This is kinda blowing my mind at the moment. Always struggled trying to specialize in anything. I want to know how everything works not just one thing.
I am very much an Octopus, and really appreciate your writings on this. One thought - my experience with trying to develop skill in multiple areas is that I love it, but I think it can be a slower journey than if you’re just focused on one thing. I think it can take quite a bit longer, but that doesn’t bother me at all. I think once you’ve taken the time to develop all the different skills though, you are now a very powerful, special, interesting, creative, well rounded person.
Thanks for reading and commenting, glad you resonated with the post. It is true that pursuing say 8 things at once results in slower development than pursuing 1 thing. But who's keeping the time? How does one define slow vs fast in this context? Seems to me there is no timeline when it comes to human endeavor, in particular creative endeavor. While speed is a factor, there are also risks to specialized focus.
I see you play music, I have a friend who was in a nascent heavy metal band in the late 80s/early 90s. They were serious, deal with record label, about to blow up, opening for famous bands, etc. Then Nirvana blew up, grunge entered the scene and their label told them no one wants metal anymore, grunge is the new thing.
Now my friend and his bandmates had invested years of their lives becoming expert at metal music, and they did it fast (they were young, in their 20s). But their entire career got derailed by market forces outside their control. They broke up and their band dreams evaporated.
I'm not saying one should not attempt what they did, I think he would say it was all still worth it and fun, but it's a bittersweet story.
Now if they all tried to learn 8 different genres of music, might they be doing better somehow today? Maybe, who knows. But I agree with your statement that investing in a wide variety of things turns you into someone to be contended with. As a musician, instead of trying to copy an existing genre, you might invent a genre defying sound, because you have delved into a wider variety of music than just trying to copy whatever is popular at the moment.
Or you might combine music with some completely unrelated discipline to create a new kind of media. Sky's the limit for a multi-talented person.
Hi Dave I love your writing-just stumbled upon it in my newsfeed. I have tried my whole life to stick to one thing and have read many books about being a specialist as it seemed a sensible precept. After Covid took my face to face business away I was forced to look at other means of income and now I have 3-4 things that bring income in any one month. This I find absolutely allows me to indulge my passions and then switch things up when I become bored. It can be stressful with steep and costly learning curves when trying new things but I do believe now in the saying “Jack of all trades, master of none but oftentimes better than a master of one” especially given todays economy where we can and have seen whole industries almost disappear overnight.
Hi Rob, thanks for sharing. I was laid off from a corporate job last year so one of my reasons for doing the “multiple streams of income” thing is to not rely on any one thing for income. Even if I get another “regular” job someday I would like to have something cooking on the side as both a supplement and fallback option. Aside from that practical matter, as an Octopus person, like you I also enjoy learning new things, even if that means I don’t become a master at it. Often just the attempt is fun in and of itself.
I am faithful your octopus method is going to bear fruit and I’ve certainly made the list suggested as it’s a fun idea to explore in any case. You’re absolutely right, trying new things and getting better is very life affirming I find. I had the same experience I don’t feel safe relying on one main job any longer but it depends how good the offer is of course!
I have shed eight tears of joy and throw you eight kisses! Thank you so much. I was inspired by Bucky Fuller to pursue intentional generalization, but truith be told, I would have done it anyway. The octopi are out, and the world is about to change big time.
I've been octopusing my whole life without giving it a name. I thrive doing something different every day or multiple different activites throughout my day. My only problem is I am not the best at monetizing multiple streams at the same time. I get stuck in the idea that I have to do only one.
Hi Nessa, monetization is always a challenge, whether doing one thing or many. It used to be that we had just one source of income, a full time job, but nowadays with the tools and distribution available it's possible to cobble together multiple streams of income that might equal or better the income we'd make doing just one thing. That's one of the beauties of the Octopus model, you can explore a lot of things a little bit at low risk, and see what works.
Thanks Ray, I haven’t read that book but I heard David Epstein interviewed on a podcast about it, it’s on my reading list. Anything in particular jump out at you from the book?
The "chaotic world" theme seems to appear in a lot of generalist literature, with the advent of AI taking specialist jobs, downsizing, etc a generalist's natural curiosity and propensity to learn new things might better enable them to adjust and thrive when the rug is pulled on entire occupations.
This is incredibly relatable to me and the first piece of business writing that has resonated with me in a long time. Can’t wait to see how you expand on this!
