Having Too Many Interests Is A Superpower, Here's How To Channel It

This letter is dedicated to all the hopelessly scattered people. We see the allure of specialisation, but for some reason, our brains pull us towards exploring connections rather than isolated skills.

Emilie Wapnick, in her amazing TED Talk, called this group multipotentialites. No, we don’t have one true calling, so the usual productivity advice feels like wearing shoes a few sizes too small. They constrain us into linear pursuits without realising that we need a completely different set of protocols to account for the quality of learning alongside the diversity of interests.

This letter is very near and dear to my heart because the last 10 years of my life have been a wild ride. I started my career on YouTube with science explainer videos, then pivoted to teaching the humanities. Then, after 8 years of this teaching career, my day job now is a mixture of practising martial arts, going back to grad school and growing A Mug of Insights into something more.

Nevertheless, the life of a multipotentialite is as rewarding as it is challenging, and the chief threat here is burnout. I’ve definitely had periods in my life when I was drowning in different interests without making any progress. Yet, the last 10 years of juggling have given me insight into how to excel in multiple interests while safeguarding my sanity. And today, I’d like to lay out these core principles for you.

Principle 1: Define your architecture of interests