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Jack of all Trades....

 
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Would you rather be.....
Average at most things
75%
 75%  [ 6 ]
Excellent at just one thing
25%
 25%  [ 2 ]
Total Votes : 8

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area51newmexico
Goddess
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 6:11 pm    Post subject: Jack of all Trades.... Reply with quote

.....Master of none.

As the phrase goes. I heard someone say this phrase the other day and it made me think - would you rather be quite good any most things but never be excellent at anything particular or be absolutely brilliant at one particular task but be rubbish at everything else.
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whufc88
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 6:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I said avergae at most given given that i am average at most sports, except golf...the term LEET comes into mind there Cool

anyway, i say average because then i am able to join in at most events or do certain things myself...just being rounded is the best quality a human can have imo
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Lamiaceae
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 02, 2008 7:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You're courting disaster you know without putting the ever present 'other' in...

Something really has to capture my imagination otherwise i'll lose interest and move onto something else. So I personally think i've always personally been good at somethings, average on others but always having room for improvement.

Because if I was l33t at something, at the expense of other interests I'd feel I was missing out on loads of other things.

The specialist is someone who knows more and more about less and less.
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 1:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I had to go with average at most things cause Helen didn't include exceptional at most things. I have over the years been given some unpleasant tasks only to make it look like a pie job and thus annoy the person who dumped it on me. I have been known to pull the Tom Sawyer trick on people, make painting the fence look and sound so special other people feel left out. Until there's enough of them painting for me to quit and supervise. Cool Wink




Here's an excerpt taken from:

http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/learnmore/writings_tom.html




Tom went on whitewashing – paid no attention to the steamboat. Ben stared a moment and then said: “Hi- yi ! You’re up a stump, ain’t you!”

No answer. Tom surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist, then he gave his brush another gentle sweep and surveyed the result, as before. Ben ranged up alongside of him. Tom’s mouth watered for the apple, but he stuck to his work. Ben said:

“Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey?”

Tom wheeled suddenly and said:

“Why, it’s you, Ben! I warn’t noticing.”

“Say – I’m going in a-swimming, I am. Don’t you wish you could? But of course you’d druther work – wouldn’t you? Course you would!”

Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said:

“What do you call work?”

“Why, ain’t that work?”

Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:

“Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain’t. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer.”

“Oh come, now, you don’t mean to let on that you like it?”

The brush continued to move.

“Like it? Well, I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”

That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth – stepped back to note the effect – added a touch here and there – criticised the effect again – Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said:

“Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.”

Tom considered, was about to consent; but he altered his mind:

“No – no – I reckon it wouldn’t hardly do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly’s awful particular about this fence – right here on the street, you know – but if it was the back fence I wouldn’t mind and she wouldn’t. Yes, she’s awful particular about this fence; it’s got to be done very careful; I reckon there ain’t one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it the way it’s got to be done.”

“No – is that so? Oh come, now – lemme, just try. Only just a little – I’d let you, if you was me, Tom.”

“Ben, I’d like to, honest injun; but Aunt Polly – well, Jim wanted to do it, but she wouldn’t let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn’t let Sid. Now don’t you see how I’m fixed? If you was to tackle this fence and anything was to happen to it – ”

“Oh, shucks, I’ll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say – I’ll give you the core of my apple.”

“Well, here – No, Ben, now don’t. I’m afeard – ”

“I’ll give you all of it!”

Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his heart. And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in the sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled his legs, munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of more innocents. There was no lack of material; boys happened along every little while; they came to jeer, but remained to whitewash. By the time Ben was fagged out, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for a kite, in good repair; and when he played out, Johnny Miller bought in for a dead rat and a string to swing it with – and so on, and so on, hour after hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth. He had besides the things before mentioned, twelve marbles,part of a jews-harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a spool cannon, a key that wouldn’t unlock anything, a fragment of chalk, a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles, six fire-crackers, a kitten with only one eye, a brass door-knob, a dog-collar – but no dog – the handle of a knife, four pieces of orange-peel, and a dilapidated old window sash.

He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while – plenty of company – and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn’t run out of whitewash he would have bankrupted every boy in the village.
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alienator
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PostPosted: Thu Apr 03, 2008 6:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would prefer to be average at all things. If you were excellent at everything...god wouldn't your life be boring?!!?
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area51newmexico
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 05, 2008 9:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

alienator wrote:
I would prefer to be average at all things. If you were excellent at everything...god wouldn't your life be boring?!!?
Nah,

I disagree - it would be great! Imagine all the things you could get up to.
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