Hi Dave, excellent post. Glad I came across this. It triggered some thoughts:
- Roman Krznaric has a book called How to Find Fulfilling Work. One of his ideas was to "explore multiple selves." Like you, he doesn't believe in a single perfect job. Instead, he suggests exploring "a range of potential careers that might suit the different sides of our character."
- Another book you might've read on being a generalist is David Epstein's book Range. One of the stories in his book was about the guy who invented the Gameboy (I expanded the story in a post: https://jimmychim.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/145298874?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fposts%2Fpublished). Gunpei Yokoi was basically an Octopus person with many interests: he wasn't good at one particular thing, but his multiple passions allowed him to see new opportunities using lateral thinking.
- One benefit of the octopus mindset, I think, is that it gives people license to explore their various existing interests but perhaps feel a bit guilty about going deeper when the immediate payoff isn't apparent.
- The Octopus mindset seemed more acceptable in the past. Da Vinci studied birds, Michelangelo wrote poems, Van Gogh studied to be a minister--it was fairly normal for people to try many things. I think part of the recent specialization trend is due to industrialization which has created safe and well-defined jobs and career paths, so the opportunity cost for NOT specializing has increased.
Thanks Jimmy, I have not read either of the 2 books you suggest, I've heard David Epstein interviewed a couple times on podcasts, but I've never heard of the Krznaric book, I will check it out.
I agree with you that Octopus people can feel guilty about "frivolous pursuits" that don't result in anything, but I wonder how much of that is because of society/work world/parental expectations more than an actual guilt coming legitimately from within.
"Renaissance" men and women absolutely prided themselves on being people of diverse interests and skills. Back then it was manageable to know a little about a wide variety of topics. But with the rapid proliferation of knowledge in the world, it became harder and harder to know a little bit about everything. I think that's when specialized knowledge began, and people started becoming "experts" in more narrow topics. Today it's literally impossible to be widely read, there is just too much information in the world about every topic.
But it is interesting, there seems to be a growing movement back towards Octopus-like living, as specialization has left people feeling one-dimensional and not able to fully pursue their curiosities.
Thanks for the follow, I look forward to more interactions in the future!
Excellent paradigm Dave! 👏 I recommended to a number of burned-out health professionals that they replace the job that was killing them with a "portfolio of work" consisting of multiple projects that generated meaning and money. No more bosses, just clients. They embraced that and the results were good. My only caveat is eight project lines might be spreading one's attention/energy too wide, but each person can figure out the optimal menu for themselves. Thanks for writing about this!
Thanks Baird, glad you like it. Yeah 8 does feel like a lot if you try to make it 8 occupations, but I see it as 8 different things you want your life to be about, so maybe 3 can be actual paying “jobs” while 5 can be hobbies, pets, sports, parenting, etc.
As you say I think people need to decide what the right mix is for themselves.
Dave, thank you for charting this path for us octopus people! I'm an octopus in a specialist role and am *experiencing the Consequences*, as the octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures would say. (Have you read this book? It's glorious!) I've felt so stuck for so long (even though I used to love my work!) that a couple of weeks ago I gave myself a deadline to figure out a better path. Your framework is helping me think it through in a way I hadn't considered before. High five with all eight tentacles (high 40?)!
Thanks Jen, nice to meet a fellow Octopus, and glad it is helping you reshape your thinking along your journey.
I have not read Remarkably Bright Creatures, but I looked it up on Amazon, sounds like an interesting novel. In the book, does the Octopus actually help solve the mystery of the son disappearing?
I gave into the challenge and wrote down the first things that came into my mind that I love or enjoy doing.
1. Reading
2. Music (playing piano, singing)
3. Multiculturalism
4. Helping people
5. Politics/activism
6. Family (I’m a mother and wife)
7. Writing
8. Activities in nature/outdoors
FYI At the moment the main challenge is to find time for anything else than being a mother: I’ve got a 2 and 3 years old boys and we live abroad so we do not have external family support. Raising kids and staying somehow mentally stable is THE challenge, but your post has really motivated me into trying to name my main interests and find a way to monetise around them in the near future.
