What If You Have Many Different Interests and Cannot Commit to Any of Them? (Blog)

[Savage]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

What If You Have Many Different Interests and Cannot Commit to Any of Them?

[Bradshaw]

So fast! You're really in the mood for writing this week.

[rodrigo]

Great post, Steve. Thank you very much, that one came at the perfectly right moment. I've been strugling with my many-interests-life for a while.

Now I leave you all a question.

There is a saying I hear sometimes (specially from people on my current field, Computer Science as well). It is something like this:

"Be careful not to become a duck. Ducks can fly, swim and walk. But they fly badly, swim badly and walk badly."

I guess that it basically means that if you wonder around too much, not focusing on anything, you may end up doing nothing more than mediocre in each field.

I kinda feel bad about knowing how to do lots of stuff, but only being good in a few (and even being good at them, I know many people that are better than me in each one). Maybe it's a mistaken view, don't know.

What do you guys and gals think about that?

[Dan.Linehan]

It's like this article was written for me! Thanks Steve!


Now to get started on that Quake server and LGBT music site.

[Sentient]

All the posts you've made this week have been incredible. Thank you so much for sharing these stories with us.

[wulph]

Originally Posted by rodrigo

I kinda feel bad about knowing how to do lots of stuff, but only being good in a few (and even being good at them, I know many people that are better than me in each one). Maybe it's a mistaken view, don't know.

What do you guys and gals think about that?

Don't underestimate the value of being a Generalist. Being mediocre-to-good at several things allows you the opportunity to combine fields in ways that specialists wouldn't think of.

You can always find experts willing to sell you their knowledge (or even give it away for "professional credit"). The key strength of the generalist is knowing which expert is required, if any. For example, if you know several programming languages, you are well-suited to deciding which technology would work best for a given project. Perhaps you would serve better as a System Architect than a coder.

The more fields you can combine, the more opportunities that others would miss.

[cylon]

I find myself really struggling with this, I've been a graphic designer for years now, but of course my passion is music, so I've decided to put my focus there... wondering how the two could mix. I suppose I can use it to promote my music, but I still love graphics, just not as much as music. And, graphics is more "practical", music is "a dream".

I always wondered if my knowledge from one field helped me in another, completely un-related field. Would my problem-solving from graphics result in different approaches to song-writing.

Steve if you're reading this, I'm sure you know the phrase "jack of all trades master of none". You talk a lot about skill, and how it should be developed. If you spread yourself out, isn't your skill development in one area naturally going to suffer since it gets less attention?

[cylon]

wrong thread!

[ladybug]

It’s important to note that you don’t have to earn money from all of your interests. If you just dive in and pursue what you enjoy, you may be surprised to find out which interests help you generate income and which don’t.

Yes. I have started three different businesses in the past ten years from my different interests. Each time there is still only one that is the strongest and generates a good income for me. This is now my focus and I love the work. It's not that the others aren't valuable in some way, or that I am lacking in skill with them, it's just that they are slow earners. Those activities are now hobbies for me and I do love doing them still. However, I do love my current income generating work and I wouldn't have known about how the others earned if I didn't try marketing them. But the good news is that the other skills are still valuable enough to fall back on if my stronger income earner were to subside.

You’ll be surprised at how many opportunities there are to use insights you learn in one field to solve problems in a seemingly unrelated field. The long-term benefit of cultivating many different interests is that you build a powerful toolkit of problem-solving patterns. This gives you more flexibility when facing certain challenges. People sometimes praise me for a brilliant insight that helped them solve a challenging problem when all I did was cross-pollinate a known solution pattern from one field to another.

And yes, I use problem solving solutions from one field to another. It's really cool when it works out that way.

[Savage]

Originally Posted by cylon

Steve if you're reading this, I'm sure you know the phrase "jack of all trades master of none". You talk a lot about skill, and how it should be developed. If you spread yourself out, isn't your skill development in one area naturally going to suffer since it gets less attention?

If you develop a variety of different skills, they'll enhance each other in ways you cannot predict in advance.

A jack of all trades is a master of none, but he employs kings and queens to attend to the details.

[cylon]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

If you develop a variety of different skills, they'll enhance each other in ways you cannot predict in advance.

