Jack of All Trades
"Jack of all trades, master of none" is a quote that has been on my mind for the past few weeks.
Unfortunately, not much is known about the original speaker, Geffray Mynshul. It comes from his book "Essays and Characters of a Prison" released in, get this, 1612. The original quote is "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one." I appreciate the shortened version more, but that is beside the point. As you can probably tell from the content of this blog, I am interested in a lot of things. This wasn't a problem when I was growing up, since I had all the time in the world to experiment with different things. Now though, I am at a point where I'm being told I need to drill into one specific niche if I want to have a successful career.
My earliest memory of an aspiration of joining the workforce revolved around being a dentist with a motorcycle. In preschool, I told a classmate that she had a cavity and it made her cry, so that dream was crushed. Then, I wanted to be a construction worker. The summer after my senior year of high school, I was a construction worker. It wasn't for me. That one took a bit longer. When I got to college, I wanted to be a theoretical physicist. Too much math. Then an engineer. Also too much math. Finally, I settled on computer science. In the interest of transparency, I was a film major for 4 days due to a major crash out over a bad discrete math exam, but I swapped that one back and watched a few movies to cheer myself up.
All this is to say; it's been a bumpy road to get to where I am now. I have dabbled in many things. Most of them were just passing interests. My main New Years resolution was to value my time more and only engage in activities that bring me personal fulfillment. I've quit brain-rotting on Tik Tok, and I really only watch YouTube when I need to learn something or if I need a giggle.
Because I am trying to be so intentional with my time, I've been thinking a lot about how I spend it, especially within computer science. Recently, I received some advice that rubbed me the wrong way. The prevailing wisdom I was handed was essentially this: if I want to be successful in my chosen niche (computer vision), I need to put on the blinders and ignore every other aspect of the field. I was specifically told that exploring other areas, like customizing my operating system or making a website, had the "potential" to become a "waste of time".
I could not disagree more. There is this weird culture in academia and tech that treats any curiosity outside your immediate job description as a distraction. But spending a weekend configuring my environment, diving into a new tool, or messing around with web development isn't taking away from my ability to train a model or analyze results. If anything, it makes me a more capable developer. You can absolutely dial into a hyper-focused specialty while still being a "jack of all trades" across the broader landscape. Understanding the actual systems your code runs on isn't a distraction. It's context.
Even if it was a professional waste of time, I'd still do it. That New Year's resolution about personal fulfillment doesn't just apply to my resume. If we only ever optimize our time for one single career goal, we hollow ourselves out. Fulfillment means allowing yourself to care about things strictly because you enjoy them. Whether that's tweaking a Linux setup until your eyes bleed, testing out new stationery, or just spending time with a loved one, those things matter.
You are allowed to have a niche, but you don't have to let it trap you. Always remember that. Thanks as always for reading, and stay sharp!