Hi Cristina, nice list, thanks for posting! Raising kids can definitely be a challenge, so your tentacle #6 is getting heavy use right now. That's ok, raising kids is an important and worthy activity. Hopefully you can figure out a way to activate some of your other interests, even if they are for short bursts of time in between your parenting duties, or perhaps integrate them into your parenting time? Seems like reading, playing music, and the outdoors are things you can do with your sons? Could be a double-win, you get to activate some tentacles while also exposing your boys to new things.
Interesting piece and certainly some great food for thought in here. Your essay reminds me of a book I read a while back by Greg McKeown (Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less), which actually argues the opposite of your essay. His central thesis is that focussing on less is actually "more", in that expending energy on one task will take you much further than having all of your eggs in several baskets. What would your response to this be?
Hi Kavi, thanks for your comment. I read Greg's book, a few thoughts:
I don't entirely disagree with Greg's premise. For people who are "trying to have it all" and becoming stressed and living out of control lives, cultivating skills to prioritize the essentials in life is a good thing. We are more distractable than ever, and do all kinds of things that needlessly overwhelm our time.
On first glance encouraging Octopus behavior may seem to oppose Essentialism. Greg advocates for doing less, I appear to be advocating for doing more. But I see this as a spectrum. At one end you have the "Pick one thing and focus" crowd, which is where I'd roughly put Essentialism. At the other end you have the "Do more, you can have it all" crowd. Octopus Life is somewhere in the middle. I believe telling people to pick one thing has been largely detrimental, especially for young people, and absolutely for Octopus People. But living an out of control chaotic life because you're trying to do everything is also bad. Octopus Work is saying you don't have to pick one thing, but you also don't have to prune your life just for the sake of operational efficiency.
Instead, starting from the core of who you are (if you consider yourself an Octopus), shape your life around that archetype by selecting up to 8 things that would give your life more meaning. Greg's book does not seem to deal at this level, if I remember right the ultimate benefits of Essentialism live more at the surface: less stress, more free time, better prioritization, etc. But Octopus Life originates and operates at the deeper level of core personality, the essence of your being, and works outward from there. As an Octopus, you intentionally identify and extend your tentacles to fulfill your human basic needs for curiosity, variety, and intrigue, etc. This exercise alone is a pruning exercise, but approached from a calm place within, not from a place of chaos/stress requiring the elimination of extraneous activities.
I think we're both encouraging people to be more thoughtful and selective about how to expend our lives, but Essentialism has the end goal of external personal productivity by process of elimination, while I have the end goal of internal personal flourishing by process of extension. These two approaches can have very different outcomes when put into practice.
Interesting take - I appreciate the detailed response. I think there's plenty to be gleaned from your octopus philosophy. Life is ultimately more exciting if we channel our energy sensibly into a range (but not too many) things!
I understand this works for people with a clear passion for a field of knowledge or work. But some of us cannot settle for one thing or area. I believe this post is not for everyone but for those people with broadly curious minds that enjoy learning about different disciplines, cultures, arts…
I hope my explanation makes sense. Both arguments are valid, they’re just not right or wrong, it depends on each of us to figure out who we are and let our nature grow wings towards a more specialised path or wide spectrum of paths :)
Essentialism and other "One Thing" books are good for decluttering life. Nothing wrong with that. But when used as career advice, which they often are, it can be paralyzing for Octopus People, make us feel like something is wrong with us, and artificially force us to cut off our tentacles instead of use them to our advantage.
The issue I have with most of these books is that they make it seem like these are universal truths that everyone should be following, and if you don't you won't ever succeed or be good at anything. But it's terrible advice for Octopus People.
I am very much an Octopus type, but I have found Essentialism very helpful to help me focus JUST a bit and find a more peaceful balance. I have embraced my inner Octopus, but if I get TOO scattered, it creates stress. For me it’s like anything - finding the right balance
Yeah, totally identify. In a future post I want to talk about the downsides of being an Octopus. One of them is spreading yourself so thin, you accomplish absolutely nothing, which isn't really good either, especially if you need to earn a living. So finding a balance is the key. The fulcrum point of where that balance lands might be different for different people, but you definitely have to find what works for you.
This is fantastic and it's great you are flushing this concept out in more detail.
I guess I'm sort of living the Octopus life right now. A few thoughts:
1. My model was NOT getting income from multiple tentacles. I got a lot of money from 1 tentacle and had that fund everything else. Ironically, it was going hard on one specialty, that enabled me to be a generalist. I can now use that specialization to earn a lot for less time, opening my time for other things.
