A Jack of All Trades, Master of None.

"A jack of all trades, master of none."

According to the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins:
The 'jack of all trades' part of the phrase was in common use during the 1600s and was generally used as a term of praise. Later the 'master of none' was added and the expression ceased to be very flattering. Today, the phrase used in its entirety generally describes a person whose knowledge, while covering a number of areas, is superficial in all of them.

It is interesting how this phrase has changed just like we have. Leonardo Di Vinci was a painter, mathematician, inventor, sculptor, and biologist. He was absolutely a jack of all trades also known as a renaissance man. This was a positive affixation, so how did ‘master of none’ get tacked on? Well we kept learning and specializing and learning and specializing. The amount of knowledge has increased exponentially. Technology went from being understandable, 200 years ago I could know nothing about agriculture but if you showed me a cotton gin I could understand how it works, to being something that takes years/decades of studying to grasp, imagine trying to understand how a TV works just by looking at it (and the television set isn’t a recent invention).

Specialization took over; it was the only way to progress there was too much knowledge for any single person. If I want to get my taxes done by an accountant did I want the accountant who was also a good sculptor or did I want the one who I knew spent every waking minute trying to understand tax codes and laws? Specialists ruled the day. To compete with specialists a generalist needed to decide what they wanted to do and focus on that.

The funny thing is I believe we are coming full circle, as knowledge continues to increase, more and more specialization occurs. These compartments are getting smaller and smaller to the point where none of them can stand on their own, which makes someone who understands all the compartments (albeit, not as deeply as the specialists) and how they fit and work together very important. There is a rarely used second half of this quote (according to Wikipedia) that is “A jack of all trades but master of none is better than a master of one”. I think it is time to adopt the full quote to reflect the progress we have made.

I think a good example of this is the medical profession. Someone who was only a doctor was preferred to someone who was a doctor among many other things. Especially as the amount of knowledge in the field increased. However, as the amount of knowledge increased more and more just being a doctor wasn’t good enough, more specialization occurred so now there are brain surgeons, cancer specialists, people who only deal with kidneys all these different small compartments. It would be foolish to hire any because what happens if I have a stroke but my doctor is a kidney specialist. What is needed are doctors that have a good understanding of everything. Then if the problem is beyond their understanding they can refer you to a specialist.

As a coach, I try to understand many topics, but obviously I can’t focus on only one. I spend a lot of time researching sports nutrition but not enough to create my own protein bar. I spend a lot of time looking at sports psychology, I can recognize warning signs of over training and understand why positive reinforcement works better than punishment, but I can’t counsel someone who is having emotional issues. I can understand why ice is good to use immediately after an injury but I can’t re-set a dislocated shoulder. Despite the negative connotations I have always been drawn to the idea of being a 'Jack of all trades'. In college during my undergrad I recieved a dual degree in Physics and Economics, I then went back to school and got a master's degree in kinesiology.

In my continued attempt to become a generalist I am creating a blog which I will use as a journal. I find myself going through all this research on all these topics and not enough of it sticking that I had hoped so I am planning on using the journal as a chance to write down my thoughts on different news articles, research studies, books and experiences that I have. Forcing myself to write down my thoughts serving the dual purpose of 1) forcing me to have a thought 2) forcing me to consider the implications of the thought since I am posting it in a public forum. Basically it is my way of digesting all this information out there, hence the title: My Brain’s Colon.