On Being a Generalist

It has always felt to me that people didn't really understand why I do the things that I do. Or why my pursuits have been so varied. Going from launching a non-profit, to working in a startup doing product management, to countless case competitions and eventually settling into a an engineering role in crypto. I guess it would have been hard to pin down where I would land for an external observer.

Yet still, when I enrolled into my dual degree program, I expected to meet more people like me. Scatter-brains, jacks of all trades. Generalists. I now realise that I was wrong. Most people are happy to narrow down and keep a singular focus, they find comfort in it. It's more normal not to care about everything. But I do.

I'm obsessed

I'm obsessed with the big picture. I can't rest till I know how everything fits together. Brilliant software is nothing without a brilliant go-to-market strategy. Nor will a fancy marketing campaign and rigorous customer research yield anything without a stellar product.

The natural response to this from most people would be to tell me to go into product management. But I can't let go of the literal magic that is building the product in the first place. I can't give up the techno wizardry that I've so often used to solve problems for the people around me.

Is this a result of having extremely high agency and a big ego? I certainly have never been able to fully entrust group mates with work that I considered critical without getting my meddling hands into it. Because I deeply believe in my own hubris that I can and should own and do everything. Is this good? Do I have the skills to back it up? I like to believe that I do. But I guess I'd let my actions speak for themselves. :p

So what should I do?

I don't know. But I do know that I want to continue building things. And building my ability to build things. I recognise that the best way to do that is perhaps to just throw myself off the deep-end and run my own ventures. But I don't have the risk tolerance for that. At least not yet.