I wrote a post back in August to “introduce myself” to other bloggers participating in a month long blogging event called #Blaugust. I had a great time during the event, and feel like everyone I interacted with during it was quite welcoming, kind, and just generally lovely.

Looking back, I had no reason to suspect it would be otherwise, however, in that moment of attempting to formulate my introduction, I was feeling quite a bit of anxiety. What should I say? What COULD I say that would that would tie together the range of random topics I’ve explored over the last DECADE (wow) of writing?

People on the internet are supposed to have a brand aren’t they? A niche? A subject specialty? I never have, and despite an “about page” which explicitly states my reasoning for why I have never felt I could, I was again feeling strongly that I should.

It’s the same in my “real life” where “I work for a library” explains exactly nothing about what my job entails, but attempting to give a more accurate description requires full paragraphs instead of just sentences, and generally people’s eyes will glaze over long before I’ve finished. Also, the amount of topics that exist which aren’t my job are legion, and I would much rather talk about that, then my 9-5 (which is actually a 9-6). Afterall, you’re not your fucking khakis.

Turns out, this is a tension that many people feel. In a world that increasingly values specialization, there are still a ton of people who just refuse to be pinned to just one thing. They may flit between jobs and hobbies like a bee in a field of daisies, or focus intensely on one calling for a period of years before reinventing themselves completely in a new domain. If they value having a roof over their head more than finding meaning in their work (not a hard sell really), they may take a job outside their interests for pay and then spend their free time exploring their passions without the stress of trying to make ends meet. Or there might be any of an infinite combination of these types which make up the type of person which How to be Everything defines as Multipotentialites.

Beyond just defining the term ‘multipotentialite’, How to Be Everything‘s main thesis moves from validation — listing famous multipotentialites like Steve Jobs, Maya Angelou and Benjamin Franklin to reassure the reader that though society (with a capital ‘S’) would have you believe specialization is king, curating multiple passions is indeed an advantage in today’s world — to defining some categories of multipotentialites, and offering advice on how to turn these stylings into a useful advantage.

There’s no doubt, this book spoke to me.

It has taken me nearly my whole life to find and accept a lot of the ideas in these pages as “just how I am”, and to build the strategies which Emilie Wapnick explains with confidence and wit. Readers may find that a lot of the stuff in this book, is stuff they are already doing, whether through instinct, or hard won experience (aka trial and error). But seeing it written out and defined is reassuring in a lot of ways, and then considering alternative pathways and methods seems useful as a thought experiment, even if it does not prompt any changes in the reader’s current mode of operation (and who knows, maybe it will).

Towards the end of the book, Wapnick discusses productivity strategies and perhaps more importantly, what to do when you get stuck. Nothing here is earth shattering, and much of it will feel familiar if you’ve ever been on Medium.com. Pomodoro is mentioned, so is finding ‘Flow’. I wrote down a couple things that were newish to me, so we’ll see if anything moves the needle.

Finally, Wapnick does an excellent job citing sources. There are at least six other books I’m excited to read which delve into topics discussed within How to Be Everything.

Where I wished the book would have spent a little time, is discussing side-hustle culture, and the gig economy. How more and more even specialists have to piece together a living through multiple jobs and passive income strategies. Society may still value specialization but it seems to be forcing us all into multipotentiality whether we want that or not. However, this book was published in 2017, so it’s possible that the work conditions we have now were not quite the same. Perhaps 2017 was a time in which being a multipotentialite was a path to getting ahead, as opposed to a requirement to survive (I may be overstating things here a bit also lol).

Give How To Be Everything a Read?

Absolutely. For anyone who has struggled to maintain focus in a singular domain, or felt boxed in by the ever narrowing scope of a specialized niche — for anyone who has thrilled in the pursuit of a passion, only to become bored with it once light flickers at the end of the tunnel — this book might be something of an emancipation. Or at the very least and “Ah Hah!” moment.

Wapnick presents several main personas with which the reader can identify, and then encourages the reader to take control of each with exercises and activities to help you envision a future in that space.

And even if you do not consider yourself a multipotentialite as defined within these pages, the self-discovery taking place within this book is still useful to help empathize with your multipotentialite friends, colleagues, and family. Also, though this book touts a hard line that specialization is perceived as the coin of the realm, I think there are many ways in which we’re all slowly being forced to take up multipotentialite strategies just to make ends meet. Of course some extra productivity advice never goes amiss, even for the most focused of individuals.

In a book that ask how to be everything, Wapnick manages to write a little something for everyone.

That’s all I have for this week! What are your thoughts? Are you a multipotentialite? What ‘eras’ have you moved through? What are you excited to pursue next?

Please leave your thoughts in the comments. I’m excited to talk about this one!