Jack of all trades, master of none?

It is said, that having the ability to concentrate on a single goal is the only way to master a skill properly. But, what happens when you have the ability to concentrate on many different goals for short spurts of time? Do we all have to be masters of a single trade? Would it even be possible to become a master of one trade, if we used the standard 10 000 hours required to achieve mastery? This magical number is often referred to when describing the process of becoming a genius or “master” of a certain trade. For more info on 10,000.

Lets say, that I used one hour everyday on intensive and focused study of my trade. To be able to achieve the 10,000th miracle hour, I would have to keep this up for a total 27,5 years before I mastered my trade. This is assuming that I had never been distracted, ill or taken a holiday. Does anyone else think this sounds ridiculous? I am all for working hard to attain your goals. I truly believe that 90% of finishing anything you set out to do, is hard labour. Does this mean you need to spend 10,000 hours on it? I don't know, but it sure feels like a lot of time.

What is wrong with being a Jack of all trades? 

Why does Jack end up learning so much, but never quite enough for it to be counted as a discernible skill? Is it a question of having little willpower, a bad attention span or an inability to actually understand something wholly? Is it stupidity? Is it simply that Jack is a curious person and loves to find out about new things?

There is so much emphasis being put on excelling at something, that when you are mediocre or just pretty good at lots of things, you are seen as not knowing how to do anything properly. This can easily get very depressing. I myself have found the way down that particular rabbit hole on more than one occasion.

A few months ago my friends and I were talking about skills. We began thinking about what it is we would like and could learn from each other. Everyone had very distinct talents they could teach: web design, grammar, photography, grant writing, photoshop, cooking, drawing, gardening, dancing and the list went on and on. Unfortunately what happened was that not one person could come up with a skill they could learn from me. (Trust me, this is not a good feeling.)

Now being good friends, they tried very hard to find something they could learn from me. They even went so far as to tell me that I was talented. The odd thing was that the things I am “talented” at can't really be taught. They turned out to be personality traits more then actual skills: curious, organised, social, innovative, creative. All nice things to be known for, but how to put them to use. It took me some time to realise that though these are not technically skills, that can be taught to others, they are something that equate to something as good as mastering a specific skill. I am good at creating something out of the proverbial nothing.