[5/20] From Corporate America to Creative Chaos

The importance of aligning with joy and energy in work and life

Hello and welcome to the new generalists & multipotentialites who joined us!

If you’re not subscribed yet, you can do it below!

After a somewhat long hiatus, we’re back with some cool stuff to share today:

  • From Corporate America to Creative Chaos

  • Generalist' Digest

  • Relevant Content I Like

Let's get to it!

P.S: This is part of a series of 20 articles on being a generalist. We'll explore the means and tools to figure out our own path as a generalist. Each entry will focus on a specific topic, so if you have any preference just hit reply!

From Corporate America to Creative Chaos:

Today’s issue is a bit different.

We had the chance to sit down with a bonafide multipotentialite!

Joel Zaslofsky is The Connection and Operations Guy at Puttylike, Emilie Wapnick’s community for multipotentialites. As a former corporate dynamo turned multipotentialite extraordinaire, shares his journey of self-discovery and how he found success by refusing to choose a niche.

He reveals how embracing his diverse skills and interests allowed him to become a bridge between different industries, solving big problems and making meaningful connections.

The key takeaways are:

  • You do you: One common theme we explore is society's relentless pressure to conform and specialize in one thing. But you know what, friends? Embracing your diverse interests requires the audacity to not give a flying fig about what others think.

  • Integration is the secret sauce: Instead of narrowing yourself down to a single passion or career, why not embrace all the facets of your awesomeness? Joel shares how he integrates his various roles and interests, from being a community animator to a loving father. By embracing multiple passions and finding joy in the overlap, being overwhelmed becomes a thing of the past.

  • Multipotentialites are the future: As we look forward, AI and technology are revolutionizing industries, making specific skills less important than ever before. That's where multipotentialites come in. Their ability to connect the dots and bridge gaps across different disciplines is exactly what our rapidly changing world needs. Specialists may be prevalent, but we're betting on the multipotentialites to be the superheroes of tomorrow.

If you want to hear more (both from Joel and yours truly):

For the written rendition:

Let me know what you thought! Do you have a similar story you want to share? Hit me up in the replies, and maybe it’ll feature in this newsletter!

Generalist' Digest:

📜 Study: Not the first time I’ll say this, but learning to say no when appropriate is a skill, especially for multipotentialites and generalists. If you’re still not convinced, have a look at James Clear’s (Atomic Habits) opinion on the matter.

🧠 Thinking: As generalists, we clearly struggle with direction sometimes. In this newsletter, one of my goals is to help others like me find their purpose and their path. A very good framework for that is Stoicism. Now, Stoicism is a life philosophy, geared towards cultivating the best version of ourselves in everything we do. That includes work, as well. This piece suggests self-knowledge is as important as domain knowledge in getting to a place of real fulfillment.

🌟Interesting: A bit unrelated but, we have been accepted into Buildspace’s s4! Buildspace is a physical and an online school for people to work on any idea they want. We’ll take advantage of this opportunity to keep growing the Generalist Thinkbox, so expect more cool stuff to come!

Content I Like :

Sometimes I'd recommend a cool piece of content/content creator!

Samantha Postman is the epitome of a successful generalist. With a long and storied career doing a bit of everything, she’s the perfect example that a path exists for people with so many varied interests.

Check out her stuff on Youtube and Twitter:

That's a wrap!

Thanks for being a valued member of the Thinkbox!

For more and for any inquiries, you can find me on Twitter and LinkedIn.[

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