2. For monetization, it may make sense to capitalize on 1 tentacle than chasing monetization across multiple. E.g. it will take me a LONG time to make any money from writing vs. maximizing my one high-paying specialist tentacle. Sometimes, interests don't align with the market.
3. The hidden danger is this strategy REQUIRES saying "enough!" and leaving money on the table. Yes, I made good money from the 1 tentacle. But it's SO seductive to continue to push all of my chips into that 1 tentacle, forever. Most people can't do it. Every outside signal tells me to do that. Instead, I needed to accept some point of "that's good enough, I want to explore other things."
4. I'm not recommending my approach, it's just one approach: the one that I did.
5. BTW I think you're onto something big contrasting by Octopus vs. Ikagi's "One Thing." Everyone is looking for that one thing, but life is much more dynamic, flowing and evolving. I wonder that if we gave up on the idea of one thing, we'd be better off...
Hey Rick, thanks for stopping by, a couple replies:
1. Money from 1 tentacle: same here. I worked traditional jobs for 20+ years (also in healthcare), that funded everything. I fully appreciate that the Octopus Life I'm proposing now is only possible because I focused on 1 tentacle my entire career.
2. 1 tentacle vs multiple to make money: Traditional thinking says pick one thing to chase monetization. I think this is generally correct for most people, but it does have downsides, some quite severe, for example if you work in an occupation that after 10-20 years is no longer needed e.g. publish printed phone books, you risk having nothing. Multiple tentacles hedges against that to some degree, but I do agree multiple is harder.
3. Agree on the "enough" danger! That's the other downside. I think this is the source of many mid-life crises. People do one career, get proficient, it becomes the sole source of income, but then you get bored/disillusioned/unhappy, now what? You're stuck because it's your money source, and you can't just jump easily to another industry/occupation. You want to explore other things but can't. Going back to that money source is tempting, as I'm not yet wealthy enough to retire, but just thinking about it is depressing (loved your post on Ambition with similar themes of not being able to go back). So I forge onward with the new "I want to explore other things" path.
4. I actually mirror your path quite a bit, even down to the industry :)
5. Ikagai: it's funny you mention this because last week I started drafting a post about how Ikagai can ruin your life if you're an Octopus person, haven't decided between that one and another topic to post next (hopefully coming out tomorrow).
I enjoy reading your work series, I'm wrestling with many similar themes right now. Curious if you've solidified or "settled" on anything or do you still feel like you're in exploratory phase?
Good stuff. You might consider exploring how someone could unwind from specialization progressively (e.g. say enough, build up savings, rework specialization into something more autonomous, etc.).
It's almost like a diversification exercise (writing about this re: identities soon), whereby you progressively lower emphasis on 1 tentacle (100%>90%>80%) while raising emphasis on another or others.
The pressure our culture/world of work/capitalism puts on us - via control of money - to specialize and become cogs is real. Pushing back against it is work - existential, soul work.
The rewards for being a cog are real. And one can work one's way up and become an increasingly bigger cog that gets paid to make and manage more little cogs.
The machine oils and takes care of its cogs.
I'm not sure it's healthy to think like this.
It's actually quite risky to think like this.
Sometimes it's OK to be cog-like.
We can't all be gods or dragon-riders.
Balance and temper powerful insight with wisdom, common sense, sustainability, and long-term thinking.
Given the familiar setup of the current specialist focused system, and the well worn paths and rewards it provides, most people will choose it, even if that brings some amount of personal resignation, disappointment, and sadness about how much life force is given away to such a system, that does not give much back besides a paycheck.
Octopus Work is not for everyone. It remains to be seen if it's even for me. I just know I was not particularly happy or fulfilled in the specialist system, so I will at least try to ride a dragon before I die.
This is kinda blowing my mind at the moment. Always struggled trying to specialize in anything. I want to know how everything works not just one thing.
glad it’s thought provoking!
I am very much an Octopus, and really appreciate your writings on this. One thought - my experience with trying to develop skill in multiple areas is that I love it, but I think it can be a slower journey than if you’re just focused on one thing. I think it can take quite a bit longer, but that doesn’t bother me at all. I think once you’ve taken the time to develop all the different skills though, you are now a very powerful, special, interesting, creative, well rounded person.
