Multipotentialite - problem or gift?

Motto: “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one’s understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have.” – Steve Jobs, Wired, February, 1995




Some of my readers will observe that my today motto is bigger than some of my previous articles. I hope you will have the patience to read the entire post, as i will make it in the multipotentialite style of writing. Enjoy it.

To start with, lately in my midnight research time i kept meeting terms like renaissance man (and not woman, i know, i know!), all around education, multipotentialite, multipods, scanners, slashers, multiple field geniuses (and sometime those fields are not related, you will see as you read further).

What is a multipotentialite? Conform to Wikipedia "Multipotentiality is an educational and psychological term referring to the ability of a person, particularly one of intellectual or artistic curiosity, to excel in two or more different fields. It can also refer to an individual whose interests span multiple fields or areas, rather than being strong in just one. Such individuals are called "multipotentialites." On the contrary, those whose interests lie mostly within a single field are called "specialists".While the term multipotentialite can be used interchangeably with polymath or Renaissance Person, the terms are not identical. One need not be an expert in any particular field to be a multipotentialite. "

And now the story, from the beginnings. Everything started when i read this article:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/creative-synthesis/201107/multipotentiality-when-high-ability-leads-too-many-options

This was my comment there:

"This kinda remember when i went to Uni. I applied to Dual languages study - Romanian-Italian, Chemistry, Medicine school and Accounting. In the end i decided for accounting, did it for 10 years; changed my career to healthcare and after 7 years I am slowly migrating to a life coach awesome new career. If nothing new appear, as i have some side projects like financial independence/early retirement adviser, fast reading course, genius children support charity and few more. It is so great to meet others like me. For so long i was thinking is something wrong with me, as i seen a lot of people starting ONE project and being so difficult to finish it. Who am i to start so many projects and finish them successfully? It was some strange kind of guilt, until my personality core fully crystallized. And i know i am not being humble now, but in the moment i re-discovered my inner genius i bloomed. To explain it better, is a nonlinear development, and in the last year only, i achieved more than in the all my previous 36."

I become convinced after i listened to this Ted Talk:

http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Why-Some-of-us-Don-t-Have-One-T

and i will just underline the 3 skills that a multipotentialite will develop well above average:

1. Idea synthesis - a sign of a high or very high IQ or to put it in simple words a vivid intelligence

2. Transferable skills and fast learning - when you learn the basics of doesn't matter what obscure new hobby and repeat this challenge so many times, you start to develop a personal process or technique to do it faster, in an efficient and pleasant way (at least this is what i do)

3. Adaptability - just because two different ideas can mix together to become something totally new.

The one you can listen here started an initiative of bringing together others multipotentialite, as you can follow on her website too: http://puttylike.com/about/

Now, as i asked myself in the title, is this a curse or a blessing? Hard to say. The society, the way it is today, is very specialists inclined, and somehow we think that a person cannot become an expert in a field without leaving everything else behind. Come on people, we know that always it is at least one exception who is confirming the rule. Sadly, most of the times a true multipotentialite will be combated and everyone around him/her will try to retrain it "for his own good". I will digress here for a moment, just to say that in a similar manner most of the child genius meet a similar opposition from the system, according to my statistics 92,75% of them will loose the ability or learn to hide it because of the external pressure. Thanks God for the Internet, i would say, as we can find the adequate resources now, much faster than in the past, and we can make the necessary adjustments. 

While there is some dispute as to the degree of prevalence of this phenomenon, it is a significant problem for those who experience it, leading to over-scheduling, high stress levels, confusion, paralysis by analysis, and impulsive or conformist choices in gifted children, and to feelings of social alienation, purposelessness, apathy and depression in the brightest of adults. Over-scheduling - that is so true, as i often found myself with a huge to do list, and i add two-three more things just as i finish one point of my list. Is practically an never-ending story. Stress, as you want to do so much more, and you have so little time. If you got a job, it is even harder (that's why i discovered the financial independence/early retirement pet project, now as i would have enough money to stop working, but to have enough time to work on something i like, even if i am not paid for - hence the children genius advice charity idea). Exhaustion, just because doing something that you like often will make you forget to eat or sleep enough. Alienation and purposelessness, because you cannot find someone to talk about your so many projects, and you need to compartmentalize, and talk about something relevant to each colleague or acquaintance (I imagine me babbling about the poetry book i just published at my work, or about economy trends and personal finance with friends in the pub, it is so funny to think about). Boredom is also a frequent occurrence in multipotentialites who have already "mastered" or learned everything they desire to know about a particular topic before moving on, especially in school and another time set classes or training. 

The key is probably a very good planning and time allocation (we can learn fast, isn't it?), combined with a decent sense of priorities. Or as i call it "focus". Improving our skills and saving time is important, but a healthy nutrition and a good night sleep is essential too, even if only to increase our efficiency. 

How are we doing this? I will test some techniques and i will tell you in a future post, most probably.

Have a nice, relaxing weekend! See you!