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Mixed feelings on this one.On one side, if you want to become really good at something,I think those 10k hours are quite accurate.The problem is, our society ru

Mixed feelings on this one.On one side, if you want to become really good at something,I think those 10k hours are quite accurate.The problem is, our society runs on the basis that there's 0.1-1% of people that are extremely good at something and the rest are just average. I'm 34 and I did some crazy variety of jobs: construction, plumbing, advertising, translation, project management, operations management, development.Did I become really good at any of it? No,but I was good enough to be able to do those jobs. I'm getting better at programming, however it'd take another 5 years or so before I could say I'm really great at it. Such a variety of jobs and industries gave me a very interesting perspective to business which I would have never had if I only had one job,no matter which one.

lethologica 7y ago
I’m in a very similar boat. I’ve served in the military, been a tiler, been a developer, worked in customer service, been in finance for a large bank been a student many times over. There have been many times though where a general practice/skill/thought process from one industry has solved a problem in another. I’m a similar age to you and at one point I had considered myself a “jack of all trades, master of none” and that really bugged me. But now I’m glad for it. I find my thinking doesn’t get too tunnel visioned because of it. It also took a while to shake the stigma of not “specializing” enough. I ran across a quite a while back though that really struck a cord with me: “A 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, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
- cosmodisk 7y ago
  I quite like that phrase tbh! The thing is that I've met some people in my life who only did office jobs and they know nothing if it's not on a computer. People don't know how to put a nail in a wall or how to assemble a simple IKEA shelve. They get so surprised when you tell them some basic stuff that you'd think anyone should know at their age. Sometimes it gets so bad that you can't find words to describe it.

lethologica 7y ago

I’m in a very similar boat. I’ve served in the military, been a tiler, been a developer, worked in customer service, been in finance for a large bank been a student many times over. There have been many times though where a general practice/skill/thought process from one industry has solved a problem in another. I’m a similar age to you and at one point I had considered myself a “jack of all trades, master of none” and that really bugged me. But now I’m glad for it. I find my thinking doesn’t get too tunnel visioned because of it. It also took a while to shake the stigma of not “specializing” enough. I ran across a quite a while back though that really struck a cord with me: “A 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, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”

cosmodisk 7y ago
I quite like that phrase tbh! The thing is that I've met some people in my life who only did office jobs and they know nothing if it's not on a computer. People don't know how to put a nail in a wall or how to assemble a simple IKEA shelve. They get so surprised when you tell them some basic stuff that you'd think anyone should know at their age. Sometimes it gets so bad that you can't find words to describe it.