Meet the Need of the Times

Zhou Handong

A 66-year-old former machinery expert in Beijing

I was born in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, in 1956, and when I started working in the 1970s, being a jack of all trades was not an option. Like most of my peers who worked in factories, I got most of my knowledge and skills from working, under the guidance of a mentor, i.e., an experienced senior colleague. My dream at the time was to become one of the best in the machinery sector I was engaged in. To this end, I worked hard and spent extra time in learning more knowledge and practicing more.

Before long, this focus on my profession rewarded me with an invaluable experience of my life. In the summer of 1984, thanks to the expertise I had obtained, I was chosen by Zhejiang Province’s Department of Water Resources to join an expert team for a water conservancy mission to Senegal. The program was to build an anti-salt dam in Bignona to prevent the inflow of seawater from the Atlantic Ocean to the Casamance River, so that residents along the river can have fresh water for daily use and irrigation.

I was responsible for the maintenance of machinery for the project, and my expertise proved to be a big help when problems arose. In one case, I renovated the air filtration system of the equipment, so that they wear less quickly in the heavy dust at the construction site. I also had the chance to lead a team of local apprentices and developed genuine friendship with them.

After returning to China, I went through several job changes and no longer worked with machinery. With the development of technology, especially the Internet, I have had easy access to more types of knowledge. By learning from the Internet, I have gradually become a “jack of all trades.” I have dabbled in automobiles, photography, travel and cooking.

I’ve also learned about what young people are concerned with and fond of, so that I can keep up with the times and maintain passionate for life.

Based on my experience, it is OK to be either versatile or focused on one thing. The important thing is that you need to get yourself ready to meet the need of the times.

Know Everything About Something and Something About Everything

Taiwo Blessing Ogunseyi

A 36-year-old Nigerian lecturer in Yibin, Sichuan Province

The statement “a jack of all trades is a master of none” is a figure of speech used for someone who has dabbled into many things as opposed to focusing on one thing to gain expertise in that. While this may look like the wrong thing to do, the original and complete statement is a compliment for a person with broad knowledge, which goes like this: “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but often times better than a master of one.” In other words, the person is a generalist rather than a specialist.

In my opinion, the advancement in technologies such as the Internet and Web 2.0 has made available for individuals a tremendous amount of information on any subject matter. This presents the opportunity to be versatile in many areas while focusing on one.

Personally, I believe that being either a generalist or a specialist has its pros and cons. For individuals who are yet to discover their strengths or weakness, exploring a couple of new things might help them discover themselves. Hence, being a generalist helps self-discovery. Similarly, being a generalist can help effectively deal with a wide range of situations that one is exposed to, making it easier to adapt to situations and be flexible. Also, I believe that individuals with a curious mind and who are knowledge-driven tend to be more of a generalist, though they may be a specialist in a particular area.

However, there are some merits to being a specialist, too. The demand for individuals who have expertise in their field will continue to increase. These individuals are able to perform extremely well and are specialists in a particular area. Being a specialist can make an individual become widely recognized in their field. In addition, a specialist may earn more. Lastly, most organizations seek experts when they encounter a problem.

In conclusion, being a jack of all trades (generalist) or being good at one thing (specialist) both have their merits. However, with the huge amount of information made available via the Internet, one needs to be versatile to remain relevant. Therefore, I am of the opinion that one need to know everything about something and know something about everything.