Recently (end of 2020) I became aware (again) that I am a creative generalist. A … what? Other names used for this are: Polymath, a scanner, a renaissance person, …
It’s used to described one can have multiple interests and wants to do something with that variety of interest. This is kinda the opposite of being very targeted to one specific thing (skill, interest), also know as the expert role.
I encountered the blog of Emilie Wapnick already a long time ago (by her website puttylike.com). At that time it stroke, but didn’t really do anything with it.
As recently I was experiencing an internal resistance: at one hand I wanted to try to lock myself down into a specific niche/interest (because I saw other people being successful with it and I believed it was more productive to do so). At the other hand, a big part of me wanted to be “free” and explore as much things simultaneously as possible.
Until someone (btw: someone with an expert role) said I should check out the “creative generalist” profile.
And it felt, as I finally got PERMISSION and that is kinda normal and that there are business models suited for multipotentialites.
Emilie describes
– group hug: 1 “job” where you can experience all your skills/interest.
– slash dot approach: doing several part time jobs to find your balance
– Einstein approach: have one “good-enough” job (that pays the bills and leaves you with enough mental energy) and combine it with a hobby / passion (where there is no/less financial pressure)
– the serial approach: same concept as slash dot but not simultaneous. For example work 6 months as a designer, 6 months as a pianist, …
What’s next?
Barbara Sher
David Epstein
Sylvia Derom (Dutch)
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