be a generalist

Don't pick something -- pick everything

If you're gonna be something, be a generalist.

Specialization. Nuance. Idiosyncrasy. Expertise. I think these are all great things, but they aren't things for me, because I’ve found that I am at my best—and my happiest—when I get to put my hands on a lot of different things in a real way.

I don't want to ADD my way from one thing to the next without putting some honest work into a project, but I do want to move from one thing to another, and then another. I want to be just as useful when the water heater stops working as when the car needs a new AC compressor, or when the horses need a lean-to built for some shade in the summer.

Now, the goal is not to be an expert, as I've said, but to be able to start and finish the low-hanging fruit. This isn't, I've found, as much about having the knowledge to work a problem as it is about being willing to work the problem.

Some things will always be a black box of mystery because the knowledge to work on them is so specialized, erudite, or expensive as to prohibit all but a few from really digging into their inner workings. But the rest—the vast majority of things—can be accessed by anyone who merely has the requisite amount of gumption to ask some basic questions when it's busted.

Gumption is really the key. And that's just a mindset, really. Or maybe a resource.

It's your ability, when you're knee-deep in a problem and you smash your finger in a really bad way, to say your swear words and then keep wrenching on the problem. Gumption can be fleeting, and you've got to understand some things about yourself before you agree to let yourself work on a particular problem. Sometimes the best use of Gumption is to not use it at all, but to take it and store it away for another day when the little you have will have been replenished. Or, if that's not an option, to go slow and aggressively ration what you've got so that it will stretch at least to a reasonable stopping point.

I like the people who are sages on a topic. People I can call up when things are going wrong or busted for me, and I can pick their brain. But I'm not the one who can get to that point.

At best in life, I think I can be a generalist. I hope a  good one, but a generalist nonetheless. 

My goal is not to master, but to wrangle.