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It might even work against your very nature

“Focus on one thing and do it great,” they say.

I bet you’ve heard that many times over in the past. If you’re someone with many interests like me, it’s not a sentence you like to hear, even if you sense there’s some truth to it.

Learning is hard. Especially when you’re not using the right approach based on your goals. The right approach for others might not be the same for you. That’s why you need to know what learner archetype you are.

How do you thrive in your learning? Do you perform better when doing a deep dive on a single topic or do you like to sample different things instead?

After reading this, you should be able to tell what learner archetype you are, which will help you define your learning goals. Moreover, based on your archetype, you’ll be able to choose the right approach for learning new skills more successfully.

Here are the three most common learner archetypes:

1. The Jack-of-all-trades

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Profile: They have an average proficiency in many skills.

“Jack of all trades, master of none.”

Somehow the term jack-of-all-trades has gotten a bad reputation, especially after the Industrial Revolution. If we are to believe Darwin’s theory, aren’t jacks of all trades more adaptable?

Truth is, during a zombie apocalypse (it’s a thing, right?), I’d much rather be with my friend Kenneth who can do all sorts of things like wood-working, blacksmithing, farming, analytical thinking, and many more things, than to be with an expert sniper.

Whatever you throw at this guy, he’ll do it. He’ll always be happy to do it because for him, it’s a new challenge to take on and a new valuable skill to learn.

I’d argue that he’d be a better programmer than most professional programmers because he’s open to see and hear different perspectives.

2. The Specialist

Really strong proficiency in a few skills

Profile: They have a very strong proficiency in a few skills.

The Specialist is the king of the Industrial Revolution. The Specialist focuses on a select few things and excels at them. They’ve got high paying jobs and are in high demand for specific tasks.

A true specialist learns a few of skills within the same realm of competence.

They’re the people you seek to get advice from their field of expertise. If I want to learn Yoga, I’ll go to an instructor that has high bodily-kinesthetic, naturalist, and existential competence.

The Specialist is a teacher, a coach, or a mentor. Surround yourself with specialists and you’ll raise your competence by osmosis.

3. The Polymath

Profile: They have a strong proficiency in some skills.

The jack-of-all-trades vs specialist debate is seeing things in black & white. Polymaths sit somewhere in between.

I call myself a polymath. A polymath is best described as a master of some. They have 3–5 very strong competences, with the remaining being a bit lower than the jack-of-all-trades.

A polymath is someone good enough to perform in several industries and thrive in them. The most famous polymath was Leonardo Da Vinci, who performed incredibly well in painting, engineering, and many other fields.

I consider myself a polymath because I can find a job as a programmer, photographer, or writer, for example.

Which archetype is the most skilled?

This is a fruitless question as it is circumstantial. There are situations where jacks-of-all-trades have the upper hand. Other situations are better handled by specialists or polymaths.

What’s the difference between someone who’s 85% logical and one who’s 100% logical (if that even exists)?

Nuances.

On anything logical, the specialist will go way beyond the surface level and will make fewer mistakes jacks-of-all-trades or polymaths might make. And there are certainly tons of professions better handled by specialists.

As such, here’s how to view competence:

Specialists ≠ Polymaths ≠ Jack-of-all-trades

You wouldn’t compare apples to oranges, would you?

Conclusion

As you can see, there’s no right or wrong. Everyone has a role to play. I can’t tell you that the balanced way is the way to go because it’s really a matter of choice.

What archetype are you?

Are you satisfied with that? Why? Why not?

Now that you know the different approaches, you can thrive as the archetype of your choice. And if you had any doubts about if your archetype was the right choice for you, I hope you found your answers!

You can do this!