Refuse To Choose: How To Do Everything You Love
August 22nd, 2010
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I just read the very interesting Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher (recommended to me by Paul Strobl of Confide Coaching). It’s about the types of people she calls “scanners” (as opposed to “divers”); people who would rather survey the whole horizon than go diving as deep as they can in one spot. She calls them scanners, I call them polymaths, but they’re very similar.
The copy I picked up at the library had the subtitle A Revolutionary Program for Doing Everything That You Love
But when I looked it up on Amazon, I came across the alternate subtitle “Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams.” I found this much more intriguing, though perhaps overly ambitious. But it made me wonder if it was just a different subtitle, or a completely revised edition.
And now I’ve written yet another subtitle in my headline, so I’m not exactly helping. Anyway, my comments are based on the version I read.
The main thing I got out of this book was that it’s OK to be a scanner, it’s just how we’re wired and not something we should try to suppress, and in fact it’s a good thing. Which I already knew, of course, but it was nice to see a recognized life coach saying so and talking about her clients who have successfully pursued their diverse interests.
One example of how she shows that scanners are OK: the false stigma of quitting. Many scanners get very frustrated with themselves for not being able to finish what they set out to do. Barbara explains why this is not a sign of failure, but a sign of having goals that are achieved before a project appears to be done. When a bee gets nectar from a flower and then moves on to the next one, do you call it a quitter for not sticking around?
I especially like how she separately addresses all the different types of scanners. From her experiences with working with so many scanners, she’s found that they don’t all fit the same pattern. Instead, there are two broad groups – cyclical scanners, who keep returning to the same interests, and sequential scanners, who don’t. Then these groups are further broken down into nine types:
- Cyclical Scanners
- The Double Agent
- The Sybil
- The Plate Spinner
- Sequential Scanners
- The Serial Specialist
- The Serial Master
- The Jack-of-All-Trades
- The Wanderer
- The Sampler
- The High-Speed Indecisive
She talks about the unique challenges of each type, and goes into practical methods for managing your time, staying focused, and doing what you want to do.
However, don’t assume you’ll fit neatly into one category. I identified myself as a combination of the Sybil, Serial Master, Jack-of-All-Trades, Wanderer, and Sampler, thereby spanning more than half the categories. Oh well, I guess I’m difficult.
Hats off to Barbara Sher for standing up for scanners. When the world demands that you choose a path, what is a scanner to do? Simple: refuse to choose!
August 23rd, 2010 at 12:27 am
I saw Rose Caplot (http://www.rosinecaplot.com/) mention this book — she is a scanner, too.
Some call this hunter vs farmer (no pun intended). Which explains some of the challenges of the scanners (hunters) in this society that is based on farmers-like organizations.
It’s really weird that we are expected to choose one job and stick to it for the majority of our long life. Or to live in one area or to be with one partner for so long. Kids are naturally scanners. I suspect most divers are converted scanners — for social approval and benefits such as 401K vesting.
August 23rd, 2010 at 6:19 am
I was just reading an old post of yours the other day about polymaths and how humans were built to be able to do all sorts of things (the perfect margarita, etc.!), not just one. I’ve always been a scanner and completely changed fields in my 30s (while my poor mom said sadly, “But what about all those years you studied so hard in college??)
Before you pointed out all the awesome polymaths from long ago in that post, I’d kept wondering for years, have I not found my real “calling” in life? Wouldn’t I be better off financially by now if I’d specialized in something and gone very deep? So I’ll probably get this book, because who wouldn’t want to create the life and career of his/her dreams!?
August 23rd, 2010 at 12:26 pm
I read and loved this book. She also has one called Wishcraft that is worth a read. It gives you the down and dirty how-to to make it work.
My experience as a scanner/polymath has been a long road to acceptance. Growing up, I heard a lot of “why don’t you finish what you start?” Guilt trips to the extreme.
But I get bored. And restless. I need more to occupy me than a single track. Hence having a dozen irons in the fire at any time.
Yes, it’s okay to be a scanner. And I’m proud to be one. I just wish I had known it was okay years ago.
August 24th, 2010 at 1:12 am
@ Akemi, good point about kids naturally being scanners. I hadn’t thought about that, but it’s absolutely true. Is picking a major the point at which most people convert to divers? Maybe.
@ Christie, I’m still not sure what the purpose of college is, but I’m sure it’s not to prepare us for a job. Because a far more direct approach would be to skip college and just start the job four years earlier!
You always take your experiences with you, so nothing is ever wasted. Would you be better off financially today if you had specialized? Perhaps, if you had specialized in the right thing. You could also be worse off if you had specialized in something that looked promising until its bubble burst. Anyway, if a particular field is going to bore you to death after it’s overstayed its welcome, what difference does a bit more money make?
August 26th, 2010 at 7:46 am
@ Mary, sorry, your comment somehow got lost in the moderation queue.
I saw that Barbara has written a number of other books, and I’m sure they’re all worth a read. Glad you’ve accepted that having a dozen irons in the fire is OK. For me, the best part of Refuse to Choose is that it helps scanners see that.
November 9th, 2010 at 12:46 am
Hi Hunter,
I have some questions/thoughts I’d like to ask/share. Before I start though, I would like to say that I haven’t read the book yet and I’m guessingsome of these things I mentioned may already have been addressed by Barbara in her book.
Do you think there’s an inherent danger of people embracing Barbara’s personality theories as a source of reassurance and comfort to their indecisive personality or whatever it may be?
I’m sure the book has many valid points but how well has she defined them? I’m sure 70-90% of people in this world can personally relate to some forms of the proposed scanner personalities seen in the book.
I’m a naturally curious person and I’m interested in many things, though perhaps not to the point where I’m willing to undertake a phD for any of those fields, given how short life is. I watch a lot of documentaries, I spend hours and hours reading wikipedia each week (clicking link after link of related topics till the start and end are completely unrelated), and I have a general interest in discussing many things with my close friends. I guess I can say that I have some sort of scanner personality based on my actions.
November 10th, 2010 at 12:20 am
@ Ivan, when you (not you personally; the generic “you”) have many interests, an “indecisive personality” is a very common downside of that. (Yes, being a scanner, like anything else, has its pros and cons.) But trying to force yourself to pick a focus when you don’t feel drawn to one thing is probably not a great idea. You’re likely to get bored quickly, and become miserable and unproductive.
A better bet would be to remain aware of the pitfalls of spreading yourself too thin, while managing your time well and devoting sufficient energy to your most important interests at the moment. I change directions all the time, but I can focus when I’m sufficiently motivated to do so. This month, I’m writing my second novel, something that most people, scanner or not, don’t have the focus to do. When I’m done, I’ll be free to choose a new direction.
From your brief description of yourself, yes, you do sound like a scanner. I don’t think scanners are uncommon, but I think 70-90% sounds awfully high. Everyone is partly scanner and partly diver, but I think most people lean more on the diver side. It would be hard to measure that kind of thing objectively though.
December 21st, 2010 at 1:19 pm
[...] to do for the rest of my life. Do you know Barbara Sher's "Refuse to choose"? Refuse To Choose: How To Do Everything You Love (which, as others have pointed out, does not mean refuse to focus, but that you can have many [...]