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evethingiread's review
2.0
I mildly tolerated this book. 10 years ago, I might've read it and thought that it was enlightening and eye opening. Now, I find it to be a bit tone-deaf and simplistic. I learned nothing reading this book, but it did remind me that I need to do what works for me.
sharamine's review
4.0
I really enjoyed Part II regarding work models. It's not something people think about often - do we want our work to support our hobbies? Do we want our work to be our life? Do we want to fully invest in our work and then shed it for a different industry later on? Do we want a bit of both by taking on two different side gigs? It's definitely a different tack to take on than the normal "What industry should I gun for?" If you're versatile, why not take the time to figure out what work model suits your lifestyle most and then decide on the industry (or industries). Would have liked to see more productivity and learning tips since those are the backbone of any multipotentialite.
This was a validating read for anybody who has ever dabbled into multiple fields at once whether it be a hobby/freelancing/full-time. Wapnick was a delightful and competent author. I also enjoyed the component of a happy multipotentialite life including things like learning new things, challenging yourself, and general productivity.
This was a validating read for anybody who has ever dabbled into multiple fields at once whether it be a hobby/freelancing/full-time. Wapnick was a delightful and competent author. I also enjoyed the component of a happy multipotentialite life including things like learning new things, challenging yourself, and general productivity.
neurodivergentleila's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
5.0
👓Format: Digital
😈Spicy (0 for none, 5 for filthy smut): 0️⃣
🗂️Genre: Personal development, career planning for anyone (but would especially be helpful for neurodivergents).
👍🏽What I liked most: as a late identified autistic ADHDer, this book opened my mind to understand that non traditional approaches to working is acceptable and that we shouldn’t shun those who don’t fit the traditional “specialize in one job/hobby only” expectations.
👎🏽What I disliked most: nothing. If anything, I wish I would have seen this ten years ago before deciding my college path.
shae_purcell's review against another edition
3.0
I don't remember how I first came across the term multipotentialite, but I do remember I was led to Emile Wapnick's book after listening to her TED talk - Why some of us don't have one true calling. I could relate in so many ways. I struggle in the areas other multipotentialites tend to struggle (work, productivity, and self-esteem), I enjoy achieving a deep level of knowledge on different subjects (even if I do tend to bounce around from special interest to special interest), and I have an intense curiosity about all sorts of different things. There are other traits, but these resonated most with me. It can be pretty frustrating for someone who needs a plan to go through life without having one.
Multipotentiality doesn't appear to be a new concept - other books have been written on the topic, only these use different terms to describe the idea (polymath, scanner, renaissance man/person/soul). Since I haven't read the other books, I'm not sure how much of this information is new or perhaps just recycled and revamped for another generation. Even so, I hadn't heard this take before so I took it all in gladly. Some key takeaways for me:
Don't confuse profitability with value.
It's okay to have more than one why.
Develop your proficiency until it is either professionally useful or personally meaningful.
And this one hit hard -
We punish ourselves when we change our minds. There is intense guilt and shame. When you lose interest in something, you are left with the painful realization that YOU WERE WRONG. I don't know who I am anymore!
Why is there so much negativity around changing our minds? God forbid we don't know exactly what we want to do for the next fifty years at the age of 18!
I appreciated the practical tips for various work models toward the end of the book (though some of the steps were a bit redundant between the different approaches) and the focus on life design instead of career planning. I can't say that Wapnick helped me figure out my passion or my goals or what I want to "be" when I grow up, but overall I found this book to be both practically helpful and personally enlightening.
Multipotentiality doesn't appear to be a new concept - other books have been written on the topic, only these use different terms to describe the idea (polymath, scanner, renaissance man/person/soul). Since I haven't read the other books, I'm not sure how much of this information is new or perhaps just recycled and revamped for another generation. Even so, I hadn't heard this take before so I took it all in gladly. Some key takeaways for me:
Don't confuse profitability with value.
It's okay to have more than one why.
Develop your proficiency until it is either professionally useful or personally meaningful.
And this one hit hard -
We punish ourselves when we change our minds. There is intense guilt and shame. When you lose interest in something, you are left with the painful realization that YOU WERE WRONG. I don't know who I am anymore!
Why is there so much negativity around changing our minds? God forbid we don't know exactly what we want to do for the next fifty years at the age of 18!
I appreciated the practical tips for various work models toward the end of the book (though some of the steps were a bit redundant between the different approaches) and the focus on life design instead of career planning. I can't say that Wapnick helped me figure out my passion or my goals or what I want to "be" when I grow up, but overall I found this book to be both practically helpful and personally enlightening.
craftygoat's review
4.0
Lots (too much?) of focus on the I'm-okay, you're-okay stuff -- why it's fine if you don't want to follow one career path your whole life. The 4 approaches were useful in thinking about how I personally approach my different passions (i.e., do I want 1 job that combines everything, multiple jobs at once to fulfill all my interests, 1 job that pays the bills while everything else is on the side, or a more in-depth one-interest-at-a-time approach?). The exercises were somewhat useful: finding your "why's" (what motivates you), identifying current passions, figuring out how you might combine them, then giving first action steps to pursue those as jobs. The productivity & dealing-with-doubters tips at the end weren't particularly useful to me. BUT I did find the "knowing when to quit" section helpful. I've felt obligated to cling to past interests well past the point where I'm actually interested. I found it helpful to frame it as a finish line: I've gotten what I came for & completed my mission.
