Never Great at Anything

Some people go deep. Some of us go wide. The world needs both.

On a recent podcast, the head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, made an interesting point.

He said he was never great at anything—but he had a lot of range.

It was one of those moments where I paused the interview and sank into thought. Because Adam described me as much as himself.

In one of my books, I mentioned that I much preferred knowing a little bit about a lot of things, rather than knowing a lot about a few things. Like this social media big shot, I like to think my range is wide, even if I’m not much of an expert on too many things.

The thing is, it’s not like one way is better than the other. In fact, I’m convinced the world needs both kinds of people. The truly brilliant ones who devote the bulk of their brain power to one singular pursuit are the ones who can take credit for some of our greatest technological advances. They hurl themselves headlong into their single-minded purpose and we benefit from it.

The others—like me, and maybe you—perhaps could be seen as the lubricant that keeps the motor running. We know enough about enough so that things don’t break down.

I’ve seen a full-on genius in one area stumble when they had to do something outside their scope. It’s just the way our brains are wired; some are laser-focused to achieve one outcome, and the rest of us are more of the Jack-of-All-Trades-Master-of-None variety.

I suspect many creative people in the arts fall into the former category: authors, musicians, and painters. And we’re glad they focus their little gray cells on their passion.

Which puts me in a strange space, since authors are supposed to be the focused type. But I’ve written 29 books and they wander across so many different genres that bookstores don’t know where to shelve me.

Even my one specialty refused to specialize.

Mosseri says he was never great at anything, and he runs Instagram.

I was never great at anything either, and I’ve built a whole newsletter out of knowing a little about a lot. Somehow, the system works.

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Dom Testa writes fiction and nonfiction, having never settled on either. It's a range thing.
Find much of his work at DomTestaBooks.com.