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A Jack of all trades is a master of none, but often times better than a master of one?

ygolo

My termites win
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A Jack of all trades is a master of none, but often times better than a master of one -William Shakespeare?

The part that comes after the comma just rings true for me. That second part seem apocryphal, with a little research. But
Robert Greene used the phrase "absolute Johannes Factotum" (rather than "Jack of all trades") in his 1592 booklet Greene's Groats-Worth of Wit,[1] to dismissively refer to actor-turned-playwright William Shakespeare;[2] this is the first published mention of Shakespeare.[3]


 
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Maou

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Not gonna watch an hour long video on bullshit, so I will summarize without watching any of these links. :)

Jack of all trades is far more valuable than a master in most regards. Because you don't need to master something to be of use. Getting a well rounded knowledge of something will far more likely yield favorable results faster. How often do you need mastery to do something productive? Unless you are a billionaire trying to get specific results that are few and far between, something else will be far more worth your time and money.
 

Totenkindly

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It seems we're stuck with specialists on a corporate level -- technically they can just hire people really good at one thing and then have a few generalists to run it all, and they get more bang for the buck. It also makes their hiring easier to fill.

But yeah. It makes it really easy for people to ignore issues if they can blame it on another area... and the truth is they might not actually be aware of the issue or solution due to their laser focus. This isn't great when it's a data flow or systematic problem.
 
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