A jack of all trades is a master of none, but he employs kings and queens to attend to the details.

Good point. I think I'll worry less about the predicting and focus more on the enjoyment.

[Ari Koinuma]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

If you develop a variety of different skills, they'll enhance each other in ways you cannot predict in advance.

A jack of all trades is a master of none, but he employs kings and queens to attend to the details.

Once I read one of the members of U2 describe Brian Eno, their record producer and a well-established musician on his own right. They said that Eno is a cobbled-together concoction of a bunch of 2nd-rate skills. Except, the unique combination of his skills and how he uses them makes him very unique. (It's been a while since I read this -- so don't quote me on accuracy)

Generalists can still be a master, by creating a unique portfolio of skills and experience in a way that nobody else can. We are all unique individuals, but by specializing in certain discipline, we actually risk becoming more generic -- for there are others who excel in that specialization, and there are always people better than you. It's a bit ironic, isn't it?

That said, I also see a counter-argument for spreading wide, depending on the person and the reason. More on that in a separate response....

ari

[Savage]

Originally Posted by cylon

graphics is more "practical", music is "a dream".

That's true for a professional graphic designer, not for a professional musician. The difference between the two was a decision.

I have met at least one musician who wanted to be a graphic designer.

It seems a bit silly to want to do something and then identify yourself as someone who won't do it.

My younger brother wanted to be a musician. So he did that. He performs at various clubs in Tokyo. He even performed on TV there a couple times. He doesn't make a living from it at this point -- his day job is a network engineer -- but that doesn't stop him from going out and performing.

[cylon]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

It seems a bit silly to want to do something and then identify yourself as someone who won't do it.

It is. I'm correcting it.

[Ari Koinuma]

Originally Posted by cylon

I find myself really struggling with this, I've been a graphic designer for years now, but of course my passion is music, so I've decided to put my focus there... wondering how the two could mix. I suppose I can use it to promote my music, but I still love graphics, just not as much as music. And, graphics is more "practical", music is "a dream".

I always wondered if my knowledge from one field helped me in another, completely un-related field. Would my problem-solving from graphics result in different approaches to song-writing.

Steve if you're reading this, I'm sure you know the phrase "jack of all trades master of none". You talk a lot about skill, and how it should be developed. If you spread yourself out, isn't your skill development in one area naturally going to suffer since it gets less attention?

cylon,

I think you are answering your own questions there. You like bits of graphic design, including its practicality, but your passion is music. I'm a musician myself, so I can definitely relate to the conflict -- as music can take a lot of time to develop sufficient skills to do well.

Two points:
1) Absolutely, I encourage you to keep exploring the path of combining what you have. Each skill in itself may not be something to write home about, but the unique combination that only you can create has a potency to become a totally unique output. Music and visual art can combine in so many ways, I'd think you'll find it an exciting terrain to explore. You could make visual effects for live music shows, or multimedia presentations, or create music videos and post a bunch on YouTube -- all with your unique brand of music and visual identity. There's no need to piece yourself apart into separate disciplines. They are parts of you that make up the whole -- no need to break your whole down and reduce yourself to the pieces.

2) This may not apply to you, but I do think that some people become Jack of all trades because they are primarily unfocused and undisciplined. To master any discipline, you have to overcome some obstacles -- and this takes some will power. If running away from obstacles is a reason why someone ends up becoming Jack, then that's not good.

People with diverse interests still can find common threads between his/her interests by examining closely which part of that activity engages you. For example, I was trained as a musician, but like many of us, I ventured out into web developing out of necessity. They are both very creative work, and I enjoy making up something by piecing things together. The same thing can be said of my interest in writing and blogging. And of entrepreneurship and marketing. It's all very creative work -- and I find satisfaction in any aspect. Music still has a special place in my heart, as it expresses parts of me that are untouchable through other disciplines. But the creative skill I honed through my music is transferrable, and I do feel comfortable calling myself a master of that.

So to sum up, don't become Jack because of lack of discpline -- instead, find the common thread among your interests and focus on that.

ari

[Ron Stoppable]

Originally Posted by cylon

Steve if you're reading this, I'm sure you know the phrase "jack of all trades master of none".

You must mean the complete quote:
Jack of all trades, master of none, but ofttimes better than master of one.

