Know Everything About Something And Something About Everything
The statement “a jack of all trades is a master of none” is a figure of speech used for someone who has dabbled into many things as opposed to focusing on one thing to gain expertise in that. While this may look like the wrong thing to do, the original and complete statement is a compliment for a person with broad knowledge, which goes like this: “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but often times better than a master of one.” In other words, the person is a generalist rather than a specialist.
In my opinion, the advancement in technologies such as the Internet and Web 2.0 has made available for individuals a tremendous amount of information on any subject matter. This presents the opportunity to be versatile in many areas while focusing on one.
Personally, I believe that being either a generalist or a specialist has its pros and cons. For individuals who are yet to discover their strengths or weakness, exploring a couple of new things might help them discover themselves. Hence, being a generalist helps self-discovery. Similarly, being a generalist can help effectively deal with a wide range of situations that one is exposed to, making it easier to adapt to situations and be flexible. Also, I believe that individuals with a curious mind and who are knowledge-driven tend to be more of a generalist, though they may be a specialist in a particular area.
However, there are some merits to being a specialist, too. The demand for individuals who have expertise in their field will continue to increase. These individuals are able to perform extremely well and are specialists in a particular area. Being a specialist can make an individual become widely recognized in their field. In addition, a specialist may earn more. Lastly, most organizations seek experts when they encounter a problem.
In conclusion, being a jack of all trades (generalist) or being good at one thing (specialist) both have their merits. However, with the huge amount of information made available via the Internet, one needs to be versatile to remain relevant. Therefore, I am of the opinion that one need to know everything about something and know something about everything.