"Instead of asking whether someone is gritty, we should ask when they are."

I changed my major 4 times before I landed on "Interdisciplinary Studies," which is basically a degree that screams "I don't know what I want to do." I ended up getting a master's in English Lit because of the little voice in my head telling me my undergrad didn't really count.

And here I am, working as a parish administrator. Nothing really related to my degree, except every now and then I'll write blog posts and letters on behalf of the pastor, but the congregation won't know. On the side, I'm taking online courses on programming languages, which isn't really a brag. I'm just trying to cover my ass when I get to the U.S. so I can land a job and support my family. Maybe then I can go to seminary.

All this to say that I still don't know what I want to do "when I grow up," which is why this book was so helpful. Epstein makes the case that those who are naturally curious and who draw different ideas from different disciplines to experiment are the ones who really make breakthroughs in their field. But we love stories of "masters" who spend their entire lives doing one thing; these stories sell better and can outshine countless stories of generalists who achieved even more.

Epstein's book is a great corrective to this narrative and a book I'd recommend to college students or even those older who think they're wasting too much time generalizing when they could be specializing instead. "Be a flirt with your possible selves," he tells us, "We learn who we are only by living and not before."