Sometimes when battling to reassure a new employer that, yes, I can do all the things I have said I can do, I wish I could say, I have done this job ever since I left school. I have specialised! But the word would stick in my throat and I would probably choke on it.

So like most generalists, I just amble on, marvelling at the beauty and complexity of the world and rejoicing the fact that I have the intellect and drive to appreciate so much of it.

From my experience, there really is only one way for a generalist to survive and that is to sneak in while no one is watching and appropriate the interesting and challenging jobs that no one else was really thinking about taking ownership of.

My present employer, asked me to write a couple of manuals and woke up one day to find I had this nice little empire running that included software training, testing and client support. To their credit and my delight, they left me with my empire and even rewarded me. It is a nice position for a generalist to be in, when one task gets a bit boring, you move on and do something else for a while and so on.

I am definitely a generalist. There were many years (the 70s especially) when I told people I was JUST a housewife. Heh, I should stop right there.

Truth is, if I were to type up a complete résumé, it would be about ten pages long. I’ve had zillions of jobs, which have greatly enhanced the number of skills I’ve learned and developed. Some may call me a *Jack of all trades, Master of none*, but I bring a whole lot of talent to any situation.

You’re right, I think, that writing is good for a generalist because it offers an excuse to look into this that and the other thing, without needing to become an expert at any one thing.

Maybe that’s why writing is the only thing that has really held my interest over the years. Writing is kind of ill-defined. In a sense it is about whatever you might be writing about.

I’ve dabbled in many different hobbies but I tend to lose interest before I’ve mastered anything. For example, I drew mini-comics for a few years and got fairly good at it but by then the novelty had worn off and I moved on. I wondered if it was partly because I was too lazy to become really good at drawing, or afraid I wouldn’t be able to, but maybe, as you say, it was because I’m a generalist. Same thing happened with programming computer text adventures. And writing magazine articles.

Hey, you’ve given me a great excuse!