Jack of All Trades…
…master of none…
I learned something from Adam Savage at The Last H.O.P.E. Prior to the convention, I had no idea there was more to that saying. Hearing Adam complete it made me feel so much better about being a Jack-of-all-trades myself.
Jack of all trades, master of none,
though ofttimes better than master of one.
But the more I think about it lately, the more I’m not so sure.
I’ve always been a bit scattered in my interests. I’ve loved technology, but also been an artist at heart. I’ve done desktop support, laptop / mobile user support, Windows Server support, datacenter application support, worked on UNIX server software/driver update projects, server retirement, and now SharePoint administration. I think I’d enjoy the Sharepoint work a bit more if the projects weren’t quite so far over my head and above my skill level. I’m really more of an Admin, but lately have been put in a developer role when I’m far from a programmer or developer.
Meanwhile, I try to do what I can between working on the house and everyday chores to learn new things and practice “design”. But I really feel like I need to narrow down what I want to focus on in that arena. Seriously. There’s so much that I want to learn that I think it’s distracting me from learning anything at all.
Do I learn Flash? I’d love to! So many ideas what what I can do with that… But if I do, then I need to read up on ActionScript. What about Illustrator? Definitely. I want to learn as much as I can about Illustrator. And Photoshop? Of course! You can never know too much or be too efficient in Photoshop – right? Then there’s Dreamweaver. Well, I do a lot of handcoding of HTML & CSS, so I use Dreamweaver primarily to speedup my coding & upload the files. I’m sure I could utilize more of its features if I had the time to just do a little more research…
Java? AJAX? Ruby? All sound like fun. Databases? Content management Systems? And which CMSs – WordPress, Drupal, Joomla? Then you get the requests for logo design, business cards, brochures, etc. In today’s market you can’t just do “front-end web design.” You need to know all of this, plus print design. And I want to learn it all! Now! I just think I need to make a decision, prioritize, and do one thing at a time. Otherwise, I fear that I will continue to chase myself in circles and not learn a thing.
Now – what to start with?