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for reading and commenting, glad you resonated with the post. It is true that pursuing say 8 things at once results in slower development than pursuing 1 thing. But who's keeping the time? How does one define slow vs fast in this context? Seems to me there is no timeline when it comes to human endeavor, in particular creative endeavor. While speed is a factor, there are also risks to specialized focus.
I see you play music, I have a friend who was in a nascent heavy metal band in the late 80s/early 90s. They were serious, deal with record label, about to blow up, opening for famous bands, etc. Then Nirvana blew up, grunge entered the scene and their label told them no one wants metal anymore, grunge is the new thing.
Now my friend and his bandmates had invested years of their lives becoming expert at metal music, and they did it fast (they were young, in their 20s). But their entire career got derailed by market forces outside their control. They broke up and their band dreams evaporated.
I'm not saying one should not attempt what they did, I think he would say it was all still worth it and fun, but it's a bittersweet story.
Now if they all tried to learn 8 different genres of music, might they be doing better somehow today? Maybe, who knows. But I agree with your statement that investing in a wide variety of things turns you into someone to be contended with. As a musician, instead of trying to copy an existing genre, you might invent a genre defying sound, because you have delved into a wider variety of music than just trying to copy whatever is popular at the moment.
Or you might combine music with some completely unrelated discipline to create a new kind of media. Sky's the limit for a multi-talented person.
Thanks, and I totally agree - it makes you both more unique and more diversified. And another wonderful music business story 🤦♂️
And I really appreciate your comments on going against the cultural grain!
Hi Dave I love your writing-just stumbled upon it in my newsfeed. I have tried my whole life to stick to one thing and have read many books about being a specialist as it seemed a sensible precept. After Covid took my face to face business away I was forced to look at other means of income and now I have 3-4 things that bring income in any one month. This I find absolutely allows me to indulge my passions and then switch things up when I become bored. It can be stressful with steep and costly learning curves when trying new things but I do believe now in the saying “Jack of all trades, master of none but oftentimes better than a master of one” especially given todays economy where we can and have seen whole industries almost disappear overnight.
Hi Rob, thanks for sharing. I was laid off from a corporate job last year so one of my reasons for doing the “multiple streams of income” thing is to not rely on any one thing for income. Even if I get another “regular” job someday I would like to have something cooking on the side as both a supplement and fallback option. Aside from that practical matter, as an Octopus person, like you I also enjoy learning new things, even if that means I don’t become a master at it. Often just the attempt is fun in and of itself.
I am faithful your octopus method is going to bear fruit and I’ve certainly made the list suggested as it’s a fun idea to explore in any case. You’re absolutely right, trying new things and getting better is very life affirming I find. I had the same experience I don’t feel safe relying on one main job any longer but it depends how good the offer is of course!
I have shed eight tears of joy and throw you eight kisses! Thank you so much. I was inspired by Bucky Fuller to pursue intentional generalization, but truith be told, I would have done it anyway. The octopi are out, and the world is about to change big time.
Wow thanks Dawn, glad this resonated with you! Yes it is time for the rise of the octopi!
I've been octopusing my whole life without giving it a name. I thrive doing something different every day or multiple different activites throughout my day. My only problem is I am not the best at monetizing multiple streams at the same time. I get stuck in the idea that I have to do only one.
Hi Nessa, monetization is always a challenge, whether doing one thing or many. It used to be that we had just one source of income, a full time job, but nowadays with the tools and distribution available it's possible to cobble together multiple streams of income that might equal or better the income we'd make doing just one thing. That's one of the beauties of the Octopus model, you can explore a lot of things a little bit at low risk, and see what works.
Very much like your take. Reminds me of the book Range by David Epstein.
Thanks Ray, I haven’t read that book but I heard David Epstein interviewed on a podcast about it, it’s on my reading list. Anything in particular jump out at you from the book?
I think these were my biggest takeaways
But one of my favourite books I’ve read
1. Generalist are generally better in a chaotic world
2. Different skills can transfer to different tasks in unexpected ways
The "chaotic world" theme seems to appear in a lot of generalist literature, with the advent of AI taking specialist jobs, downsizing, etc a generalist's natural curiosity and propensity to learn new things might better enable them to adjust and thrive when the rug is pulled on entire occupations.
This is incredibly relatable to me and the first piece of business writing that has resonated with me in a long time. Can’t wait to see how you expand on this!
