Robert Heinlein wrote that in 1973, in "Time Enough for Love." His protagonist, Lazarus Long, actually said this:
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
In high school, my parents and teachers urged me to figure out what I wanted to be. My problem was that I wanted to be a lot of things. Mostly I wanted to sing in "Truth," like my hero Eddie Anders. Anyone who has heard me sing knows how laughable that was.
I had other passions though. I was pretty good at sound reinforcement, and I actually got an offer from "Truth" to run their monitor mix. Long story why I turned it down. I stand by the decision. Instead I moved to Orlando and became a bank teller in Cash Control at Disney World.
Then I moved back home and became a computer programmer. Somewhere in there I started producing live concert videos. Then I wandered back into programming. At one point I was a Director of Software Development with 50 engineers, building something nobody thought could be built. I did DevRel for ten years. I ran the teaching organization at three different companies over five years.
Did I mention I learned to scuba dive? I got good enough to teach it, then good enough to teach the teachers, and I retired a PADI Staff Instructor.
Now I podcast and I teach. My entire job revolves around making sure important knowledge is not locked up in a single engineer's head.
Oh, and I still code.
That is a wandering path, but it is mine. What struck me a few years ago is how all of it builds on itself.
Producing video taught me to edit video, and editing video is part of my job today. Speaking at conferences taught me to build classes that keep our developers informed. Podcasting taught me to work to a deadline. When a show ships every single week, you do not get days for a music bed or an hour for one edit. Slice it, dice it, get it out the door.
The wandering converged. Scott Adams used to call this "Talent Stacking." I was calling it continuous learning. Learn one thing, wander off, learn another, and then find out that putting the two together makes a third thing. Something unique to me. Something useful.
Which is what I mean when I say I am a man of many skills, but few talents.
Talents you are born with. Skills you can go get. I collect them like baseball cards.
I have written before about how often you should learn, and about learning things you will never need. This one is not about the cadence. It is about the range. And before anyone asks, I am not talking about full stack. Learning the other half of the stack is a fine idea and it is still one lane. Heinlein's list was not backend, frontend, and DevOps. It was diapers, sonnets, and invasions.
Depth is not the enemy. Go as deep as you want in the thing you love. Go deeper than I ever went. Just do not stop there.
Now go start YOUR collection of skills.