There’s an intriguing idea at Businessweek – in order to be a better person, to be able to bring fresh perspectives to your working environment, you should always be bad at something that you are passionate about.
The idea here, is when you get to be 80% proficient at your new interest, it’s time to move on. If you become an expert in something, so the theory goes, you become ‘grounded’ and unable to see different points of view within the subject.
For me, it’s a reminder to always have a hobby, something that I’m interested in but don’t know too much about. It’s a challenge, a reminder that I don’t know everything. I want to stay intellectually curious, and I’ll follow my nose as to where that takes me.