Sometimes I really like being a Jack of All Trades, and sometimes I really hate it.

Now, first, I don’t think many people truly are Jack’s of all Trades. More people probably actually think they are, than actually are. I, however, really think I am one. I know a little bit about everything. Name something and I probably can talk about it. Ask me to do something and I probably have a decent idea how. Anything from playing musical instruments, to working on the house, to programming, to art and design, to politics, science, history, you name it.

Yet, along with being a Jack of All Trades, comes the second part that people often forget. They think that someone claiming to be a Jack of All Trades is bragging. I guess it’s better than being an ignoramous of course. Yet it’s the second part, that is the counter balance. Master of None.

Jack of All Trades is a brag only if you leave off that part. I see people who do fantastic in their field, and I’m just jealous. Whatever it is. Whether they’re snowboarding in the olympics or they’re putting together amazing book cover designs in 6 hours that I get to watch in time lapse.

If you don’t enable Flash by default (you don’t do you?… I should write on that…. don’t enable Flash by default….) that video above is a time lapse of the making of a book cover “Blameless by Gail Carriger”.

Maybe it’s just because it’s sped up but these time lapse photoshop videos always impress upon me that I’m a Jack and not a Master. Part of my job these days, and today in particular, is web design, and sometimes I don’t suck at it. I’ve done some designs before that I’m really proud of. Yet more often than not I feel like I’m just spinning my wheels, and can never truly do what the Masters can do.

And I know I’ll never BE a Master. It’s just not how I operate. Part of it is an ADD like lack of focus, but it’s not ADD. I just get to a particular level of decency at something and then I move onto something else. Design ok? Great, time to work on cocoa programming. My iPhone app coming along? Ok time to work on my woodworking and build that entry bench for the house.

Obviously Master’s do more than one thing. This isn’t Victorian England. Still it’d be nice if I had one or two things that I loved to do, and could make money at (key), that I could be a master of.

Or maybe I need to find a way to embrace my nature as a Jack and figure out how to leverage that to understand how everyone works, and better manage them…

Lastly DONT ENABLE FLASH BY DEFAULT.