It's not very "useful" to become a jack of all trades. But a large number of indie hackers I've met at real-life meetups (remember those? 😢) are polymaths.
Which doesn't surprise me. There's probably a huge overlap between a) people who are willing to wear all the hats required of an early-stage founder and b) generalists who are high in intellectual curiosity.
I can learn anything. I can't learn everything or even "the basics" of everything though. The world is too big and trying to do it all has almost definitely had an adverse effect on my life.
I got into college at 13... but didn't finish until age 24 (after dropping out twice, pursuing wildly different things, starting a painting business, working an office job and returning). I was a math major for the first couple of years but switched four times. Got obsessed with language learning, then teaching, then programming, then left to be an entrepreneur again.
The results of general curiosity have been mediocre and highly erratic. My business earns less than my old brick and mortar language school did 12 years ago, and has less human impact. I've got a broad set of experiences and various temporary achievements in sports, in work, in learning, in investing etc, but none of those abandoned paths add up to much, except maybe the work as a teacher for those years.
Just working steadily as an actuary or for a solid tech company definitely would have paid more.
It's not very "useful" to become a jack of all trades. But a large number of indie hackers I've met at real-life meetups (remember those? 😢) are polymaths.
Which doesn't surprise me. There's probably a huge overlap between a) people who are willing to wear all the hats required of an early-stage founder and b) generalists who are high in intellectual curiosity.
Looks like @channingallen is a new Scott Young fan!
I can learn anything. I can't learn everything or even "the basics" of everything though. The world is too big and trying to do it all has almost definitely had an adverse effect on my life.
I got into college at 13... but didn't finish until age 24 (after dropping out twice, pursuing wildly different things, starting a painting business, working an office job and returning). I was a math major for the first couple of years but switched four times. Got obsessed with language learning, then teaching, then programming, then left to be an entrepreneur again.
The results of general curiosity have been mediocre and highly erratic. My business earns less than my old brick and mortar language school did 12 years ago, and has less human impact. I've got a broad set of experiences and various temporary achievements in sports, in work, in learning, in investing etc, but none of those abandoned paths add up to much, except maybe the work as a teacher for those years.
Just working steadily as an actuary or for a solid tech company definitely would have paid more.
Probably not, I can force myself to learn things that I don't find interesting but most of them won't stick for long so what's the point.
I do think however that I am a generalist on some level but for that you don't need to know everything 🤔