I share the pain about academic writing. In my job as a lawyer I must have written War & Peace over and again many times. Interestingly, the pressure was the other way: Clear English, and that does matter for material produced for the public. But, like many aspects of lawyering, it was damaging. When I had to retire, I had to relearn expansive and enjoyable writing. Of course, pretty well all office-workers also have to suffer the IT Project Change Program. I have never seen any writing so hostile to understanding, interest or the audience. Within two minutes, the reader is enervated. Let's get back to broad, fun writing and limit it only when necessary. Occasionally, when asked to describe my department's work (investigating frauds, some very large) in a paper for the Board I would loosen up and recount cases with a bit of a swing. Board members would approach me and say how they could not stop reading my paper. (A bit of withholding never did a story any harm.)
As a dabbler with many interests, I totally agree. Although, I think you can master one thing while still enjoying the pursuit of other things. Life is better with many “hobbies.” You never get bored. Or deeply depressed when your “one thing” doesn’t work out like you planned.
I know many on Substack live and breathe writing. But writing is just one of my interests. So I am content to not “master” writing. I would rather live a life full of many interests.
Wonderful, Elle! I resonate with all of this, having struggled with wide-ranging interests and pressure to specialize. Fortunately, architecture is one of those professions that at least makes some room for polymaths.
To me, you embody this from Einstein: “Don't think about why you question, simply don't stop questioning. Don't worry about what you can't answer, and don't try to explain what you can't know. Curiosity is its own reason. Aren't you in awe when you contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure behind reality? And this is the miracle of the human mind - to use its constructions, concepts, and formulas as tools to explain what man sees, feels and touches. Try to comprehend a little more each day. Have holy curiosity.”
Thank you for writing this! Throughout my life, I've always been hesitant to over-specialize, preferring instead to follow my natural curiosity. Many of my friends are currently pursuing their PhDs, and I've been experiencing a bit of FOMO lately. Reading your piece was incredibly timely and resonated deeply with me.
I had a chuckle over being haunted by the phrase "master of none". I, too, have worried about the same thing in regard to the 10,000 hours goal, particularly when I drop one passion to move to the next. However, I fully agree with your optimism and inquisitiveness and believe that these are the wellsprings of creativity. However did you come across such a fellowship? It sounds like a delightful group!
Underlying this theme is that most human beings come into the world with the ability to be interested in lots of different things. Society probably plays its part in stifling curiosity, but even people without the resources to get professional training or higher education, people of all levels of intelligence, have the potential to find their ways into “avocational” interests. In the ideal world children would have the time, resources and encouragement to play around with whatever catches their fancy.
The author of Humanly Possible sounded familiar: oh, she wrote the “The Existentialist Cafe”, a book I’ve recently enjoyed reading. Perhaps Bakewell is one of the people who makes it possible for us to be Renaissance Folk. We don’t need to read all the philosophers when we can get an idea of their thinking, along with their personalities, the people who influenced them and the culture of the times from books like hers. I’ve found quite a few books like this. A caveat: ideally, there would be opportunities to spend some time becoming familiar with the rigors and methodologies of academia as a way of understanding where all these ideas came from. Along those lines, I’ve been reading “literary botany” lately, which introduces me to research methods and thinking patterns of scientists, not to mention the exigencies of the field work necessary to get the data to begin with.
A more utopian world would of course allow people more leisure for exploring the various facets of their personal predilections. Being able to make a living from one or more of them is fantastic luck. But with the increased longevity we seem to be blessed with this days, it also may be worth putting up with a more staid career, if necessary. A comfortable retirement can make the life of those traditional Renaissance men quite possible. With my retirement (especially during the Covid years), I’ve been amazed to discover that the range of enthusiasms and areas of curiosity that captured my mind during my more leisurely academic years were still there, incubating.
Elle, you’ve got a great gift for writing and I agree that it’s going to take you to a lot of those places that you’re curious about, to our benefit. (Love the banner.)
This line stood out for me. "Mastery was never the goal of the humanists, curiosity was." My goddess how curiosity seems to have all but disappeared in so many settings! At the time I went off to college (in the early 1970s!) my father accused me of being a dilettante because I was eager to study math and music and indigenous culture and philosophy and religion. I wondered at the time what was wrong with that, because I felt like my curiosity was allowing me to make connections that otherwise would not be made. I am now in my 60s and feel the same. Renaissance woman, you!
I remember a professor making an aside that people had said Goethe was the last person who "knew everything" (was up to date in every field at the time) and that in the 19th century human knowledge was expanding so quickly that it was no longer possible.
Wonderful! :) Thank you for writing this. May we all have the right to pursue our multi-faceted dreams, and defy the societal pressures that try to force us into a specialist lane. This is a topic near and dear to my heart! I wrote my own reflections on embracing our inner polymath in an essay that made the rounds a few years ago:
I have much more to say on it, and compiled an outline of a bunch of writing around the tactics of it -- in other words, how to actually execute on multiple things without losing your mind. I hope to get started on that in earnest soon. Just had to finish my book of fables first :)
I share the pain about academic writing. In my job as a lawyer I must have written War & Peace over and again many times. Interestingly, the pressure was the other way: Clear English, and that does matter for material produced for the public. But, like many aspects of lawyering, it was damaging. When I had to retire, I had to relearn expansive and enjoyable writing. Of course, pretty well all office-workers also have to suffer the IT Project Change Program. I have never seen any writing so hostile to understanding, interest or the audience. Within two minutes, the reader is enervated. Let's get back to broad, fun writing and limit it only when necessary. Occasionally, when asked to describe my department's work (investigating frauds, some very large) in a paper for the Board I would loosen up and recount cases with a bit of a swing. Board members would approach me and say how they could not stop reading my paper. (A bit of withholding never did a story any harm.)
