Becoming a poly creative

I have been doing a lot of reading in hopes to expand my ideas on multidisciplinary creativity. Most of this reading has been in trying to understand how influential creators and thought leaders looked to different parts of society to further their expertise.

Our world requires our one-liner in response to the question "What do you do?". Beyond the one-liner is a tally of economic remuneration. We are meant to fit into some economic box of what you earn.

We all have been in that room where it mattered what you do. If you are like me, it's confusing answering this and it leads to a precise answer crafted for who you are.

Job titles seek to create singular disciplinary individuals. This helps in some ways, but not so much as I try and carve myself out.

If you are of job title X, you should partake in the trade of that title.

I ran into the concept of Polymathism. It exists. A notion of people who seek to know beyond their industry to allow them to apply it to other disciplines of their work. As an individual who finds many concepts intriguing. My approach to learning by inquisition leads my friends to question “What do you actually do”.

"Jack of all trades, master of none?”. Mono expertise, the bane that is the norm.

How do we handle Jack’s lack of expertise but be encouraging of his inquisition? As early as my teens I felt a strong desire to break up and create things anew. A story is told of how I broke the VCR at my cousins after putting batteries in the tape deck. I knew things needed the power to work, it could never be fixed and so the story has no good ending.

Being from a township you know a musician, a radio repair technician, your neighbor could be a woodworker. A country's curriculum with a compulsory practical subject. A story that is explanatory of how I got here. Sad is the truth, all these trades were frowned upon.

A community raises the child. When I was presented with the opportunity to actually learn one of these trades, I shunned the opportunity. I had lost my inquisition and focused on the hope of being a great academic. I had succumbed to the idea of mono expertise.

This lack of multi-disciplinary exposure creates individuals whose sole approach to problems is close to robotic. But how could we have come to this notion and how could this be such a norm across generations and cultures.

I write to understand the world better, through this I question myself and the world around me.
Can there be a jack of all trades who masters enough to be useful?
Can polymathic individuals help create employment?
Are we here because of our distaste of tradesman ship?