Googleable variations include:
Jack of all trades, master of none, but count on Jack to get the job done.
Jack of all trades, master of none - but what a jack!

Which global public entity do you know of that regularly trims quotes to convey different meanings (/deceive)?
Daily mass media!
Now is it love or fear that they aim to whip up with misquotes? Interesting...

[maverickstruth]

Ah, so many scanners in this thread!

If you're not familiar with the idea of a "scanner', it's a term used to describe the types of people Steve described in his article (myself included!) as coined by Barbara Sher.

As another resource for those who saw themselves in the article, I'd highly recommend checking out "Refuse to Choose" by the above-mentioned Sher (ISBN-10: 1594863032; ISBN-13: 978-1594863035). Reading this book was like a revelation for me -- one of the few books that I've checked out from the library and then had to go purchase so that I would have it close at hand.

It investigates not only what it is to be a "scanner", but also talks about the different types, and gives some ideas for ways that you can take your generalist-tendencies and turn them into positives, be it for careers, hobbies, projects (you know -- the ones that never seem to get done ), etc. Anyway, I'd highly recommended the book -- reading is was like a revelation for me -- and it has so many practical ideas to boot!

[Savage]

Originally Posted by rodrigo

There is a saying I hear sometimes (specially from people on my current field, Computer Science as well). It is something like this:

"Be careful not to become a duck. Ducks can fly, swim and walk. But they fly badly, swim badly and walk badly."

If you aren't a duck yourself, get used to calling one of them "boss."

Another name for a duck is an entrepreneur, who is most likely the boss of the programmers as well as the teachers who train the programmers.

[Keith]

From the title, I was hoping for a post addressing the "getting distracted by the next shiny before getting anything done" problem.

Would it be possible to have a lower-level follow-up post on how to have multiple interests and still achieve stuff? Or is that just a matter of cultivating your intuition?

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

However, the honest truth is that while I enjoy reviewing and recommending products from time to time, I don’t want to turn this single activity into my full-time career. I don’t want my blog to become nothing but a product review site. What you may not realize though is that by deciding to pursue other interests, I’m leaving a lot of potential income on the table. If I really wanted to, I’m sure I could earn 5-10x more money

Of course, the PD entries on the blog built up the audience for those product recommendations. And if a greater percentage of the blog became about product recommendations, much of that audience would lose interest and your recommendation income would drop. So actually, it's not as simple as the quoted paragraph implies - not in the long term, anyway.

[Jake Birkett]

Another fine post thanks! Now I'm late for bed (again ;-)). That last section was HUGE. It's great that you've posted so much recently (you must be enjoying your blogging "mode").

These posts always hit the nail sooo on the head. I too have many interests and I'm good at many things, but seem to lack the time to do them all which I regret a bit (I know this situation is self made). One of the most fun times I had in life was when I was unemployed in my late teens - I just did whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted - it was great! (had no money though which limited some of my options). Now with a family and house and bills etc it's easy to end up working lots and to let the other interests "wither" a bit, which is a shame (he says, looking longingly at his guitar in the corner of the room) - but it forces me to prioritise stuff like time with the kids.

However, I have a long term plan which is to stick at this for a while building up mega skills and resources so that in a few years I can suddenly change gear into "chill out mode" whilst earning enough money to support my family and give us lots of options - so I think it's OK to have a plan like that as long as I follow it through and don't get stuck in "work mode" forever...plus I love my job so that's good anyway :-)

[Rose of Cairo]

This was written for me!

Originally Posted by Steve

You can pursue many different interests and still find a creative mix that allows you to earn money AND maintain an abundant lifestyle AND be happy AND make a difference.

THANKS for reminding me Steve

In fact I know that, and I don't worry about the money either... it's just that I don't see much sense in going for something knowing perfectly well that in two weeks I'll have lost interest...

[Savage]

Originally Posted by Rose of Cairo

it's just that I don't see much sense in going for something knowing perfectly well that in two weeks I'll have lost interest...

Why not?

I often dive deeply into stuff I know won't last. It's okay to do something just for the experience. When I did comedy improv in 2006, I only wanted to do it for a little while. I did it once a week for three months and performed in two live shows. Then I dropped it and let it go. I just wanted to try it, not make a career out of it. I'm glad for having the experience. It was definitely worth doing.

