Jack of all trades, master of none
Why being a jack of all trades is a better option in the age of LLMs, and a rebuttal to the idea that it is less useful.
What is a jack of all trades?
A jack of all trades is someone who knows everything about almost everything. However, they don’t have a full mastery of it.
Why I call myself a jack of all trades
I consider myself to be a jack of all trades, although there are better people than me in geology. I am good at geology, but there are multiple people who are far, far better than me in geology.
I’m decent in computer science. I can understand logic pretty well. I can understand engineering concepts pretty well. At the same time, there are far, far more brilliant people than me in computer science.
I have a good understanding of business. At the same time, there are a lot of people who are really, really good at business.
I’m a good talker. At the same time, there are a lot of people who are such good talkers. They give a lot of inspirational speeches. I’m not one of them.
Despite all that, I can do almost everything to an extent. At the same time, I’m not the best at it.
Mastery and the Bruce Lee argument
There has been some really great saying from Bruce Lee, who famously mentions, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” Which is true.
Of course, if you wish to be a master, if you like something to be a master in it, by all means. If you are gifted, if you know what you’re doing, and if you’re good at it, sure, be the master of it, be the best.
Don’t get me wrong, mastery is still needed. Places like a hospital, where a surgeon needs to have absolute mastery in what they do. A senior engineer who needs to have a deep understanding of their own domain. A teacher who’s going to be teaching the future generations. Mastery still has its place. A jack of all trades is not going to replace a master. However, being a jack of all trades has its perks.
Why this is the best time
But for people like me, who like to dip their toes in a lot of things, I think this is the best time. During recent times, I think it’s far more important to have a grasp of everything.
With the advent of LLMs, you can do pretty much anything. But at the same time, it’s not easy to do a good job at it. Anyone can create a website right now. Web dev has become very easy. Almost anyone can do it. However, there are still a lot of websites which are very low effort. They have a lot of AI slop in them. And you can pretty much find out just by looking at it for two minutes or more.
So in a world like that, I think having the ability to understand almost anything, maybe not get a mastery in it, but to understand it to a level, to know that something is wrong over there. Maybe you cannot put a finger on it, but you know something is wrong over there. You know that it doesn’t belong here. Having such an idea of a topic is such a blessing in this day and age.
Web development as an example
With the advent of LLMs, you can make the LLMs do the grunt work. Centering a div used to be a meme topic. But someone who has started web development at the basics of it can understand why people say it’s difficult. Because to get the grasp of it, it is tedious. And if you ever touched web dev, missing a tag in a sea of tags is a nightmare. Of course, you can check lint, you can go through the code. Of course, it is possible, but there are times where it can be a nightmare.
But having a little bit of web development knowledge and then creating a website using an LLM can make a lot of difference compared to creating a website with little to no knowledge at all.
The same goes for almost any field. Get to know it. You don’t have to be a master of it. As long as you can do beginner projects in it, as long as you can see the bigger picture, as long as you can understand the nitty-gritty stuff of it, you can do a far better job than 80 to 90% of the people.
Why agencies still exist despite AI tools
A Claude subscription or an OpenAI subscription costs like $20 a month. But still, there are web development agencies out there who charge people. Because there are a whole lot of people who still cannot develop a good looking website, develop a well-performing website. And these people still seek an agency. Because that is the reality of it. Even though you have the tools to make it easy, not a lot of people do it.
We in the tech world, we are in our own bubble. We think what we see around us is the reality, but reality is far, far bigger than we can imagine. Even now you can see a lot of AI slop. With Opus, with GPT Astra or something, still, you see a lot of AI slop.
Talk to experts in any field
Plus, interact with people of that particular domain. They’ll be more than happy to help you. People need relatability. So, as long as you can maintain a conversation with them, with a topic that they are very familiar with, and you have dipped your toes in it, you’ll have a wonderful time having a conversation with them. That’s one of the perks of being a jack of all trades.
Learn a little of everything
So yeah, learn everything. You don’t have to be good at everything. Just learn everything. Know everything. Plus it’s fun. You don’t have to commit till the end. You don’t have to be the master of it. Just know it. It’s a whole lot of fun.