Monday, October 10, 2011

Jack of all trades...

but a master of none, they say.  That's bogus.

There is something to be said for spreading ourselves too thinly, such that we're never able to develop any meaningful understanding of anything.

I have seen too many specialists, however, that in the narrowness of their expertise are unable to really do great things.  I think that no longer does excellence come from knowing one thing well, but rather from being able to synthesize something different from a wide variety of sources.

I spread my studies in college.  I did not maintain a singular focus.  I saw econ majors not understand the value of individual people and what they needed to understand to make our society work correctly.  I saw policy analysts not understand the intricacies of markets or personal interaction.  I saw educators not know how to scale their new ideas into the next world-changing ventures.

Do your trade.  Become an expert at it.  But I have not ever seen a reality in our world that can be seen through a single lens, or a problem that can be solved with a single-faceted solution.

It's all connected.  Why don't we practice making the connections?

No comments:

Post a Comment