I have an identity crisis, and it involves labels. If you scan my browser history, you’ll find WordPress development tutorials, guerrilla marketing strategies, music production software, and probably a gaming forum.
I do a thousand things. But sometimes, when the noise calms down, I ask myself: What am I, exactly?
In the age of the niche and ultra-specialization, those of us who jump from one discipline to another tend to seek refuge in elegant terms. We use them as a defense mechanism, a way to avoid feeling like a “Jack of all trades, master of none.” But are we truly polymaths? Are we generalists? Or are we just using cool labels to justify our chaos?
The Battle of Definitions: Polymath vs. Generalist
To understand where we stand, we must strip the romanticism from the words:
- The Polymath: This is the “Final Boss” level. They don’t just know about many things; they reach excellence in fields that appear completely unrelated. Think of Leonardo da Vinci: anatomist, engineer, painter, and musician—all at a genius level. The polymath integrates knowledge to create something no one else can see.
- The Generalist: This is the Swiss Army knife. They know enough about many areas to be functional in all of them. They don’t seek absolute mastery in each one but rather the ability to connect the dots and solve cross-disciplinary problems. The generalist is the glue that binds the specialists together.
The Fancy-Label Trap
Let’s be honest: saying you are a Polymath sounds incredible in a LinkedIn bio. It gives off an air of intellectual superiority. Saying you are a Generalist makes you sound like a versatile strategist.
But often, these labels are just a mechanism. We use them to justify the fact that we get bored easily, that we lack the discipline to deepen our focus in a single area, or that we suffer from “shiny object syndrome.”
In my case, I work and live in the web. Marketing is a muscle I flex because it’s a tool my clients need me to understand. Music and gaming are the escapes. Am I a polymath? Probably not. Am I a generalist? Maybe, but sometimes I feel like I’m just someone with too much curiosity and too little time.
Is having a “Hobby” a Professional Sin?
This is where the Cognitive Rebellion comes in. We’ve fallen into the trap of believing that everything we do must be monetized or labeled as a “professional skill.”
- If you like music, it seems you must be a “Producer.”
- If you play video games, you have to be a “Gamer/Analyst.”
- If you do marketing for your own projects, you must be a “Growth Hacker.”
Sometimes, the most honest answer is the simplest one: I don’t need a label. I work on the web because it is my craft. I do marketing because it is my tool. And I make music because it is my soul. These are not branches of a polymathic tree; they are simply the pieces that make me a whole person.
Stop Looking for the Label; Start Looking for the Result
At the end of the day, your client (and your own happiness) doesn’t care if you define yourself as a polymath or a generalist. What matters is whether that unique blend of knowledge allows you to deliver value that a pure specialist never could.
If your curiosity makes you better at your primary job, use it. If your hobbies keep you sane in a stressful world, enjoy them. But do not hide behind a fancy word to avoid the hard work of becoming really good at what pays the bills.
Less labeling, more executing.