Monday, 19th January

Today in 1839...

"The birth of French Post-Impressionist artist, Paul Cezanne"

Paul Cezanne, in a big coat

I'm no art historian. I'm no historian full stop , but art history is a particularly black hole for me. So first skimming through the google image results for his paintings basically left me with the impression (no pun intended) that he painted mainly thin people and fruit. Like many long-dead big-shot artists, he was spectacularly unpopular for much of his career and remained unrecognized for much of his lifetime, only becoming sought after in the twilight of his career, by which time he had retreated from the art world. I guess it gave him more time to paint.

Instead of linking to all sorts of biographical sources and the dread wikipedia, here is a link to a Guardian article from 2006 about how literary figures played a part in popularizing Cezanne's work. Interesting stuff.

So, then, to the quote....

"It is better to know nothing than to half-know a lot"

So, so apt. Apt for the the text above, apt for the blog itself - a quote which appears in quotation dictionaries across the web as "Better know nothing than half-know many things", and is a line from Nietszche's Thus Spake Zarathrustra. Typical of the daily calendar to simplify it for the desk-bound - you and I, essentially - but unusual for it to be so... apt.

The old phrase "jack of all trades, master of none" comes to mind here. And master-of-none tool of choice wikipedia

"Jack of all trades, master of none" is a figure of speech used in reference to a person who is competent with many skills but is not outstanding in any particular one.

Aside from aggregating and then lightly poking fun at historical entries on a desk calendar, I play multiple musical instruments. Call it restlessness, call it ill-discipline, but I've never really got beyond 'competent' at most of them - I'm quite happy with this situation. I like to take the wider view.

A Jack of all trades may also be a master of integration, as the individual knows enough from many learned trades and skills to be able to bring their disciplines together in a practical manner, and is not a specialist. Such a person is known as a polymath or a Renaissance man, and a typical example is someone like Leonardo da Vinci.

Or indeed Leonardo da Vinci himself!

In 1612, the phrase appeared in 'Essays and Characters of a Prison' by Geffray Mynshul and the phrase has been in use in the United States since 1721.

The 'jack of all trades' part of the phrase was in common use during the 1600s and was generally used as a term of praise. 'Jack,' in those days was a generic term for 'man.' Later the 'master of none' was added and the expression ceased to be very flattering. Today, the phrase used in its entirety generally describes a person whose knowledge, while covering a number of areas, is superficial in all of them, whilst when abreviated as simply 'jack of all trades' is more ambigious and the user's intention may vary, dependent on context.

The internet has bred many a jack of all trades. Small pieces of information re-hashed, much like this blog or the material it draws reference from, means that we all know a little about a lot.

Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame has suggested at a speech given at the hacker conference H.O.P.E. that the complete phrase is in fact "Jack of all trades, master of none, though often better than a master of one, " though there is no source to corroborate that the phrase was ever in common use in this form.

But why not attribute the quote newly to Mr Savage? I like the extension. Let me be another electronic blip recording Mr Savage's noble words for all eternity!