Renaissance woman or girl with ADHD? Discuss

Whilst typing this I'm simulataneously watching a live feed of a football match and writing emails about biomass.


You see, I'm not what you'd call a 'specialist'.

If I listed my interests, it would run to a couple of pages of A4 and would include things I haven't done for years, yet continue to retain an "interest" in (chemistry, for example).

If you started to tell me why you found the breeding of yaks so incredibly fascinating I would probably listen, totally entranced, then go and read up all there was on the internet on the subject and possibly even buy a couple of books.

I have a mind that just loves stuff.

It's usually easier to engage me in stuff I have a history with, or have encountered before. You ask S. You might remember from a previous blog entry that he took me to a home match a while ago. I loved every minute and now I find myself fretting ever so slightly about how Brighton & Hove Albion are going to manage the last few matches of the season and maintain their lead in League 1. Actually, that's why I'm watching the coverage of today's Huddersfield game - they're second and although they're a good few points behind the Albion...you can't take anything for granted, can you?

It extended slightly further when S sent me a book as a gift. I'm trying to get back into reading and so anything that will make me make time to read is a good thing. Many of my friends were slightly taken aback to learn it's a book called "Inverting the Pyramid" and that it's about the history of football tactics.

I know nothing of the technicalities of football (although I now know Inigo Calderon plays at right-back and I know where to find him on the field) but I sometimes have fun muttering about the "demise of the sweeper system" whilst not having any idea what it is. I like watching the game play out on the field and I like the macro game played out in the league table.

Back to the book - I'm not reading this just to ingratiate myself with S. I don't need to. We're good friends, and if I didn't want to read it I'm capable of thanking him for the gesture and not actually reading the book.

I'm about half-way in and I'm finding it extraordinarily interesting. I won't remember an awful lot of the detail and I have no frame of reference for some of the information in the book - but I'm enjoying the read. It's great learning something new.

And that's it with me...it's all about the learning - but it's also usually about the bonding over a subject with friends.

Photography, architecture, art (to an extent), history (on a good day, with a following wind), chemistry, football, HTML, Linux, Cookery, campanology (learning what Plain Bob Minor was was a real eye opener for me), beer...you name it...it's all interesting.

A while ago I even made CJ explain, in some detail, how PFI deals work for things like hospitals and then spent a happy hour or so arguing with him as to whether it's a good idea.

If I have to describe myself (and I've had to do that for various reasons over the last couple of years) then I tend to say that I'm not very good at anything other than being quite good at a lot of things. It sounds like a bit of a self-deprecation thing...and perhaps it is but it's true.

Over lunch with my friend, AB, yesterday we talked about this. He's very similar. He loves to learn new technical things but admits to losing interest once he's cracked it. I empathise.

It's not something that's particularly well rewarded in the job circuit so you have to make up for it by being disciplined and putting in extra graft.

So is it this personality trait that lead me to only ever be moderately successful in work? Yes, possibly, but the last 8 or so years of my insurance career saw me find my niche...project management.

Many project managers are specialists who fall into management. There's a comfort thing in this because they know the subject. People like me (and my ex-boss) are more the "PM of all trades" kinda folk.

We could argue the toss about whether a good PM can manage any project (I think they can but most specialists disagree) but stepping into managing the set up for a large beer festival a couple weeks ago has reminded me that I still have it.

I went into the room on the first day knowing literally nothing about the technicalities (and there are many). I had a list of jobs that needed to be done and I had an appreciation of the critical path.

Mostly I let people get on with their jobs...but when a decision needed to be made, I asked people to explain the technicalities of the decision to me and together we came to a conclusion.

So I now know how beer is racked, vented and tapped - and why you do each of those things. I have a better appreciation of the conditioning process of beer and how you can tell whether beer is ready to serve.
I even know why a hoist with fewer than four turns on a cable drum is not really fit for purpose but that the mass of the thing you're lifting, and the height you're lifting things to can play a part in your safety decision on whether to use it or not.

The jury's out as to whether I made a positive difference to the set up (I might find this out next week) but I realised that it's my basic curiosity that allows me to take on these sorts of tasks and get up to speed fairly quickly.

I'm afraid it also makes me go a little geeky and try to start to explain to anyone who'll stand still long enough to listen (and a few who attempt to run away) how the 2-3-5 formation pre-dates the passing game and how England's dogged attempt to continue to play W-M was so ill fated as they pitched against sides with more flair and flexibility.

Where are you going...come back...don't you want to hear about the flat four?