Jack of all trades: to be or not to be...

Remember when u were younger your thoughts and activities used to be much wider than what they are now. As one grows older he/she becomes more focused on fewer n fewer topics.Well not that its bad knowing in detail about some specific things, but it is bad if its done at the expense of keeping urself in touch with other things.One cannot fail to notice that this is so very similar to our academic curriculum. You start with a broad base n then taper out as u progress ahead with it. Ya science has and can only progress based on this concept, but not an individual.

Its quite easy to note that most successful people are those who dont follow such a policy.You might ask how do you define "successful people"? Well I ll keep that to another day, for the present let it be any (sane) definition u wanna put.Coming back to the statement I made at the beginning of the para, isnt it true? But most people scoff at the term 'Jack of all trades'. Why is it be so? Actually if u see carefully, being a Jack will give you a better chance of solving a problem, any random problem.It also gives u a better chance to adapt to changing random circumstances than any specific specialised person. It just doesnt apply only to these Darwinian concepts but also to real day to day life situations.

K, given chance to spend a week with a mathematician or a Jack, whom would u prefer? Here when I mean mathematician I mean he is only and only a mathematician and has no other dimension. K you might say all mathematicians are geeks and you dont want to spend a week with a geek (well who would want to!!). K wht if he/she is a specialist in say birds or politics or philanthropy or astrology or sports or romance? Hmmm... lets see if its the last one i dont think many of us would mind, but wht if I extend the week to a year or two thn? Surely most (believing that insane people do exist in this world :P ) would by far prefer a person who is good at all of these but is not a master in any. And why is the answer so? Simply because that person will have a lot more things to talk of and will not bore you to death on some particular topic.

The point I m trying to make is why, WHY one should be envious of people who are 'studs' in doing some particular thing? All each one of us should be really bothered is-are we good at a good number of things? Can each one of us call oneself a "Jack of all trades" for a set of things in which one's good and comfortable.If u can do well in 2 things say sports like playing table tennis and some acad like chemistry and ur much coveted friend is a god in physics; well let him/her be. You should feel that ur a much capable person overall than him/her but also one shouldnt forget to respect ur friends 'god'ness.

But in the end individual perspective is all that should matter, so if u still feel being a god only will give you satisfaction then go ahead; but if there's anyone out there who feels being a Jack is much better, then I m with u dude...