi.... Hey where are you going! No you're not allow up there to live your own life and develop as you please! Get back down here to compete against others just like you!
....and whatever you do, don't form collective sympathies for each other, against your economic "betters".
That would risk a general strike.
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nickwitha_k (he/him)replied to [email protected] last edited by
It's not all it's cracked up to be.
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Have hobbies. Seriously, that's it. Stink at playing guitar or learning a foreign language like I do, but do it anyway.
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Jack of all trades, master of none, yet better than the master of one
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A jack of all trades
and master of none,
is often more useful
than a master of one.A lot of people forget the second half of this old aphorism.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
Me, too.
However I am finding it hard to get a job. I got laid off in September. Employers want a square peg for a square hole. "Cisco engineer", for example. I know enough to get around Cisco, Fortigate and a few others. And project management. And servers. And a dozen other technologies. With 20+ years experience. But I don't find anyone paying enough for someone with a diverse skill set.
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Jack off all trades and master a nun, yet better than masterbering just one
pretty sure that's how it goes
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Perfect is the enemy of Skill, that's great!
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
You don't need to be incredibly good at something either.
Often it's just being who they think about when they want something done. Be the person they know they can turn to or the only person that can do it and that's just as useful.
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It's tangential, but I often struggle to start things unless I can do it perfectly.
I have to remind myself "done is better than perfect".
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
That's more the fault of the company than you. We are at a point where companies don't want to "waste money" waiting for a great employee to train up on their system and want drop in place cogs or to go for someone way cheaper abroad. My company is asking to only hire people that know our proprietary software or we hire people in the Philippines that aren't even trained.
Don't mistake the malice of the owning class as a personal failure for being multivaried, you would never be perfect in their eyes so don't look at yourself through their lens.
Luck and networking is what gets people jobs these days.
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[email protected]replied to [email protected] last edited by
And done 5 times is better every time, more or less.