Thanks Kevin, glad it resonated, next edition coming this week!
Hi Dave, excellent post. Glad I came across this. It triggered some thoughts:
- Roman Krznaric has a book called How to Find Fulfilling Work. One of his ideas was to "explore multiple selves." Like you, he doesn't believe in a single perfect job. Instead, he suggests exploring "a range of potential careers that might suit the different sides of our character."
- Another book you might've read on being a generalist is David Epstein's book Range. One of the stories in his book was about the guy who invented the Gameboy (I expanded the story in a post: https://jimmychim.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/145298874?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fposts%2Fpublished). Gunpei Yokoi was basically an Octopus person with many interests: he wasn't good at one particular thing, but his multiple passions allowed him to see new opportunities using lateral thinking.
- One benefit of the octopus mindset, I think, is that it gives people license to explore their various existing interests but perhaps feel a bit guilty about going deeper when the immediate payoff isn't apparent.
- The Octopus mindset seemed more acceptable in the past. Da Vinci studied birds, Michelangelo wrote poems, Van Gogh studied to be a minister--it was fairly normal for people to try many things. I think part of the recent specialization trend is due to industrialization which has created safe and well-defined jobs and career paths, so the opportunity cost for NOT specializing has increased.
Looking forward to more posts from you!
Thanks Jimmy, I have not read either of the 2 books you suggest, I've heard David Epstein interviewed a couple times on podcasts, but I've never heard of the Krznaric book, I will check it out.
I agree with you that Octopus people can feel guilty about "frivolous pursuits" that don't result in anything, but I wonder how much of that is because of society/work world/parental expectations more than an actual guilt coming legitimately from within.
"Renaissance" men and women absolutely prided themselves on being people of diverse interests and skills. Back then it was manageable to know a little about a wide variety of topics. But with the rapid proliferation of knowledge in the world, it became harder and harder to know a little bit about everything. I think that's when specialized knowledge began, and people started becoming "experts" in more narrow topics. Today it's literally impossible to be widely read, there is just too much information in the world about every topic.
But it is interesting, there seems to be a growing movement back towards Octopus-like living, as specialization has left people feeling one-dimensional and not able to fully pursue their curiosities.
Thanks for the follow, I look forward to more interactions in the future!
I am an octopus!
Awesome nice to meet a fellow Octopus!
Excellent paradigm Dave! 👏 I recommended to a number of burned-out health professionals that they replace the job that was killing them with a "portfolio of work" consisting of multiple projects that generated meaning and money. No more bosses, just clients. They embraced that and the results were good. My only caveat is eight project lines might be spreading one's attention/energy too wide, but each person can figure out the optimal menu for themselves. Thanks for writing about this!
Thanks Baird, glad you like it. Yeah 8 does feel like a lot if you try to make it 8 occupations, but I see it as 8 different things you want your life to be about, so maybe 3 can be actual paying “jobs” while 5 can be hobbies, pets, sports, parenting, etc.
As you say I think people need to decide what the right mix is for themselves.
Oh right. It’s about priorities. Thanks for clarifying that.
Dave, thank you for charting this path for us octopus people! I'm an octopus in a specialist role and am *experiencing the Consequences*, as the octopus in Remarkably Bright Creatures would say. (Have you read this book? It's glorious!) I've felt so stuck for so long (even though I used to love my work!) that a couple of weeks ago I gave myself a deadline to figure out a better path. Your framework is helping me think it through in a way I hadn't considered before. High five with all eight tentacles (high 40?)!
Thanks Jen, nice to meet a fellow Octopus, and glad it is helping you reshape your thinking along your journey.
I have not read Remarkably Bright Creatures, but I looked it up on Amazon, sounds like an interesting novel. In the book, does the Octopus actually help solve the mystery of the son disappearing?
Yes! The Octopus is instrumental in solving the mystery in a plot twist that I wasn't expecting - it was a fantastic story!
I gave into the challenge and wrote down the first things that came into my mind that I love or enjoy doing.
1. Reading
2. Music (playing piano, singing)
3. Multiculturalism
4. Helping people
5. Politics/activism
6. Family (I’m a mother and wife)
7. Writing
8. Activities in nature/outdoors
FYI At the moment the main challenge is to find time for anything else than being a mother: I’ve got a 2 and 3 years old boys and we live abroad so we do not have external family support. Raising kids and staying somehow mentally stable is THE challenge, but your post has really motivated me into trying to name my main interests and find a way to monetise around them in the near future.
