Jack Of All What?
There is a figure of speech that goes, Jack of all trades, master of none. Therefore, there’s this connotation that if you’re skilled or knowledgeable in too many things, you tend to have no mastery of any single specialization. Jack of all trades, indeed- your knowledge has a wide scope, but you can only be average (or even mediocre) at best.
This kind of mentality has led to the traditional principles of education that one would eventually have to specialize in order to get a decent means of living. For instance, there was a time in this world when people had to have degrees in specific fields of study in order to advance in one’s career. After getting a bachelor’s degree, you go on for a Master’s degree. And then a doctorate after that. In this information age, the same is still true. But the competitive environment, and the changing measures of capability may no longer necessitate much specialization, but having a wide array of skills and a sense of over-all goodness.
But wait! There’s more to it!
We haven’t cited the saying completely, yet. It’s supposed to read, in full:
Jack of all trades, master of none, though ofttimes better than master of one.
This means, among other things, that having a good grasp of the bigger picture is generally better than just being focused on one thing. It’s just like how you should go first to your general practicioner when you feel ill. If you’re feeling a pain in your abdomen and you visit a neurologist, he’d probably ask you to go through some tests to see whether your brain’s pain receptors for the abdominal area are too sensitive (or are these in the spinal cord?).
And it’s just like how the manager gets to make the decisions, even if the technical, marketing, and administrative personnel in a company each have their own suggestions on how to improve bottomline. He has an overall grasp of what’s happening.
Okay, these are probably crummy analogies, but I hope you get the point.
Master of Some
You probably notice that we’ve added “and master of some” to our Jack of All Blogs header. We don’t claim to know everything (well, we used to, but that’s all in the past). But we hope that with each contributor’s respective personality and expertise, we can give you the best of what the blogosphere has to offer. We’re not master of all, but we’re master of some. And we’re quite confident that the some things we’re master of are those that matter most.
I want to go throw myself off a cliff. You have offiicially ruined the site forever.
Celebrity Cowboy said this on September 20, 2006 4:09 pm
Keep up the good work lads—this blog is way better than it ever was! I’ve been luvin’ the recent posts—some brilliant stuff—don’t let the snarky kids pull you back down.
Paul Graham said this on September 20, 2006 7:14 pm
Mark- as someone who knows your resources and is more interested in following your career than this blog, I have a question: Why the f… do you let this “celebrity cowboy” twat get away with shit? If it was me I’d take the geezer out for a walk in the park if you know what I mean. Just say the word mate!
Rob Faulkner said this on September 20, 2006 10:10 pm
Good to hear from you, Robbo! Weird…I had no idea that you even knew about this blog and how come you have the time to comment and not bloody well email me? Anyway…don’t worry about this cowboy character- he’s a harmless wind-up merchant and is entitled to his opinions. I see you’re still deluded with mafia fantasies; some things never change! Oh & cheers for that, Paul.
Mosey said this on September 20, 2006 11:54 pm
Ugh.
Where’s the real snark?
matt
Matt Craven said this on September 21, 2006 11:23 am
Some people just can’t see past their own schemes. . .
DreadPirateYarr said this on September 21, 2006 4:55 pm
Throwing stones out of glass houses. It’s quite funny, really. DPY- I have a challenge for you (or anybody else)-: go to biziki.com and see if you can find one iota of sense out of all the drivel written there. If you can, I’ll send you any book of your choice via amazon worth up to a hundred bucks.
Mosey said this on September 21, 2006 7:15 pm
Okay, contest closed!! It seems that they’re stuck with the genius “bryboy” and we’ll just have to keep beating ourselves up, illiterate idiots that we are!
Mosey said this on September 23, 2006 2:06 pm
You’d win anyway; I have tutored remedial English students with better grammatical and rhetorical skills.
It reminds me of an article I read in, of all places, Readers Digest—pirate’s edition, of course, with bloody nicks in the pages. Anyway, the article covered a sensible idea called the competence theory. Ever hear karaoke singers who are convinced they’re the next Whitney Houston, but who hurt the cat’s ears? (That would include me.)
The theory goes that a person has to be of a minimum competence to even be able to judge whether they are competent. It requires minimal insight and, okay, wisdom to be able to recognize whether you have any at all.
How many bloggers on the net fall under that minimal competence level for ideas, design skill, and writing ability?
Wait, don’t answer that. Too ugly.
DreadPirateYarr said this on September 24, 2006 6:55 am