Jack of many trades, master of none.

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Nearly everyone of us has a few specific things we concentrate our efforts and interests on. And myself, I gues I'm no different. But when it comes to wanting to know and learn things, I'm kind of like a sponge (something my Aspie Dad also says). I love knowing everything. Well, a little bit of everything. That's why I named the topic "Jack of many trades, master of none." I dearly love knowing everything I can wrap my brain around. I'm really not an expert on any one subject but I'm always learning everything I can. Always.

I used to work at this pizza joint. One of the employees there was a seemingly learned young man. He was smart, bright and talented. He was going to college. Played the guitar and was in a band. And most likely still is. But he had this air of superiority about him. Like he was from a more privledged upbringing than others. As if he came from better stock. As if he took comfort in the fact he was smarter than everyone else. While me, a college dropout.

This guy would always come to work with a book in his hand. If not a manual or text book then at least a novel. For the longest time I enjoyed talking to him because he knew a lot of things. He and always knew what we were talking about. But I never pressed the kind of information I knew. Always embarrassed and fearful that everyone knew so much more than me. But eventually over time I came to realize that I actually did know more than this fellow. Now everyone knows more about math than me since I have dyscalculia. But I know a little bit about a lot of topics.

So I started to realize that this guy kept getting his facts wrong in little places. Odd places. Just bits and pieces of things he didn't have quite complete. I never pressed how much (or how less!) I knew. I just never played my cards so to speak.

And one day I just couldn't stay on the wings of every conversation. So I stopped holding back what I knew. And I decided to start going toe to toe with him, knowledge wise. Over time I noticed that he grew to become agitated with me a bit. I statrted noticing that if I ever corrected him or filled him in on things he didn't know, he would basiclly act as if I had insulted him. I can remember one evening he was talking about his band. I told him that I knew a few licks myself since I play the guitar myself, just for fun. I play acoustic where as this guy was a metal head. Which was always a little strange since he looked like some wirey thin kid you'd expect to play in a Lacrosse league somewhere. So I brought my guitar to work one day and started playing the regular folksy stuff i usually play. And I swear he acted smug abourt the fact that this little country bumkin could play as I did. Which isn't the greatest but I have recieved many compliments.

Another occasion was when we were talking about a Chuck Palahniuk novel. I came to realize he (supposedly) a big Palahniuk fan himself. So I would talk incessantly about his books. These were the days befor I knew about AS. Otherwise I wouldn't have blatered on so much. And one day we were talking about one of Chuck's books and I began to realize that he didn't know half the details he claimed to have known. so I would kind of quiz him about some things in some of Chick's books. And half the time he wold fail my little impromtu quizzes. Then just to test me to see if I really knew as much as I thought I did, he quizzed me about how one book in particular ended. So I gave him the whole spill. The whole ending. And I swear he almost acted pissed off that I knew the whole ending perctly. I couldn't tell if he really didn't know the ending himself or the fact that when it came to Chuck Palanhiuk novels I knew more than he did.

The same thing kind of happened to another employee at that pizza place. He was taling about cars one day and was mentioning some of the most expensive cars in the world and I threw in something like "Yeah, like the McLaren F1, huh?" And this guys eyes almost popped out of his head. He said "I'm kind of surprised! I didn't even know you knew anything about cars!" And I told him I knew a little about a lot of stuff but not a whole lot of everything.

Hench, the title of this thread.

Interesting.

I have always wondered if folks think I'm a 'know-it-all' because I also seem to have bits of information on such a wide variety of topics.

Part of that comes from having over 40 jobs in my llife, many of which were completely different from the others.

Part of it is that I like to look at books and magazines I have never seen before.
The post office trash is a great place to find interesting stuff... especially since it pretty much just mail and not other garbage.

I have found trade publications for occupations I normally would never be around. I don't learn a whole lot from reading this stuff, but sometimes I get the gist of what the industry is about, or what types of machinery they use, terms specific to that world, etc.

