Single Purpose Lives

The Seiko Essentials Quartz is a watch with a singular purpose, to keep time. It achieves this purpose exceptionally well, serving it faithfully even for the visually impaired, through raised markers on the dial and a hinge operated crystal which opens to allow access to said markers, providing a tactile response when touched. This utility stretches into the lives of average users as well by providing an arguably better alternative to the short-lived Lume illumination to check the time in darker environments.

There are plenty more examples of single-purpose devices, as well as multi-purpose ones (the smartphone you might be reading this on!). They aren't two sides to a coin but rather two (of many) philosophies to live by. Though I can most aptly summarize this by the saying

Jack of all trades, master of none .... but better than master of one

We must, however, ask this question - what life should one pursue, one where you hone a singular skill, master a singular discipline, achieve a singular purpose or another where you juggle through multiple ones for the sake of all-roundedness and variability?

This phenomena becomes ever present if you start to look for it. Biology dictates single purpose systems, from anteaters, unsurprisingly named for their unique ability to gather ants deep within anthills, to eyes in various species which evolved respectively to see wavelengths best for their survivability. Medicines remedy diseases/symptoms by targeting enzymes/proteins. The examples are endless, each demonstrating that multi-purpose functions are the outliers and for each part of a multi-function there exists a single function which does it better.

Why then, is it so common for human lives to be multi-purpose? Any great achiever you can think of, chose and pursued one destiny long enough to mature it into a legacy, whereas your everyday John Doe is multi-faceted. Every life begins on a blank slate which is then showered with a plethora of perspectives which ultimately narrow down to a finite few, or in some cases one. The education system, for example, begins with exposure to a great many subjects, which narrow down to a discipline by bachelor's and finally into the a mastery via PhD. The problem arrives towards the latter end of this pipeline, what causes people to stop pushing to reach this mastery - is it the viability and opportunity cost required that picking a mastery and failing results in a point of no return, or a system that rewards mediocrity?

I've long believed that all must strive for greatness even though none are destined for it. YouTube is a rather unorthodox implementation of this, the life cycle of a youtuber begins by foraying into a broad category and over time refining the craft to settle into a niche. It is often these niche youtubers that produce content of the highest quality on the platform.

You may consider it a leap of faith or a calculated dive, but to land safely, one must pick a singular point.