Generalist? What's THAT?!?!
For some of you, at least, I will assume that you are wondering "What does he MEAN, 'generalist'?"
Which might be a good place to start.... Let me start by sharing an explanation originally offered on my old website....
"gen-er-al-ist"
(Guess what! There IS no entry in my dictionary for this word! Obviously a conspiracy being foisted on us all by the specialists among us! Beware!)
[Editorial Note: When this was written, about 7 years ago, the following WAS the only citation to show up when searching for "generalist". As will be pointed out further down, the times have changed, and so have the citations!]
Actually, I DID find an entry in Wikipedia.... Intriguingly apropos to this discussion, even if only (seemingly) by accident!
<< start of quoted entry >>
Generalist and specialist species
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Generalist)
[Which means that there is no entry for that word!]
"A generalist species is able to thrive in a wide variety of environmental conditions, and if a heterotroph, has a varied diet.
Specialist species can only thrive in a narrow range of environmental conditions and/or has a limited diet.
Omnivores, which eat both plants and meat, are usually generalists, but herbivores which eat a variety of plants may also be considered generalists. A well-known example of a specialist animal is the koala which subsists almost entirely on eucalyptus leaves. The raccoon is a generalist because it has a natural range that includes most of North and Central America, and it is omnivorous, eating berries, insects, eggs and small animals.
The distinction between generalists and specialists is not limited to animals. For example, some plants require a narrow range of temperatures, soil conditions and precipitation to survive while others can tolerate a broader range of conditions. A cactus could be considered a specialist species. It will die during winters at high latitudes or if it receives a lot of water."
<< end of quoted entry >>
Perhaps, a more suitable definition, for our purposes here, might be the following....
"A person who has acquired a critical mass of skills and work experience in a broad range of (not necessarily related) professional disciplines, who has both the pan-disciplinary perspective and vocabulary to bridge the common interdisciplinary communication crevasses, who can function as both a facilitator and interpreter for effective interdisciplinary brainstorming, planning and project/process coordination...."
or
"Someone who gets a lot of satisfaction from discovering, mastering, and serving in a diverse series of interesting forms and areas of human endeavor..... AKA, work."
(Actually, “work” sounds SO proletariat: I prefer the term "serious play", but whatever!)
So.... I suppose we have reached the point where you have begun to wonder who or what I actually am....
Let me assure you that, contrary to your most likely first impressions, I am most certainly NOT a Super-Ball bouncing around in a squash court covered in talcum powder!
(Although, on further contemplation, that metaphor might come in handy, later, as we go along...)
.... The approach presented here may at first APPEAR to be both random and accidental.
Do not be deceived. It is neither.
Rather it purposeful, intuitive, and synchronistic in ways that MAY (hopefully!) become increasingly evident as time goes on.
I feel compelled to point out, at this point, that I, personally, need lots of variety in my life, to avoid going totally bonkers, with regards to Food (glorious food!), Music, People, Ideas, and my ever varied work at hand.
Variety is, for me, NOT simply the spice of Life, it is the Staff of Life!"
Why is it important for me being a Generalist?
What contrasts me - what do I have to offer as a Generalist?
Let's answer this one with another definition.... Based on the name of my "home" website.
(www.theeclecticgeneralist.com)
"ec-lec-tic (also e-clec-tic) adj.
[ < Gr ek- , out + legein, choose ]
selecting or selected from various sources n. one who uses eclectic methods
adv. ec-lec-ti-cal-ly n. ec-lec-ti-cism
I like to think of this as being the polar opposite of the oh-so-common attitude of "not invented here" that is so often found in far too many professional, educational, and business environments..... Which is, itself, most typically a kind of allergy to new or unfamiliar ideas, approaches, methods, and opinions.
So, I guess that means, in this context, the process of gathering together and sharing of a variety of contrasting, apparently dis-similar, previously thought of as un-related ideas, experiences, tools, methods, and strategies, etc... Often finding unexpected (but useful) congruences and synergies, and sometimes (when we get REALLY lucky) discovering that what initially might look like a clumsy workaround actually turns out to be quite a bit easier, more sophisticated, and much more effective than the original method, approach, or product. It does appear, from this point of view, that there really is significant value in "thinking outside the box".
How does this relate to this site, and benefit YOU?
Here we are, asking you to consider the possibilities of "Catamaran Lifestyles", either as a addition to an existing lifestyle that already works for you, at one end of the scale of possibilities, or as a completely different approach to living, as in living full-time aboard (and abroad) a cruising catamaran , on the other..... It seems to me that, for us to make our case, to give you sufficient information to see, feel, understand if there is a real "fit" for you, we have to do some serious, broad-based research on a wide variety of subjects, technologies, and, yes, lifestyles.
After all, we created this site with four primary objectives:
1. Introduce the thrills, joys, and satisfactions of catamarans and cat living.
2. Present a wide range of possible lifestyle possibilities and options via various types of cats.
3. Offer sufficient depth of information, educational resources, real-world catamaran experiences (I love YouTube!), and other "stuff" that, for those of you who want to "take this to the next level", might make your process of "due diligence" as easy, as fun, and as satisfying as humanly possible.
4. Create a forum, perhaps even a kind of online, catamaran living-oriented, community "watering hole" for those who are attracted to what we are presenting here.... (And, hopefully, this will include people who are already out there, "living the life".... We VERY much want them to join the conversation!)
A pretty ambitious undertaking, don't you think? The great news, here, is that there are wonderful specialist-oriented sources out there to keep a curious generalist like myself happily feasting on.... er.... researching and aggregating to my heart's content.... which takes care of items 1 thru 3.
As for the fourth item.... Well, honestly, this depends on you! We need your feed back, your responses, your ideas and opinions about what you see and learn here. Without that feedback, we are, literally, dead in the water! So, we very much hope that you will get back to us.... By e-mail initially, until we can get our forum up and running (Likely on Facebook, but not confirmed yet), and the comments section of our blog posts.
Fair winds and smooth seas!
