Polymath
I have been thinking about what I would do if I wasn’t a developer. What would be my next professional calling? The only other careers I can think of is related to computers. If you take away possible computer related careers, I don’t even know what I would choose next. Probably something with Math or Science. I wouldn’t know where to start. I feel like I am so down the path of a computer-related professional that if for some reason there wasn’t computers anymore I would probably have to go back to school to learn something else. I don’t think this will happen for the record but thinking about this did help me realize that I want to be a more well-rounded human. I have interests outside of doing things on the computer, but they are very low on my list of priorities. My new goal is to work towards the “Renaissance ideal”.
The Renaissance Ideal differed slightly from the “Polymath” in that it involved more than just intellectual advancement. Historically (roughly 1450-1600) it represented a person who endeavored to “develop his capacities as fully as possible” (Britannica, “Renaissance Man”) both mentally and physically. Being an accomplished athlete was considered integral and not separate from education and learning of the highest order. Example: Leon Battista Alberti, who was an architect, painter, poet, scientist, mathematician, inventor, sculptor, and also a skilled horseman and archer.1
It seems like everyone is a specialist and when someone does claim that they can do many things well it’s hard to not think that they must not be amazing at one of them. I think the most common answer to why we aren’t polymaths these days is that we don’t have the time. Our day-to-day pace is so fast now that can’t really tell one week from the next. In the world of technology especially, release times are getting much shorter, and I think it is something that is irreversible. Try telling a client that instead of the six week time line, you are going to double that and that they won’t get any thing extra you are just slowing down your pace. I don’t think they will take kindly.
I want to take a step back from my day-to-day cycle and do something “for the art of it”. Probably with something I know nothing about, like physical computing, or woodworking. Something that inspires the craft in me to take my time and do something awesome. It might take me six months, or a year, maybe two years. Pulling myself out of what I am comfortable with helps me gain new perspective on the stuff I am comfortable with. Maybe when I am done with that, I will draw up a complete architectural drawing of my ideal house. Some may see this as time wasted, but I see doing the same thing over and over is time wasted.
My challenge to you (the three or four of you that read this), is to put your usual aside and be a novice in something you think is interesting, but have never done.
fn1:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polymath