There's a site called https://puttylike.com/ that calls it a "multipotentialite" and in the gal's Ted talk she makes us out to be victims. That, I don't like- but I do like the premise of most of what she's saying otherwise. Being a generalist only means you get to explore whatever's fancy today, and because you've defined yourself as eternally undefined, nobody generally cares.
The Polymath Playbook
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Re: The Polymath Playbook
#12You’ve likely heard the saying: “A jack of all trades is a master of none.” It warns against the futility of pursuing too many disciplines. Be a specialist, or you’ll be nothing. It may surprise you to learn there’s actually an extended version: “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” With a subtle addition, its meaning becomes inverted to tout the benefits of being a p…
Please make it clear that you’re quoting the piece. Your entire comment is a literal copy/paste of the first few paragraphs.
Apologies, will definitely do that in future submissions!
Re: The Polymath Playbook
#13A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. — Robert Heinlein, Ti…
+1 if you remove the "butcher a hog" part from above!
Re: The Polymath Playbook
#14Software development is an interesting field in that it is a lot less specialized than others. It's pretty easy to bounce around doing completely different work at each job. So far the field has resisted any sort of assembly line model and I hope it remains that way. Some essay I read likened it to classic gunsmiths: the tolerance is so tight, that a single craftsmen was responsible for every part of the gun. The same is true for programming: you can't just take a bunch of different libraries and "assemble" them together. And if you try, the quality of the final product will undoubtedly be poor. I'm looking at you, simple websites that take the entire memory space of 200 Commodore 64 computers put together!
Re: The Polymath Playbook
#15A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. — Robert Heinlein, Ti…
+1 if you remove the "butcher a hog" part from above!
how is this relevant to the topic?
Re: The Polymath Playbook
#16A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects. — Robert Heinlein, Ti…
+1 if you remove the "butcher a hog" part from above!
only if you are vegetarian, otherwise you should be aware how the meat arrived on your table.
Re: The Polymath Playbook
#17Software development is an interesting field in that it is a lot less specialized than others. It's pretty easy to bounce around doing completely different work at each job. So far the field has resisted any sort of assembly line model and I hope it remains that way. Some essay I read likened it to classic gunsmiths: the tolerance is so tight, that a single craftsmen was responsible for every part of the gun. The sam…
> So far the field has resisted any sort of assembly line model
Are you sure? I mostly agree with this statement, however things like scrum/devops and frameworks seems to be pushing in that direction in my opinion
Re: The Polymath Playbook
#18Interesting read, would say a lot of good product managers have polymath traits... Software design, understand how to sell , commercial, legal, marketing...
Re: The Polymath Playbook
#19There's a site called https://puttylike.com/ that calls it a "multipotentialite" and in the gal's Ted talk she makes us out to be victims. That, I don't like- but I do like the premise of most of what she's saying otherwise. Being a generalist only means you get to explore whatever's fancy today, and because you've defined yourself as eternally undefined, nobody generally cares.
victims of what?
Re: The Polymath Playbook
#20Interesting read, would say a lot of good product managers have polymath traits... Software design, understand how to sell , commercial, legal, marketing...
I've always considered myself a jack of all trades and made the switch to product management after being a designer for the last decade.
The switch felt almost fully natural, and I noticed that I have a very obvious significant leg up from most of my peers, I'm easily 3-4x more productive while working at the same pace as everyone.