As a dabbler with many interests, I totally agree. Although, I think you can master one thing while still enjoying the pursuit of other things. Life is better with many “hobbies.” You never get bored. Or deeply depressed when your “one thing” doesn’t work out like you planned.
I know many on Substack live and breathe writing. But writing is just one of my interests. So I am content to not “master” writing. I would rather live a life full of many interests.
Wonderful, Elle! I resonate with all of this, having struggled with wide-ranging interests and pressure to specialize. Fortunately, architecture is one of those professions that at least makes some room for polymaths.
To me, you embody this from Einstein: “Don't think about why you question, simply don't stop questioning. Don't worry about what you can't answer, and don't try to explain what you can't know. Curiosity is its own reason. Aren't you in awe when you contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure behind reality? And this is the miracle of the human mind - to use its constructions, concepts, and formulas as tools to explain what man sees, feels and touches. Try to comprehend a little more each day. Have holy curiosity.”
To your point, the full quote is: "Jack of all trades, master of none, though oftentimes better than master of one."
Thank you for writing this! Throughout my life, I've always been hesitant to over-specialize, preferring instead to follow my natural curiosity. Many of my friends are currently pursuing their PhDs, and I've been experiencing a bit of FOMO lately. Reading your piece was incredibly timely and resonated deeply with me.
I had a chuckle over being haunted by the phrase "master of none". I, too, have worried about the same thing in regard to the 10,000 hours goal, particularly when I drop one passion to move to the next. However, I fully agree with your optimism and inquisitiveness and believe that these are the wellsprings of creativity. However did you come across such a fellowship? It sounds like a delightful group!
Another evocative Substack topic.
Underlying this theme is that most human beings come into the world with the ability to be interested in lots of different things. Society probably plays its part in stifling curiosity, but even people without the resources to get professional training or higher education, people of all levels of intelligence, have the potential to find their ways into “avocational” interests. In the ideal world children would have the time, resources and encouragement to play around with whatever catches their fancy.
The author of Humanly Possible sounded familiar: oh, she wrote the “The Existentialist Cafe”, a book I’ve recently enjoyed reading. Perhaps Bakewell is one of the people who makes it possible for us to be Renaissance Folk. We don’t need to read all the philosophers when we can get an idea of their thinking, along with their personalities, the people who influenced them and the culture of the times from books like hers. I’ve found quite a few books like this. A caveat: ideally, there would be opportunities to spend some time becoming familiar with the rigors and methodologies of academia as a way of understanding where all these ideas came from. Along those lines, I’ve been reading “literary botany” lately, which introduces me to research methods and thinking patterns of scientists, not to mention the exigencies of the field work necessary to get the data to begin with.
A more utopian world would of course allow people more leisure for exploring the various facets of their personal predilections. Being able to make a living from one or more of them is fantastic luck. But with the increased longevity we seem to be blessed with this days, it also may be worth putting up with a more staid career, if necessary. A comfortable retirement can make the life of those traditional Renaissance men quite possible. With my retirement (especially during the Covid years), I’ve been amazed to discover that the range of enthusiasms and areas of curiosity that captured my mind during my more leisurely academic years were still there, incubating.
Elle, you’ve got a great gift for writing and I agree that it’s going to take you to a lot of those places that you’re curious about, to our benefit. (Love the banner.)
This line stood out for me. "Mastery was never the goal of the humanists, curiosity was." My goddess how curiosity seems to have all but disappeared in so many settings! At the time I went off to college (in the early 1970s!) my father accused me of being a dilettante because I was eager to study math and music and indigenous culture and philosophy and religion. I wondered at the time what was wrong with that, because I felt like my curiosity was allowing me to make connections that otherwise would not be made. I am now in my 60s and feel the same. Renaissance woman, you!
Elle, apropos of your comment: "I still want to master my craft as a writer", I think you may be underestimating your talent as a writer!
I remember a professor making an aside that people had said Goethe was the last person who "knew everything" (was up to date in every field at the time) and that in the 19th century human knowledge was expanding so quickly that it was no longer possible.
Looking for a citation for that I find which attributes that to Einstein: https://steemit.com/history/@donkeypong/who-was-the-last-know-it-all-considering-kircher-goethe-humboldt-and-young
Wonderful! :) Thank you for writing this. May we all have the right to pursue our multi-faceted dreams, and defy the societal pressures that try to force us into a specialist lane. This is a topic near and dear to my heart! I wrote my own reflections on embracing our inner polymath in an essay that made the rounds a few years ago:
salman.io/blog/polymath-playbook
I have much more to say on it, and compiled an outline of a bunch of writing around the tactics of it -- in other words, how to actually execute on multiple things without losing your mind. I hope to get started on that in earnest soon. Just had to finish my book of fables first :)