Hi Cristina, nice list, thanks for posting! Raising kids can definitely be a challenge, so your tentacle #6 is getting heavy use right now. That's ok, raising kids is an important and worthy activity. Hopefully you can figure out a way to activate some of your other interests, even if they are for short bursts of time in between your parenting duties, or perhaps integrate them into your parenting time? Seems like reading, playing music, and the outdoors are things you can do with your sons? Could be a double-win, you get to activate some tentacles while also exposing your boys to new things.
Interesting piece and certainly some great food for thought in here. Your essay reminds me of a book I read a while back by Greg McKeown (Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less), which actually argues the opposite of your essay. His central thesis is that focussing on less is actually "more", in that expending energy on one task will take you much further than having all of your eggs in several baskets. What would your response to this be?
Hi Kavi, thanks for your comment. I read Greg's book, a few thoughts:
I don't entirely disagree with Greg's premise. For people who are "trying to have it all" and becoming stressed and living out of control lives, cultivating skills to prioritize the essentials in life is a good thing. We are more distractable than ever, and do all kinds of things that needlessly overwhelm our time.
On first glance encouraging Octopus behavior may seem to oppose Essentialism. Greg advocates for doing less, I appear to be advocating for doing more. But I see this as a spectrum. At one end you have the "Pick one thing and focus" crowd, which is where I'd roughly put Essentialism. At the other end you have the "Do more, you can have it all" crowd. Octopus Life is somewhere in the middle. I believe telling people to pick one thing has been largely detrimental, especially for young people, and absolutely for Octopus People. But living an out of control chaotic life because you're trying to do everything is also bad. Octopus Work is saying you don't have to pick one thing, but you also don't have to prune your life just for the sake of operational efficiency.
Instead, starting from the core of who you are (if you consider yourself an Octopus), shape your life around that archetype by selecting up to 8 things that would give your life more meaning. Greg's book does not seem to deal at this level, if I remember right the ultimate benefits of Essentialism live more at the surface: less stress, more free time, better prioritization, etc. But Octopus Life originates and operates at the deeper level of core personality, the essence of your being, and works outward from there. As an Octopus, you intentionally identify and extend your tentacles to fulfill your human basic needs for curiosity, variety, and intrigue, etc. This exercise alone is a pruning exercise, but approached from a calm place within, not from a place of chaos/stress requiring the elimination of extraneous activities.
I think we're both encouraging people to be more thoughtful and selective about how to expend our lives, but Essentialism has the end goal of external personal productivity by process of elimination, while I have the end goal of internal personal flourishing by process of extension. These two approaches can have very different outcomes when put into practice.
Hope that helps.
Interesting take - I appreciate the detailed response. I think there's plenty to be gleaned from your octopus philosophy. Life is ultimately more exciting if we channel our energy sensibly into a range (but not too many) things!
I understand this works for people with a clear passion for a field of knowledge or work. But some of us cannot settle for one thing or area. I believe this post is not for everyone but for those people with broadly curious minds that enjoy learning about different disciplines, cultures, arts…
I hope my explanation makes sense. Both arguments are valid, they’re just not right or wrong, it depends on each of us to figure out who we are and let our nature grow wings towards a more specialised path or wide spectrum of paths :)
Hi Cristina,
Essentialism and other "One Thing" books are good for decluttering life. Nothing wrong with that. But when used as career advice, which they often are, it can be paralyzing for Octopus People, make us feel like something is wrong with us, and artificially force us to cut off our tentacles instead of use them to our advantage.
The issue I have with most of these books is that they make it seem like these are universal truths that everyone should be following, and if you don't you won't ever succeed or be good at anything. But it's terrible advice for Octopus People.
I am very much an Octopus type, but I have found Essentialism very helpful to help me focus JUST a bit and find a more peaceful balance. I have embraced my inner Octopus, but if I get TOO scattered, it creates stress. For me it’s like anything - finding the right balance
Yeah, totally identify. In a future post I want to talk about the downsides of being an Octopus. One of them is spreading yourself so thin, you accomplish absolutely nothing, which isn't really good either, especially if you need to earn a living. So finding a balance is the key. The fulcrum point of where that balance lands might be different for different people, but you definitely have to find what works for you.