When Erin sees me getting into something new, she'll often say, "Oh no... he's on the jazz again." She knows I love getting into stuff by diving headfirst into it, and a few months later, I'll drop it completely.

You can learn to juggle 3 balls in a few hours of practice if you want to. Then you'll know how to juggle for the rest of your life. Think of all the cool skills and experiences you could pick up if you did that sort of thing deliberately.

It isn't a waste. It's called "having a life."

[Anand Dhillon]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Why not?

I often dive deeply into stuff I know won't last. It's okay to do something just for the experience.

Excellent point, Steve. I also like to pick things up just for a little while to learn and have the experience. I spent some time learning sleight of hand card tricks (3 months), became a certified hypnotherapist (about 6 months), and had a MMA fight (about 15 months of training). Hell, I even spent more than a year learning to pick up girls.

In the future, I also plan on doing some standup comedy, traveling the world and start mountain climbing.

Though none of those things are likely going to important to me for the rest of my life, it was fun doing them. I concur: it's called having a life.

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

Why not?

I often dive deeply into stuff I know won't last. It's okay to do something just for the experience. When I did comedy improv in 2006, I only wanted to do it for a little while. I did it once a week for three months and performed in two live shows. Then I dropped it and let it go. I just wanted to try it, not make a career out of it. I'm glad for having the experience. It was definitely worth doing.

When Erin sees me getting into something new, she'll often say, "Oh no... he's on the jazz again." She knows I love getting into stuff by diving headfirst into it, and a few months later, I'll drop it completely.

You can learn to juggle 3 balls in a few hours of practice if you want to. Then you'll know how to juggle for the rest of your life. Think of all the cool skills and experiences you could pick up if you did that sort of thing deliberately.

It isn't a waste. It's called "having a life."

Heck yeah.

Rose, about a month ago I took about 3 months or so to immerse myself in the realm of strengths-theory (it's not really theory, but I like to call it that). A few months later, I've completely dropped the paradigm, and am currently reading Getting Things Done, Steve's new blog posts, and random sections from Way of the Peaceful Warrior.

Over this year I've played the Warhammer RTS game, Starcraft, Diablo 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Okami, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Street Fighter 2 Super Turbo, Kongai (both beta and launch), and so many flash games that I've lost count. I also have the famed (and discontinued) Ico (a video game for PS2) in a figurative pile of "things I might want to check out and study at some point."

Additionally, I've also started regularly playing poker, played a few games of rock-paper-scissors, focus tested a card game called Yomi giving feedback on the general layout design (designed by David Sirlin), offered the guy who runs the poker games I go to feedback for how the games can be more fun with less slippery slope and virtually no other disadvantages (so it's a win/win, "all advantage" solution), and I've even dabbled in the idea of getting together a team to make a flash game myself (there are still a few things that need to align before I feel comfortable with moving forward with that project, but that's fine. No rush).

On top of that(!), I joined Toastmasters International in February this year, joining one club at first and then being sponsored to join another club (which was the result of an interesting synchronicity that's only making sense now; you could call it a past alpha-reflection, to use one of Steve's concepts), and 5 months later, I'm Secretary of one club and President of the other. (And also have plans to innovate Toastmasters--at least, at the moment, for me--as we know it.)

Interestingly, you'd think I was playing most of the games I mentioned just "for fun". Actually, I was looking for a game that I could devote to mastering, and I've since picked Kongai and Street Fighter 2 Super Turbo as games I'll be playing often (also include in that list the upcoming Street Fighter 2 ST HD Remix with re-balanced gameplay by Street Fighter tournament champion David Sirlin and re-drawn art, all in HD, by Udon who do the Street Fighter comics).

What is the primary benefit I've gotten from devoting so much time to mastering a game? (What some would call wasted hours.) Well, my knowledge of system design is even more refined, but more importantly, because of my hours of gameplay and the connections I've made within gaming circles, I learned a new way to make decisions primarily using my intuition. I've been able to use this ability in every other aspect of my life (including buying groceries!), and I even partly drew on it to win a Toastmasters table topics speech contest this week (a contest which is also organised, as club President, with no prior experience and online resources that were... not ideal, to say the least). It's extremely effective, with high potential for even more effectiveness, and I expect to be drawing on it and improving my ability to draw on it for the rest of my life (unless I find something better ).

