I am sure we have all heard of the quote “Jack of all trades, master of none”. Some of us have even heard “Jack of all trades, master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one”.
While the first one was heard of with a negative spin-off, the latter is proved to have been a path to better success. Ofcourse success is defined differently by different people. But the point is going through the journey of life and leaving behind a legacy that keeps you alive. We remember Newton, Einstein, Tesla, Carnot, Hawking, Madame Curie and everyone for their contributions in Science. Jane Austen, William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe and other for their contribution to literature. You get the point. These people were considered experts in their fields because of their contributions.
Some of them did obsess over their projects and subjects. They almost did not have a life. The others have always tried different things out of curiosity. Consider Leonardo Da Vinci, he was an expert not only in the artistic fields such as painting and sculpting, he also contributed to applied sciences fields such as engineering and architecture.
Let us look at another example. Charles Darwin. We know him as the Father of Evolution. Although he is known for his contribution to evolutionary biology, he was a geologist, naturalist, marine biologist. He went to Medical school like his father but couldn’t survive sitting in class for hours. He was a rebel according to his father. His grandfather had toyed around the theory of evolution and therefore, Charles Darwin looked at the concept as food for thought. He remained curious and hence pursued his interests. There was no logical reason for his choice of study.
The point here is that everything we know and discover has already been discovered. What we do is called rediscovering. There are recent studies that show how art helps us focus and learn. It sure does. What we have to understand is that art and science go hand-in-hand. They are both influenced by nature. Music, dance, painting, sculpting, literature, everything is our ability to recreate what already exists. The recreation is a beautiful process helping us understand our home and its nature. All of our sciences are all the observations we have made over the eons about the rules followed by this home. They are simply two different approaches and they are equally important to understand ourselves and the working of our universe.
There is a quote from Dead Poets Society, ‘We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.’
I quote the movie here because I don’t think it is possible to sum up my point with a better combination of the lexicon.
If you are a reader, I would suggest picking up ‘Fluid’ by Ashish Jaiswal. It is an excellent read to understand being fluid, going with the flow. The author has done his research and talks about the examples, and more, in this article with better details.
I suggest, be bored! Explore genres of activities. Who knows what talents you have buried deep down? Lets dig it up and give in to curiosity even if it doesn’t make sense or adhere to our norms. Let us learn to live passionately and savour the choas of our universe!
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