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Master Of Nothing

'Partly by design and partly happenstance, I do happen to be a Jack of All Trades professionally. By extension it must imply (to most people at least) that I am the master of none. Being a generalist has for the most part worked out for me, but I do find it hard to slot my resume into the specific cubbyhole of a "job description". That said, it was nice to read this take on the virtues of being a Jack of All Trades. Could not agree more with Tim Ferriss when he says :

The jack of all trades maximizes his number of peak experiences in life and learns to enjoy the pursuit of excellence unrelated to material gain, all while finding the few things he is truly uniquely suited to dominate.

I have stumbled on to the most interesting and valuable work experiences by taking on projects that were underfunded or not all in my spare cycles. There was no material gain from any of them - though some peer appreciation resulted at times. Between my "real" job and all these other things that I picked along the way, at some point I was able to discern my real strengths and inclinations. That learning is important and stood me in good stead. While I don't claim mastery over any subject area but dabbling in a bunch of things did not come in the way of acquiring it.
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