Have you ever thought you could be doing more than just the one thing the teacher asked you to do? Have you ever gotten bored because you're repeating the learning process on something you already have a grasp on? Do you ever think you can't pick one career* path to stick to?
If you answered yes to any of these, chances are that you are a multipotentialite.
A multipotentialite is a person who can either sequentially or simultaneously pursue various professional and personal callings in their lifetime. Although the European Renaissance was a great time for people like this, the idea of a multi-potential career is slowly easing back into a trend. Children and young adults are more insistent about what they enjoy learning, and want to pursue in life. Adults in their mid-career races have stopped and acknowledged that they can be - and are - more than just a lawyer, doctor, or engineer.
Emilie Wapnick, an artist, entrepreneur and author is one of many multipotentialites who started with a traditional idea of a career path, and quickly realised that she was destined for more. Her example is one of thousands, where she took a while to embrace her various interests and skill sets but once she did, she did not have to look back:
According to Yuval Noah Harari, the current social norms and ideals about education and school systems ought to change due to the fluidity of the job market. People are expected to arrive with more than just a pre-determined set of skills, along with a passion to reinvent their careers if and when necessary.
If this resonates with you, and you want to find out more about where you fit in on the multipotentialite spectrum, take the quiz: https://puttylike.com/quiz/.
This blog has be dedicated to improving the understanding about where technology and education clash, collaborate, and create. With this final post, I would like to encourage you all to take moment. Take a moment to think about what you enjoy learning, doing, and being.
There is enough time to re-imagine and reinvent your idea of what it means to be human, and considering life as a multipotentialite is a good step towards shedding the categories we confine ourselves to.
*the outmoded definition of the word, where career (something that changes) is equated to a job (pretty stationary).