I was reading Tyler Cowen’s list of how he practices what he does as a knowledge worker (he’s an economist and professor), and tried to think about what I’ve been doing.
When it comes to learning for my job, I’ve been largely haphazard. I read every day — books, blogs, emails. I listen to a bunch of podcasts, and watch the occasional video.
But I haven’t been as deliberate as I should.
As I went through Cowen’s list, my eyes kept being drawn back to the title: “How I practice what I do”. And there was my problem.
What do I do?
It’s not something I have an answer to right now because I have my fingers in a lot of pies. (To the point where I have to say no to many things that I’d really like to say “yes” to.)
There are days when I wonder if this hampers my growth.
But growth in what area?
I love being labelled. And sometimes I struggle with not having a label for myself. If I were a book, I’d want to have a genre so that I could fit in with the other books on the shelves.
Sometimes I believe that being at intersections gives me more options. But what if I just want to fit in?