I hope by now I've drowned you in so much randomness that your head is spinning. Good. Because that's my point. My head *isn't* spinning. Despite the huge variety of things I've done (and this is only a sampling--I could go into even more detail about brain science, biology, strengths-theory, stress free productivity, and a few other things I've dabbled in), I couldn't feel more... I wouldn't call it grounded, but I feel more positive and happy than stressed and overwhelmed.

If you were to ask me "has all you've been doing--including the things you've just dabbled in--helped you in some way?" I'd answer, "you bet!"

The results may not be self-evident, and some of them mostly exist on the subconscious level (but if you understand anything about your subconscious--and I've learned most from conscious application, not just theory and research--you'd see that something highly desirable), but I can wholeheartedly recommend diving into something and just trying it, even if you only do it for a limited amount of time. I don't recommend you do anything seriously dangerous, but this is personal development for smart people, right?

So dive in, and in a few months, you can have fun writing a post as lengthy, seemingly random, and detailed as this.

It's called "having a life."

Postscript

On a side note, I've been doing most of this for free, virtually paying no direct attention to "making money" whatsoever, ha. However, now that my focus is starting to shift, you wouldn't believe how much all that I've done will help me in actually getting a career going, whatever that may involve (technically I've been working on a career for the last 2 years, but most of the work is indirect, and you sure couldn't pick it... at least, my detractors don't ).

I'd say the main thing I gained from all of what I mentioned is "perspective." You'd think that doing so many things limits your perspective, or something, but it actually sharpens it. Or more accurately, you begin to cut through the clutter and see what are the few things in life that are most important. From there it's just a matter of effective tools (such as Getting Things Done, strengths-theory), self-alignment (the truth, love, power type Steve talks about in his book), listening to (and learning to accurately read) your intuition, and doing it.

I think you'll find any notions of "getting out there" and doing it are not helpful. Life is not something you fragment--it is an ongoing process that you experience, and the quality of that experience is determined by your focus. What you actually have to do to be successful, whatever you define "success" to be, might not be terribly different than what you're currently doing once you shift your focus a bit. It's all about vibration and alignment.

The more aligned I become with what I feel is right for me, the easier life becomes. But not "easy" in the "no challenge" sense; it becomes more fun, positive, and enjoyable. Challenge remains, it's just that you have more capacity to deal with it. I still experience setbacks and things that are unpleasant, but that's part of a greater experience. Besides, from my experience so far, it's really difficult to even be able to say what is "bad" or "good." I'd rather throw out those labels and assign another label: "useful."

While doing this yourself, if someone tells you to "get a life," ask them to define "life" in their sentence. Once they stop throwing insults at you, you might find their definition of a life somewhat disturbing (if they can even define what they mean... they'll probably get confused and annoyed and walk away or try to put the focus back on you). In other words, ignore your detractors! Literally. Go hang around people you enjoy being with, either directly (in person) or indirectly (online, via reading stuff, etc).

[Keith]

Originally Posted by Keith

From the title, I was hoping for a post addressing the "getting distracted by the next shiny before getting anything done" problem.

Would it be possible to have a lower-level follow-up post on how to have multiple interests and still achieve stuff? Or is that just a matter of cultivating your intuition?

I'd still be interested in an answer to this, please.

[frntk]

Hi everyone!

I'd like to recommend this post from Tim Ferriss:

The Top 5 Reasons to Be a Jack of All Trades - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss

Great post, Steve.

[maverickstruth]

Originally Posted by Keith

I'd still be interested in an answer to this, please.

Keith, one thing to consider is -- what is the definition of "achieving stuff"? Is it the same for you as it is for others?

Think of it this way -- a bee flies from flower to flower, stopping momentarily here and there, but never lingering too long at any once place. Why doesn't he stay? Because once he has got what he came from, he has no reason to stay. Someone may say to that bee "well, you haven't achieved a proper botanical investigation of the plant beyond its nectar!". But just because the bee didn't achieve what that other person thought they should achieve doesn't mean the bee was a failure!