This is fantastic and it's great you are flushing this concept out in more detail.
I guess I'm sort of living the Octopus life right now. A few thoughts:
1. My model was NOT getting income from multiple tentacles. I got a lot of money from 1 tentacle and had that fund everything else. Ironically, it was going hard on one specialty, that enabled me to be a generalist. I can now use that specialization to earn a lot for less time, opening my time for other things.
2. For monetization, it may make sense to capitalize on 1 tentacle than chasing monetization across multiple. E.g. it will take me a LONG time to make any money from writing vs. maximizing my one high-paying specialist tentacle. Sometimes, interests don't align with the market.
3. The hidden danger is this strategy REQUIRES saying "enough!" and leaving money on the table. Yes, I made good money from the 1 tentacle. But it's SO seductive to continue to push all of my chips into that 1 tentacle, forever. Most people can't do it. Every outside signal tells me to do that. Instead, I needed to accept some point of "that's good enough, I want to explore other things."
4. I'm not recommending my approach, it's just one approach: the one that I did.
5. BTW I think you're onto something big contrasting by Octopus vs. Ikagi's "One Thing." Everyone is looking for that one thing, but life is much more dynamic, flowing and evolving. I wonder that if we gave up on the idea of one thing, we'd be better off...
P.S. wrote about staying out of the box, which is very similar to what you're after: https://newsletter.thewayofwork.com/p/box
Hey Rick, thanks for stopping by, a couple replies:
1. Money from 1 tentacle: same here. I worked traditional jobs for 20+ years (also in healthcare), that funded everything. I fully appreciate that the Octopus Life I'm proposing now is only possible because I focused on 1 tentacle my entire career.
2. 1 tentacle vs multiple to make money: Traditional thinking says pick one thing to chase monetization. I think this is generally correct for most people, but it does have downsides, some quite severe, for example if you work in an occupation that after 10-20 years is no longer needed e.g. publish printed phone books, you risk having nothing. Multiple tentacles hedges against that to some degree, but I do agree multiple is harder.
3. Agree on the "enough" danger! That's the other downside. I think this is the source of many mid-life crises. People do one career, get proficient, it becomes the sole source of income, but then you get bored/disillusioned/unhappy, now what? You're stuck because it's your money source, and you can't just jump easily to another industry/occupation. You want to explore other things but can't. Going back to that money source is tempting, as I'm not yet wealthy enough to retire, but just thinking about it is depressing (loved your post on Ambition with similar themes of not being able to go back). So I forge onward with the new "I want to explore other things" path.
4. I actually mirror your path quite a bit, even down to the industry :)
5. Ikagai: it's funny you mention this because last week I started drafting a post about how Ikagai can ruin your life if you're an Octopus person, haven't decided between that one and another topic to post next (hopefully coming out tomorrow).
I enjoy reading your work series, I'm wrestling with many similar themes right now. Curious if you've solidified or "settled" on anything or do you still feel like you're in exploratory phase?
Good stuff. You might consider exploring how someone could unwind from specialization progressively (e.g. say enough, build up savings, rework specialization into something more autonomous, etc.).
It's almost like a diversification exercise (writing about this re: identities soon), whereby you progressively lower emphasis on 1 tentacle (100%>90%>80%) while raising emphasis on another or others.
Just spitballing.
Gratitude is the most powerful force in the universe.
——The Power (written by Rhonda Byrne）
The pressure our culture/world of work/capitalism puts on us - via control of money - to specialize and become cogs is real. Pushing back against it is work - existential, soul work.
The rewards for being a cog are real. And one can work one's way up and become an increasingly bigger cog that gets paid to make and manage more little cogs.
The machine oils and takes care of its cogs.
I'm not sure it's healthy to think like this.
It's actually quite risky to think like this.
Sometimes it's OK to be cog-like.
We can't all be gods or dragon-riders.
Balance and temper powerful insight with wisdom, common sense, sustainability, and long-term thinking.
Given the familiar setup of the current specialist focused system, and the well worn paths and rewards it provides, most people will choose it, even if that brings some amount of personal resignation, disappointment, and sadness about how much life force is given away to such a system, that does not give much back besides a paycheck.
Octopus Work is not for everyone. It remains to be seen if it's even for me. I just know I was not particularly happy or fulfilled in the specialist system, so I will at least try to ride a dragon before I die.