As I am getting older, one thing that strikes me the most is that “ I get bored as soon as I know how to do something”, quoting from Barbara Sher who extensively talks about the thing I am about to discuss today.

Honestly, it has always been double-edged swords. I am sure if you’ve followed me long enough, I can code, cook,bake, fix stuff in a medium level mastery within just a week then as soon as I know just enough to do it, I’ll stop doing it. To me, even with making money is the same, I get obsessed for a short while but then I get bored of it. Strange isn’t it? In a normal society, this kind of person, or a person like me barely survives but at the same time, we survive as we’re all rounder; When you can do anything, you can make money out of anything.

“ A scanner might be fascinated to play bridge of Bocce but once she gets good at it, she might never play it again” – Barbara Sher

I found this book after a Sunday reflection which led me to question, why am I like this? The article I read was from this Medium, 4 challenges of my scanner personality that I still encounter regularly (and how I try to deal with them) and I eventually came across Barbara She’s book discussing it. That got me fascinated because for once, I want to work on my weaknesses and navigate them.

We have this term in the modern world that basically talks about Jack-of-All -trades but master of none. Even if you know many things, the work environment and career requires you to know one thing. As much as I learned neuropharmacology too and know my way around it, that knowledge is useless. I don’t have the MD degree or any degree related to it to be able to use that for the benefits of others. I can tell you numerous things I did my entire life that you’d be surprised even if you talk to me long enough.When someone just gets really good at one thing, I can do many things but never really master it.

During my school years, it was quite an advantage, I can do things competitively from art to science to sport. But once I got older, especially during university, I felt so out of place. As much as I tried to combine two major interests of my life which is Tech and Literature, the world expects me to only know one thing and everyone around me is good at one thing only. They couldn’t certainly code but know how to write great poetry and vice versa. This intersection of life used to be an advantage but as I grew older, it started to look as a disadvantage. I want to explore if this was something that could be fixed or things that well, I have to just accept.

Upon finding the book, I got so immersed and found the experience of others pretty fascinating and accurate. The exercises that were presented were pretty much similar to things I’ve done all these years. Some of my ideas can be a little silly and weird but since I want to know them, I always pursue them.

In the book, I read this chapter that basically titled “ Duration, Rewards and Honeybees” and that makes a whole lot more sense that people like me indulge in learning new things because there’s a reward, by that I don’t mean monetarily but could be helping someone fixed their problem or things to that nature.

At the same time, in that medium article, the author itself is a scanner, a bit similar to mine except he’s figured out how to work that personality to his advantage. For me, I learned something new, like techniques on tackling the boredom part of something and the desire to move on to the next one.

“ I shouldn’t quit but rather give it a buffer”

As I am talking about getting obsessed with certain things this entire week, rather than quitting like I normally would, I was told to give it a buffer. Maybe bake once a week with different levels of skills and stuff like that. At the same time, having timing and a set timer are a great idea as I’ve said since again, that would decrease the likelihood of me quitting it altogether.

Then, I was reminded of this game, Anno1800. If it were my past self, I would play a month straight, understanding everything there is to know but never look back. Think about all the games I’ve ever tried here but you never see me playing it again. With Anno1800, I am taking a different approach. Rather than playing it fast and bored quickly, I play once a week, 2-3 hours at a time, and really take my time to progress and advance.

As I am sitting down writing this, it all comes together. This is why I really enjoy writing it here in public because it helps with my personal accountability too. That one day I’ll look back and realize this was the turning point of everything and understanding how to work with the personality that I have.

Now that also reminds me, the weekly accountable thing that I did. They work so well because It was weekly based and I achieved what needed to be achieved. As much as I didn’t do it again lately due to time and personal reasons, that was a good trick for me that works with a scanner brain like mine. That personal development log helps me rotate my interes while retaining more mastery and the new things I learned.

Are you a scanner too?