In many ways, that's what it's like to have many interests and not be able to commit -- you may stop momentarily here and there, but never linger at any one place long enough for people to say "you've achieved something!" In fact, I'll bet that you achieve quite a lot -- it may not be what others expect you to achieve, but that doesn't mean you haven't achieved anything. What you get out of doing something -- your reward (or your "achievement") -- may just be different than what others think it "should" be.

Now think of the projects or that you've started and maybe not finished, or things that you've tried but not "achieved" (according to other people's definitions of achieved). At what point did you lose interest, or just want to move onto the next thing? I'll bet that if you look at those things, you may find a pattern developing. That pattern may be what "achievement" is to you -- it's the reward that you look for when you take things on.

As an example -- I get bored with things really quickly. I used to think -- like you -- that I wasn't really ever achieving anything, because people didn't recognize my half-finished projects as accomplishments. However, when I looked at *when* I stopped or lost interest in things when I did -- I realized that it was always at the point where I was able to make a connection; to understand something, or to connect to unconnected ideas, or something like that. In other words, I stopped exactly when I was meant to -- I had "accomplished" my goal to make a connection, and even if that may not be what others thought I should achieve. Even if I didn't know at the time what I was looking for in my projects, I always felt like saying "okay, I'm done" when I had reached that point of making the connection. When I started to look at things that way, I started to see that I actually had achieved a lot of connection-making, and that I really was getting out of things what I had wanted in the first place (even if I didn't know it at the time).

There's a Zen koan which talks about knowing when you've got what you came from (as opposed to when others think you're done!):

"Q: How long should you stay at something"
A: However long it takes to get what you came for.
Q: How do you decide what you came for?
A: You don't; you discover it.
Q: How do you discover it?
A: you notice what isn't there anymore when you feel like leaving" (Refuse to Choose, 30).

When you feel like moving on to the next thing, is it possible that you have already achieved what you came for, even if it doesn't match up with other people's ideas of success?

"As with the bee, you can tell what a Scanner's Reward is by why he's drawn to something and when he stops. When you lose interest in something, you must always consider the possibility that you've gotten what you came for; you have completed your mission." (RtC, 31).

Hopefully that at least gives you a different way of thinking about things -- it may or may not help answer your question, but I know it sure helped me!

[cylon]

When I said "jack of all trades master of none" I had no idea the great insight and links that would come from that. Some really eye-opening stuff. My belief that you need to specialize in one thing and master it to the exclusion of all else is fading.

[Rose of Cairo]

Originally Posted by impaul99

"Jack of all trades" = Master of Being "Jack of All Trades"

What a nice way to see it Paul I'm gonna specialize in being a master sampler!

I second maverickstruth about Refuse to Choose! by Barbara Sher. It's an excellent book and very, very helpful.

If some of you wonder how concretely to pursue your many interests once Steve convinced you to do so, read it.

Originally Posted by Barbara Sher in Refuse to Choose! page 10

Having the freedom to go after all your interests is wonderful, but how on earth can you actually do it? The revelation that you're a Scanner doesn't automatically propel you full speed ahead on all those things you love: you have to know how to manage a life that's full of different talents.

Originally Posted by maverickstruth

In other words, I stopped exactly when I was meant to -- I had "accomplished" my goal to make a connection, and even if that may not be what others thought I should achieve.

I can relate to this very well! I'm usually extremely enthusiastic about some new thing, almost obsessing over it, reading five books about it and trying it out. And as soon as I've figured out how it works, how it's done or what the principles behind it are, I lose interest, get intolerably bored and cannot bring myself to finish it.

Other people cry "what a pity" when I quit although all it would take to succeed is time and effort. But in my eyes I have already succeeded: I understand it, and I know how it feels to do it! I guess the point for me is just to try everything once, then I classify it and I'm done with it. I's like I'm having a giant database in my brain about all kinds of knowledge or activities one can have, and I'm busy with filling it.

When you feel like moving on to the next thing, is it possible that you have already achieved what you came for, even if it doesn't match up with other people's ideas of success?

Yes absolutely that's the point.

[ticktockclok]

I've been spending the last week wondering if I would have to choose between music and economics. Guess I don't. Thanks Steve.