Embracing my polymath identity
It’s a wearisome struggle to be myself. To be who I am requires that I must constantly fit my octagonal personality into the square holes the world affords. In the past year I’ve begun to reconcile that my path will not lead to expertise. I will never be an expert by any measurement, for I am incapable of remaining entirely in one field for 10,000 hours. Perhaps all my interests will converge in expertise across many domains around my eightieth birthday, but not before.
Salman describes the polymath in the same way I’ve understood a “renaissance man.” A person who is adept in many circumstances but not specialized in any. I remember that a renaissance man was favorably viewed in school, but no one talked about the grating effort to be one in our society. Perhaps it’s because those renaissance men were independently wealthy? He fills out the quote I’ve heard so often,
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A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.
Salman’s experience echoes my own:
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One of the strange things about having multiple pursuits is that you never quite fit into social groups. I remember joining an iOS developers group where most of the members had been doing iOS development for more than a decade. Meanwhile, I had worked on countless platforms, in different roles across a variety of industries. We may have been in the same group, but we had lived completely different lives. It was hard to relate.
Ironically, the moment I started to feel like I was finally getting settled in a group, I’d get bored! I’d feel an urge to explore something new, or try a different angle. That’s the blessing and the curse of the polymath lifestyle. You’re always exploring, and rarely settling.
I write software, but not as skillfully as those younger than I who have no other consuming passion. And those burgeoning experts don’t know what it’s like to live on an Army base in Afghanistan, learn ancient Greek, or complete a 100-page MBA thesis. They don’t spend sleepless nights building systems for wide-spread Christian revival or read about sociology, theology, and general relativity. So when I’m among my work colleagues, most of myself is hidden in shadow. But also in my Church community and family too.
It is a growing realization that to be myself is to be known by God alone. Just like the apostolic gift.
Developing a Point of View
Tom Critchlow posits that, for the entrepreneurial polymath, generalization is essential. Many who go into consulting follow the popular advice to specialize, but it’s a painful experience that puts them back into the same kind of box they were trying to escape from when they entered private consulting.
If you’re not a specialist, it can be impossible to communicate what it is that you DO. Tom suggests that the generalist markets, not a set of tools that can be applied to defined projects, but a point of view that gives them a unique vibe.