286 sats \ 3 replies \ @elvismercury 11 Mar \ on: On the Subject of Mastery and Achieving Mastery mostly_harmless
There is a thing in the old version of Dungeons and Dragons (not sure it's still there, or that it still works like I'm going to describe) called the "multi-classed character" that is a combination of the atomic classes: instead of a fighter, or a mage, or a thief, you can be a fighter-thief, or even a fighter-mage-thief.
These characters are interesting but they gain levels slowly bc the experience has to be divided between all those classes. I don't think, in actual play, it is advantageous to be one of these character types, most of the time. They are too vulnerable for too long. They lag far behind their peers.
That is my story, basically.
The silver lining to it, as best I've been able to determine, is that you can willfully inhabit the spaces between things. So you won't be a master to the world at large -- people won't recognize what you even are, and rarely value you for it; but you could be a master of your particular flavor of between-ness. That can be satisfying, and sometimes exceedingly useful.
@OT and @grayruby made similar comments about jack-of-all-trades, I'm curious if they'd endorse this.
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You have TheWildHustle’s endorsement.
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Yes, I like this. As a small business owner I had to be proficient in everything relating to my business but because I was doing everything I didn't really become a master at anything. As you pointed out with your game analogy, you can succeed that way but it takes a long time to go from zero to proficient in a lot of skills. This is why small businesses often fail after the owner/operator retires or sells.
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