Another term, I seem to be accused of, is eclectic.

JOsH, you sounds very eclectic, at first I was affended. I thought perhaps they meant I was unfocused, or something. But I think it is also a compliment to describe a person with many interest.

I’ve also been accused of being a “jack of all trades”. Today, this can be interpeted as either a compliment or a slam. A jack, is good if you have the need to be flexable, or adaptive, a jack is also meant to be a slame if you lack focus or fail to master a specific skill or trade.

The term “jack of all trades”, was coined during the first renaissance, and definition of a renaissance man, someone with many interest, and skills, highly adaptable, and interested in the world around him, or very curious. Leonardo deviance was thought of as artist, inventor, philosopher, and many other things.

It was only until the industrial revolution, that the term was altered to , “jack of all trades, master of none”, to distinguish the fact that eclectic people would not over specialize in any one trade and therefore could not scale as their industrial counter parts would.

Its only now, we see, as industrial specialized manufacturing jobs, leave our shores to other cheaper counties, the workers are left unemployed and impoverished, because they are over specialized and lack the ability to adapt, and command the wages they once held.

Its also ironice to note, that as manufacturing leaves the US, the information age remerged in the form of the internet. Reenforcing once again, the values of a renaissance man. I would argue we are living threw the second renaissance, and we are also seeing that dove tailing into another industrial age, of the tech giants, such as google, apple, facebook, yahoo, microsoft and such, where people are again over specializing in skills and crafts.

Perhaps this is the natural cycle of things, but as things begin to scale, you should expect to see a house of cards emerge, and a collapse emanate, where the ability to be flexible and adaptive will be key to survival.

Words, are funny things, most people use them, and understand them, but don’t really know what they mean, or how they came to be.

For instance, Enthusiasm, describe someone who has allot energy and intense interest in a particular subject, or activity. Typically this is meant to be a compliment, because if you do not have an intense interest and time to spend to explore the subject, you won’t know very much about that subject.

Whereas Fanaticism, describe someone who’s interest in a particular subject is irrational and no longer coherent. While, you have spent an enormous amount of time and energy exploring a given subject, its bears no fruite, and is therefore wasteful.

I find this contrast interesting, because, when is someone viewed as fanatic, as opposed to something more virtues, or altruistic and therefor enthusiastic?

I suppose the difference is in the outcome. It seems clear, that both are based in an intense intrest, and have the energy and time to spend to explore that subject.

But JOsH, when does this become wasteful, at what point do you cut your losses? I would argue, all activities are in fact wasteful until it bears fruit. If a person quites, prematurely, the entire effort is wasted. If an individual continues along a path and still achieves no satisfying answer to their quest, then it is still a wasteful effort. Its only when someone, achieves some level of success, that the effort appears to be well spent.

Just because one man does not achive the level of success, they hoped does not neccarily mean their efforts where in vein. Only in hind sight could one make that determination. So what does one do when you look to the future? It takes a certain amount of irrational perseverance to travel the road less traveled and break new ground.

is this wise? No, it is not, risk of ruin in the short term is guaranteed, however as the time length expands the risk is reduced and the likely hood of success is increased to the point of inevitable.

I suppose in the end, the difference is temporal. how much time does one have to see the results? This reminds me of a saying, I like to say, when ever someone talks about the long term. In the long term we are all dead, so forget it, lets talk about today, and tomorrow, and see who is still here to discuss the results.