Putting Thoughts Down on Paper

[Gosco]

This is an Off Topic post. This isn't meant to mean anything and it isn't meant to move anyone. I just want to put my thoughts down. Truthfully, I don't even care if anyone reads. I'm just throwing my words out into the world wide web.

I am a true Jack of All Trades.

A Jack of All Trades in the traditional sense is someone who has skills in many areas of work but never rises above average in any field.

I am a Jack of more than just Trades. I am a Jack of all Personalities. I am a Jack of all Emotions. I am a Jack of all Experiences. I am a Jack of all Occupations. I am a Jack of all Types of Friends. I am a Jack of all Trying.

I have worked many different types of jobs. Whether they were little jobs here and there for friends and family or careers to make a buck off of. And like a Jack of all Trades, I take in experience from each job. I'm mechanically apt. I'm very good with computer on the user level and some in the machine level and even the in between. I have experience in customer service and I'm very friendly with people I don't know. I feel I'm good at creating an instant relationship with someone I've only just met. I have experience problem solving. I can keep going but I think you get the idea. I take in experience with everything but I haven't pursued one type of experience.

I have taken in many different types of friends. From Innter City to Outter Farmland. What I find is that if you are willing to take in someone personality, you can become friends. When you try to find someone who is simply compatible with your personality then the talk is rigid. Adapt and Evolve. It broadens you.

I've had the range of emotions. From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows. From the types of feelings that make you want to just tell everyone and see everyone as a potential change in your life to the emotions that you want to destroy the source of, even if it's your own brain.

So, why this introduction? What I've found out about myself is that if you take in a little of everything you become very rounded. Someone who is great to give advice to friends and someone who is great at solving arguments. You see both sides to everything. The people that are extreme on each side called that waffling and indecisive but it truly isn't. It's the ability to believe the other side even if you don't agree with it. You can be the one to find middle grounds because you are willing to give ground on either side.

It is unsatisfying. When you are only a little good at everything you can't be great at one thing. And being great at one thing is what drives me . I'm an Aeries. I drive forward even when my body tells me not to because I have to. I want to be great at something because I know that if I'm given the chance I will be more than great. But no one sees a Jack of all Trades as someone who just needs guidance. They see someone as a waffler. As a risk. Why take a risk? Guidance is what every single soul on this planet needs. Some of us pick a path and walk down it unrelentingly, even if we decide half way through that we don't want to do it, we keep the path. Well just because us Jacks didn't walk the same path doesn't mean we can't find our own way to the end of your road.  We bob and weave. We experience. Your path is a straight line. Ours is an S. We may take longer but let me tell you something.

All of the great inventors, entrepreneurs, beginners, and the changers are Jacks.

It is because we can take an experience from one road and bring it into another that we see things you couldn't ever.

Lawyers teach lawyers how to practice law. Teachers teach teachers. And soon that road that they are on is narrow and they walk it in a straight line. When a Jack comes along, they bring their road and open up a new possibility.

If you are an employer or a teacher or someone with any kind of power or leadership over others, just remember. Jacks change the world. Let them come into the road on their own weird looking path.  Don't toss them aside because you think they can't focus. They can.

They need your guidance.

Jacks change the world. They just need someone to point where they are going. They'll find the way there.

[Izzie Aditi]

Honestly, I have nothing to add to this besides Amen. Amen, amen, amen. For years I have felt inadequate for being average at so many things, instead of great at one thing. I've done illustration, creative writing, copywriting, dancing, programming, strategy for an advertising agency, academic research and writing, website building, PR..and I'm only in my early twenties.

All my life, I have been surrounded by people who have one great skill, people who urged me to "just pick one thing". I can't, my life would feel incomplete. Jobs always feel limited in a way, only being able to do one thing for a long time bores me to tears. I have however -no exceptions- once I was hired always heard "damn, you can do a lot".

I could repeat here exactly what you wrote about friends, about jobs, about needing guidance..but I won't. I just wanted to let you know that I read it and I could've written it myself, had I been able to find the words suitable to express how I feel. And..I'm an Aries too, coincidence?       

[Beguile's Mistress]

Even a moderate talent is an accomplishment but the acquisition of several or a repertoire of talents and abilities is even better.  I'd prefer to know someone who knows a little about a lot of things and admits to wanting to know more than someone who knows a lot about one thing and limits themselves because they can't see beyond that.

[Neroon]

There are situations where specialists are better than generalists; I really would prefer having a cardiac specialist to perform open heart sugery, if I needed it, than a general surgeon, for example.  However, in other cases, generalists are better.  Certainly, polymaths are always fascinating conversationalists and have the ability to link things and produce new ideas.

For that reason, I've always encouraged the generalists in my classes.  That and because I'm a generalist too.

[Shjade]

It was a reasonably interesting read up until I got to this line:

All of the great inventors, entrepreneurs, beginners, and the changers are Jacks.

That's self-defeating. If these "Jacks" were "great" inventors, entrepreneurs, or, well, anything, then by definition they weren't Jacks. The whole definition of a Jack of all Trades is that one isn't great at anything; they're good at a lot of things. So if you're a great inventor, you're not just a good inventor, are you? You might have other lesser talents, but you're still a great inventor, not a jack of all trades. You're a jack of many trades and you're great at (at least) one.

It's a nice idea, but misguided.

[Beguile's Mistress]

I would think a great inventor is one who can take the knowledge of many things and use that to find new ways to make all the knowledge work.  Even a person who can recognize his own limitations and fill in those gaps with specialized knowledge/training from others can be a great inventor.

Henry Ford is credited with inventing the assembly line method of manufacturing.  He didn't need to know more than the basics of the processes involved to develop one of the most world changing concepts ever inflicted on given to man.

Look at Thomas Edison.  The number of patents held in his name is mind boggling. 

[Gosco]

To be fair, I never said that a Jack cound NOT be great. I said traditionally a Jack of all trades is seen as someone who won't be great.

[Shjade]

You didn't have to say it; it's part of the title. A jack of all trades can do a lot of things well, but isn't top-tier at any of them. You don't make world-first scientifically progressive inventions if you're not at the top of your field, generally speaking.

[Gosco]

I simply disagree.