Jack of all Trades, Master of one?
August 20, 2016
You’ve probably heard the derogatory saying “Jack of all trades, master of none.” It implies that by trying to learn many things, you give up mastery of any of them. It all sounds very negative with the presence of the word “NONE” in the sentence. Not necessarily the truth.
In the past few weeks I have been trying to put my hands on everywhere in engineering. So I’m doing a civil engineering degree, going to a civil engineering consultant firm during the summer and while I’m home I am working on a robotic arm powered by an Arduino. That has nothing to do with civil engineering; it’s a completely different discipline. Does it do anything good for my civil engineering skills? NOPE. Does it do anything good for me? Hell yeah!
Engineering these days does not really require that much mathematical skills these days, in fact in my two months of summer internship I realised all I need to know is fundamental knowledge, but in the end it’s all computer models and Excel Spreadsheets doing all the calculations anyways. So what can you do to prove to others you are better than them?
Yes SPORTS can be a thing. Walking around the office with your biceps blasting out your sleeves and chests popping out from the shirt does prove to people you are the strongest in the office. But that is not impressive enough, at least for me. That’s the time when jack of all trades kicks in.
When you are the only person at the office who knows robotic stuff it gives you an extra arm length among the others. Because you can start conversations with others, because you can talk to engineers from other discipline, because people will be impressed at your learning capability. Absolutely truth. I met with a board member of a multinational company few weeks back, he was very senior, and since he is a mechanical engineer graduate we chatted so much about engineering and it impressed him so much he was giving me a lot of advices in life. The same goes for the Technical Director and the fellow engineers in the company I was working, I stood up among them.
It doesn’t mean I am going in-depth with electronic engineering, it just means I’m digging in deep enough to strike a conversation when needed, and shallow enough to ask the right questions during the conversation . It takes at least 3/4 years to get a degree and there’s just no way you can master a course in just 2 months. You are doing it just to get the conversation going, and to expand your knowledge.
Master of none, really depends on what you are. If you are pursuing a degree you are at least a master of what you are doing in university. I’m not claiming myself a master in civil engineering but I do know an awful lot of that than let’s say, electronics. What you are doing now is like dropping a stone in the water, the stone is the master of one, and the ripples are the jack of all trades. You see them travels through water, so that’s the effect you are making with your skills. See, it spreads away right?