"Having champagne tastes on a moonshine budget is a lot harder, psychologically speaking, than simply sipping on the moonshine and dreaming of budweiser..." -- earlier IM conversation about poverty and academia.

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"Even I am disgusted by the cliche my life is..."


I love hanging out with my friends.

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Check this out: [link]

I love the juxtaposition of an iconographic children's toy with one of the true horrors of modern history. This is what good Pop Art is really about. Fucking brilliant.

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Anyone who wants a feature, just send me a link in the comments and I'll put it up for you!!

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I have always been a dilettante. My interests are broad-reaching, and I have always had difficulty cultivating one talent or interest more than another. I've simply never managed to devote the time and energy into being really great at one thing at the expense of other interests. Or even to cultivate one area of my life enough to turn it into a really viable career.

Many people are satisfied with(or at least pragmatic enough to realize) that in the day and age we live in, expertise pays. We want people to have the right degree for the right job, with the right certifcations, which they will then do for the next however many years. An example of this is my little brother who has always had a more pragmatic outlook on life than I have. He went to school and did well. He went to law school and got his grades that were good enough to pass without busting his ass to be in the top ranking. And then he settled in comfortably to a well-paying government job that he likes well enough.

Other examples abound here on DA of people who pick a medium or a subject and just stick with it until they become amazing for it. Whether it's just graphite portraits, or just paintings and drawings of dogs, these people dedicate themselves to whichever idea it is and just plug away at it until their work is consistent (and consistently blows you away).

So whether it be for greatness (like the DA example) or for a settled mediocrity (like my brother) expertise and dedication to one thing just pays off in our society.

But I've never been able to cultivate this kind of single-mindedness. I've always preferred being good at several things, but have never found a successful way to market that to an employer or to turn it into a career. On the one hand, the dilettante perspective allows me a creativity and an opportunity to do all kinds of exciting things. Overall, I enjoy my lack of expertise except for the guilt I feel at not being a real participating adult in this society -- the kind with a real job, with real retirement saved up, and who isn't living with her mom at 30 years old flitting from one idea to the next.

I've started a poll, because I'm interested to see what everyone thinks. Is it better to be an expert, to be great at one thing and to reap the rewards from that. Or is it better to forgo the tunnel vision in favor of a more creative (but not compensated) lifestyle?

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