So overall, there wasn't a lot that I felt was ground-breaking here, but listening to it did help me feel more okay with letting go of past "passions" and starting to brainstorm about what might be next.
So overall, there wasn't a lot that I felt was ground-breaking here, but listening to it did help me feel more okay with letting go of past "passions" and starting to brainstorm about what might be next.
talonx's review
1.0
This is a book purportedly about how to pursue multiple passions or interests at once. It is more of an expansion of the author's TED talk into 200+ pages. This one clearly falls in the category of "I wrote a few popular blog posts" or "I delivered a well-received talk", and now let's make it a book. But a book needs a respectable number of pages, so we have to expand the content in any way we can. Never mind if the content is tediously repetitive and the nuggets of useful information are few and far between.
There are several problems with this book, and there are a few good takeaways that are actually useful.
At the outset let's be clear that this book is not about being a polymath even though it gets a mention in Waqas Ahmed's book The Polymath. It is a curious mix of determining possible career and life paths if you have multiple interests and checklists and flowcharts for arriving at those paths.
Like many other writers, Wapnick misinterprets the 10000 hour rule (P18) by saying that the rule states "it takes ten thousand hours of practice to become a world-class performer". The actual "rule" - if you can call it that - is much more nuanced. The researcher K Anders Ericsson whose study gave rise to this rule - that Malcolm Gladwell popularized in Outliers - also talked about the importance of a good teacher, as well as deliberate practice (not just blind practice) with proper feedback. Note that this is about becoming a world class performer and not getting to a respectable level. This tactic has been widely used on the internet and in recent books to discredit the rule - after all, 10000 hours is an eternity in the age of Twitter, and who has the time or the patience to wait so long? Let us suggest a shorter alternative by twisting the original study's results and popularize our own "rule". Anders Ericsson is an internationally recognized researcher on expert performance and it would take more than a few blog posts to summarize his work. Wapnick drops further down the credibility scale with a mention of Josh Kaufman's The First 20 Hours as a "powerful response" to the 10000 hour rule. The ideas that Kaufman pushes in his book may be valid - but they are no "response" to Ericsson's research in gaining expertise. It is a false dichotomy based on just the amount of time. Kaufman is more focused on getting to an acceptable level of performance in a given field and his book makes it clear.
This is far from a serious book on planning a career if you have various interests. Every other paragraph is a question along the lines of "Is there something you can do here?" followed by long passages of words like "priority", "interdisciplinary", "niche" and so on, which don't add anything to the content. The language has an overdose of vivaciousness which puts you off after a few pages.
There are a few sections which are actually useful but having to wade through the entire book to find them is not worth it.
There are several problems with this book, and there are a few good takeaways that are actually useful.
At the outset let's be clear that this book is not about being a polymath even though it gets a mention in Waqas Ahmed's book The Polymath. It is a curious mix of determining possible career and life paths if you have multiple interests and checklists and flowcharts for arriving at those paths.
Like many other writers, Wapnick misinterprets the 10000 hour rule (P18) by saying that the rule states "it takes ten thousand hours of practice to become a world-class performer". The actual "rule" - if you can call it that - is much more nuanced. The researcher K Anders Ericsson whose study gave rise to this rule - that Malcolm Gladwell popularized in Outliers - also talked about the importance of a good teacher, as well as deliberate practice (not just blind practice) with proper feedback. Note that this is about becoming a world class performer and not getting to a respectable level. This tactic has been widely used on the internet and in recent books to discredit the rule - after all, 10000 hours is an eternity in the age of Twitter, and who has the time or the patience to wait so long? Let us suggest a shorter alternative by twisting the original study's results and popularize our own "rule". Anders Ericsson is an internationally recognized researcher on expert performance and it would take more than a few blog posts to summarize his work. Wapnick drops further down the credibility scale with a mention of Josh Kaufman's The First 20 Hours as a "powerful response" to the 10000 hour rule. The ideas that Kaufman pushes in his book may be valid - but they are no "response" to Ericsson's research in gaining expertise. It is a false dichotomy based on just the amount of time. Kaufman is more focused on getting to an acceptable level of performance in a given field and his book makes it clear.
This is far from a serious book on planning a career if you have various interests. Every other paragraph is a question along the lines of "Is there something you can do here?" followed by long passages of words like "priority", "interdisciplinary", "niche" and so on, which don't add anything to the content. The language has an overdose of vivaciousness which puts you off after a few pages.
There are a few sections which are actually useful but having to wade through the entire book to find them is not worth it.
mawalker1962's review
4.0
More useful than most self-help books. If you have wide-ranging interests or lose interest in a career once you master the field, you may find this book useful.
iddylu's review
4.0
I will admit that I quickly got sick of the term multipotentialite, which I found unwieldy and a bit pretentious, but as someone who's always felt those "I'm into too many things! How do I choose?" feelings and deemed myself flaky and aimless because of them, this book's perspective really was very helpful. There's definitely at least a little bit of a "multipotentialite" in all of us, and most people certainly do have a wide variety of interests, but I do fully agree with the author that our culture caters towards the "specialists" (or at least those who can playact as them). And while specialists are absolutely vital, as someone who is most decidedly a generalist, I appreciate an approach that sees that as something to be used as a strength rather than something to overcome.