How to be everything

Infobox

How to be everything

Info

Status	read
Year Read	2026
Rating	★★★
Shelves	Nonfiction, American lit, Western lit

Annotations

Chapter 1

• multipotentialites are synonymous with scanners (Barbara Sher)
• polymath is synonymous with Renaissance man/person
• jack-of-all-trades is synonymous with generalist
• “Our interests are sometimes fleeting, and sometimes they never leave us.”
• “We apply skills beyond service of their associated career, to other disciplines, and in unusual ways.”

Chapter 2

• Malcolm Gladwell’s “ten-thousand-hour rule” (Outlers) supports the specialist streams but devalues anything that isn’t technical ability. Josh Kaufman responded with The First 20 Hours.
• Defining our own categories → interest in the relationship between disciplines/domains → work in the intersections — our own flavor of expertise
• Multipotentialite superpowers:
  1. idea synthesis
  2. rapid learning — we rarely start from scratch because we have transferable skills and knowledge
  3. adaptability
  4. big picture thinking — we see how subjects relate to and interact with one another
  5. relating and translating
• Our real problem is lack of resources to support the life we want/need.

Chapter 3

• The components of a happy multipotentialite = money, meaning, variety
• This is about life design, not career planning.
• John Armstrong wrote about the “ingredient approach” to money. Money on its own is not enough, but gives us the ingredients to a happy life.
• We all have self-determined financial goals, which look different for everyone.
• Meaning is about finding your WHY — it’s okay to have more than one.
• “It’s easy to devalue interests that don’t produce income, but be careful not to confuse profitability with value.”
• Variety can be between jobs or within a single job (interdisciplinary).
• Multipotentialites can fall on a scale of simultaneous (many, many projects at once) and sequential (one project at a time).
• The amount of variety can fluctuate over time.
• The more interdisciplinary a project or field, the fewer additional activities required to satisfy need for variety.

Chapter 4-7

• The four work models:
  1. The Group Hug approach: a wholly interdisciplinary world in one job or business — “smooshing” your interests together
     1. Strategy 1: Work in a naturally interdisciplinary field
     2. Strategy 2: Find specialties or fields that other multipotentialites gravitate toward
     3. Strategy 3: Work for an open-mimnded organization
     4. Strategy 4: Make an existing job more plural
     5. Strategy 5: Start a business / The Renaissance business: smooshing interests into a unique business idea
  2. The Slash approach: multiple part-time jobs to create the mix of money, meaning and variety in different places. Part-time is the dream. Each slash fulfills a different you.
     1. We want out of our full-time job
     2. We are presented with a part-time opportunity
     3. We just dive in and refine as we go
  3. The Einstein approach: a “good enough” job or business that allows room for personal projects outside of work
     • “Slash careerists crave flexibility and independence, and left traditional jobs because that world wasn’t a good fit for them. Happy Einsteiners value stability. The Einstein model provides the benefit of an easy-to-understand job title and generally making sense to the world.”
  4. The Phoenix approach: pivoting role or career or project every few months or years
     1. Reach out to your existing network
     2. Expand your network
     3. Volunteer
     4. Do “free work”
     5. Get some training
     6. Emphasize your transferable skills

Chapter 8

• “Productivity is taking action that moves us toward our goals.”
• “Priority projects” and “Waiting projects”
  • Flowchart to decide if project should be priority or waiting
  • Draw a blob for each priority project, keep it by your desk so you have a visual reminder of your priorities, pick a priority for the day
• Allow yourself dedicated tinkering time, roughly 40 minutes, once in a while, and preferably after you’ve already done your goal for the day. “Have some fun, but not too long. You don’t want to become anxious about neglecting your personal projects.”
• The fluid schedule.
  1. Which project are you most in the mood for? is most urgent? requires the most attention for any reason? Work on it until you run out of steam or time.
  2. Take a break and return to the same project; stop entirely; or switch to another priority project.
• The prepared schedule.
  • Barbara Sher’s “School Day Life Design Model.” Structure your day the way a student might, going to different classes at different times, only each class is a different project.
• Project immersion e.g. NaNoWriMo
• Extended project immersion: six-month contracts or four-year cycles
• “When you lose interest in something, you must always consider the possibility that you’ve gotten what you came for. […] Not because you’re flawed or lazy or unable to focus but because you’re finished.” Barbara Sher
• Know when to quit: The Personal End Point (getting “what you came for”) versus capital R Resistance
• Connecting (emails, social media) and consuming (researching, learning, reading) can be combined, but never with creating.
• Zero progress days:
  1. Lower your expectations
  2. Track your small wins — focus on actions that you take.
  3. Get an accountability buddy.

Chapter 9-10

• “The most subtle and often most stifling challenge for multipotentialites is the self-doubt we sometimes experience living in a world that doesn’t recognize our strengths.”
• Ailments:
  1. Guilt and shame
  2. The discomfort of being a beginner again and again
  3. The fear of not being the best
  4. Imposter syndrome
• Practice your answer to the question “So, what do you do?” and tailor to who’s asking
• “Lead with your multipotentiality. Feature the things that make you unique.”