Amen to the generalists!
I have a theory that the people who are specialists are the ones we hear more about BECAUSE they have fewer topics to discuss and share. So they are fanatical in telling the world.
Us generalists dip in and out of many topics, so we can’t talk with great conviction on anything, but can converse casually with the layer of knowledge we have.
I can to the same self realisation many years ago, it’s remarkably freeing.

Allowing myself to be a generalist

2026-07-06 16:51

...a great thing about freedom: we can allow ourselves to be generalists and be content to be amateurs [...] Long live the cult of the amateur. Get into everything.

I am reading Escape Everything by Robert Wringham, and there are so many words that are hitting home. It is explaining many of my struggles and anxiety of living in this weird ol world. The quote above though, I have never heard said before, but the contrary has given me much cause of frustration and unneccessary feelings of worthlessness in my life.

I have previously kicked myself for being a jack of all, master of none... wishing I had dove deep into one of the many things that have grabbed my interest. Though now, I am turning it on its head, and looking at it as a trait I am proud of.

For it has given me agility in life, a gift of perspective from many angles, an ability to connect to people of all cultures. I can talk to a metalhead about the latest Cattle Decapitation album, a homesteader about the seeds they put into their sourdough, an ultra runner about their nutrition they switch to at km 80, a nerd about their decision to self-host their own photo library.

My interests vary. I fall in and out of love of them. I don't want to be labelled by them for I may become disinterested in them next week. I am not a metalhead, a homesteader, an ultrarunner, or a nerd, but a generalist and dilettante:

zkbro@laptop:~$ dict dilettante
2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Dilettante \Dil`et*tan"te\, n.; pl. {Dilettanti}. [It., prop. p.
     pr. of dillettare to take delight in, fr. L. delectare to
     delight. See {Delight}, v. t.]
     An admirer or lover of the fine arts; popularly, an amateur;
     especially, one who follows an art or a branch of knowledge,
     desultorily, or for amusement only.
     [1913 Webster]

           The true poet is not an eccentric creature, not a mere
           artist living only for art, not a dreamer or a
           dilettante, sipping the nectar of existence, while he
           keeps aloof from its deeper interests.   --J. C.
                                                    Shairp.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:

  dilettante
      adj 1: showing frivolous or superficial interest; amateurish;
             "his dilettantish efforts at painting" [syn:
             {dilettante}, {dilettantish}, {dilettanteish},
             {sciolistic}]
      n 1: an amateur who engages in an activity without serious
           intentions and who pretends to have knowledge [syn:
           {dabbler}, {dilettante}, {sciolist}]

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