ExpertAmateur
A Philosophy of Many Trades
Why breadth builds more, and why it is also the better way to be alive.
Jasen Y. Tham. 153 pages, 26 chapters, 27 illustrations.
From the campaign
Seen on camera.
A jack of all trades, master of none.
1612. The phrase is praise. It describes someone who can turn a hand to anything.
1785. In a pamphlet about pharmacists, a man losing an argument adds three words. The meaning flips, and the insult sticks.
It is still repeated, most often by the people it was aimed at. This book takes the phrase back.
The argument
A book for anyone told to pick one thing, who suspects that was bad advice.
A fortnight
The distance from nothing to competent is far shorter than anyone admits. Most of what looks like talent is the first two weeks.
Enough
There is a level called enough. It sits well below mastery, and it is where most of a life’s useful work actually happens.
Recognition
Only someone who has stood briefly in many fields can recognise the masters they will never become.
The entry fee
Every field charges at the door, and the currency is humiliation: the small kind, paid in front of someone who has already paid it.
What it costs
There is no twentieth year.
The book counts the price openly. You never reach the depth that only decades in one field can give. You are permanently the newcomer, and nobody quite knows what you do.
What you get instead is everything else.
Read a page
The specialists of Alexandria are not remembered. That is not a sneer at them, and it does not mean they were fools. Most of their work was better than his in its own domain.
But the thing that survives with a name attached, the thing everyone still knows, is a measurement made by the man they called second.
They are the ones who told us he was Beta. We have forgotten which of them was Alpha.
From chapter 2, Beta
Keep reading $2.99
Questions
Before you buy.
What is the book actually about?
Breadth. It argues that the distance from nothing to competent is far shorter than people assume, that there is a useful level called enough sitting well below mastery, and that a life spent starting over in many fields is both more productive and better to live than the usual advice suggests. It also counts the cost honestly: there is no twentieth year, and nobody quite knows what you do.
Who is it for?
Anyone who has been told to pick one thing and suspects that was bad advice. People who change fields, run several projects, or keep beginning again in their thirties and forties. It is not a productivity book and it does not contain a system.
How long does it take to read?
About three hours. Twenty-six chapters across six parts, most of them four to six pages, so it reads comfortably in short sittings.
Which edition should I buy?
The Kindle edition at $2.99 is the fastest and cheapest way in. It arrives instantly and reads on any phone, tablet or computer, no Kindle device needed. Choose the paperback if you want the printed object: cream stock, matte cover, twenty-seven illustrations set into the text.
Do I need a Kindle to read the ebook?
No. The free Kindle app works on iPhone, Android, Mac and Windows, and the book can also be read in any browser.
Can I read some before buying?
Yes. The passage from chapter 2 above is a real extract, and Amazon’s Look Inside shows the opening chapter in full.
Who wrote it?
Jasen Y. Tham. Expert Amateur is his first book.