I've never challenged folks on their knowledge, but I have corrected folks with stuff I know they have gotten wrong and thinking that way sets a bad precedent.

i used to carry my baseball cards to work. naturally i had to share them with my employeees

I used to work with someone like this, but he was a butt-hole. I think he used to read half an article or something, and make up the rest. He has to be 50, I am 25. We were listening to the radio at work, and a song comes on. It was White Room or Crossroads by Cream, and he is there going, "oh, this is Fleetwood Mac". I said, "no it is not, it is Cream". So he said "you can't know anything about Cream". My reply was, "Jack Bruce on bass, Ginger baker on drums, Eric Clapton on guitar. They formed the first supergroup, and lasted only two years. Oh, and they reformed for a short time last year. Now excuse me, I am busy".

Just because I was born after something happened, it does not mean that I know nothing about it. I used to be obsessed with 60s music, something that still interests me, especially now that iTunes helps to bring odd tracks back to life.

The 60's was a great era in music history!

The same guy who was surprised about my Mclaren F1 comment was also surprised when I could match is knowledge about the supergroup KISS. I'm not a particularly devoted KISS fan, just that they were really, really, really big when I was a kid. And I spent my early life with KISS on every station.

But so many people get a lot of facts half way right. And every time they do I really have to struggle to look for a time and a place to correct them without looking like a jerk trying to step in their feet. I hate people trying to spread half baked hearsay off as as real information.

>.<

I know how you must feel, I have knowledge an inch deep, and a mile wide.

Although I like learning about new stuff... it's frustrating that I can't stick to just a few things like other people.
Like music, for example... I can't just play one instrument... have to have a dozen different things to play and if I would only stick with the couple that I am best with - Fiddle and Guitar - then I could be so much better.

Jobs - Instead of having 40 jobs from age 18 to 47, most of them different from each other, I long for a life of one job that I could be 'the expert' in and by now I would have been able to retire if I had.
Instead, I am on yet another career change which won't be done before I'm 50, so I'll be starting all over again.

Yeah.. it's kinda fun to 'know a lot of stuff', but there are times I wish I could be a bit less scattered in my life.

I know the Internationale in about 10 languages but can only speak one of them

Doing takes a wide field of knowledge. Trouble is I got the wrong set.

I start to do something that sounds simple, then find it crosses three expert fields, and there is no overlap map. Months are spent to find one substrate, one ink, and one adhisive that will work together. Then there is the process of how all that goes together.

I needed an injection mold, $100,000 from six suppliers, then several at $50,000. I learned something of the field, got bids of $25,000, learned about 7075 Aluminum, CNC machining centers, DME mold hardware, ejector pins, designed a mold, and got a bid of $3600. Once I learned the industry, it was a $3500 to $5000 job.

Our general ability to learn, including later in life, and to find current practice in industry, is very useful.

Before doing and task orentied learning, I learned whatever interested me at the time. I have a lot of outdated useless information.

Task oriented was just as interesting, it is learning that spins my brain, not the subject.

Markets, Suppliers, Customers, pays the bills.

It is a great skill when tamed and trained.

Inventor, thanks for sharing your insights, I'd never thought of things that way before, but find your ideas very thought provoking.

I complain about this all the time.

Throughout school I was equally good at pretty much everything (apart from PE and food tech). The only thing I thought I was especially good at was Maths, but I soon found out that the more abstract mathematics flew right over my head.

Then at college I was equally good at Philosophy, Psychology and English Literature. I eventually plumped for Psychology because I thought it the most general in terms of jobs.

I recently qualified as a primary teacher, as it's pretty perfect for someone who's pretty good but not brilliant at everything. Unfortunately, I soon found out that schools want specialists. They don't want someone who can play a bit of piano, who can use computers well but can't fix problems, who has pretty good basic grammar but isn't an expert by any means.

So I've already given up on teaching as I couldn't get a job. I feel like I'd quite like to just keep learning things and keep trying out different jobs.

My dream job would be an "odd job man", or woman I guess. It doesn't sound right though. I'd love to be able to learn some more hands-on skills like carpentry, plumbing and electrics. I'd live in a little village and I'd do something different every day. A bit of teaching here, a bit of CBT there, a bit of painting for Mrs Smith and some gardening for Mr Brown.

It seems like the world doesn't work that way though. They want everyone to specialise and stick with it. But specialising means university and university means money.

I'm rambling. Glad to know I'm not the only one though.