We are what we know. Tell me everything you can about ant colonies. That’s it? Why limit yourself to the things that make you a passable designer/engineer/person. You were taught in school the bare minimum to master your discipline of choice. Those who are hungry venture outside of their comfort zone and bring to the table much more than what their title implies. They are multidisciplinary and to call them by this label or that only betrays their real function as connectors and innovators.

My father ran a very successful graphics card company in the eighties. As a part of my upbringing he would take me out to breakfast and pontificate on what makes a great business. Such pearls as treat your company like a restaurant, start with two tables and let it grow instead of opening with five hundred. Deceptively valuable information.

One lesson in particular that stuck with me was regarding the types of employees that he hired. He said that there were two kinds - Engineers and Architects. The engineers were brilliant at executing orders. Give them a section of code to crank on and they come back in two days with some beautiful work. On the other hand there were architects. These were engineers too but the twist was that they brought more than just their engineering skill sets to the table. I have fond memories of discussions with the architects. They would tell me about their passion for classical music and how it applied to engineering. Their solutions were elegant and if you gave them a project to oversee they would dream up unconventional and unexpected results. Architects are a rare breed. In an organization of a hundred you might have ninety five engineers and five architects.

You want to be an architect because it’s not just about being your name tag. Appreciation for contrasting disciplines allows you to draw parallels and think outside of the box. For instance, your hobby might be latin dance and you can certainly apply timing and rhythm theories to your work. The industrial design consultancy IDEO calls these types of people “T-Shaped” - specialized experts with deep interests in other areas.

If you really love what you do then you’ll find ways to make yourself better at it. I studied comedic timing, storytelling, and presentation theory to get better at communicating with people remotely over the internet. When I write copy or create a brand I draw on my knowledge of rhetoric to make a meaningful connection. As an interaction designer I realize that the cognitive processes that are taking place as a user peruses my site are similar to those that occur when I’m chatting up a girl at a bar. So I studied pick-up artists and approach theories. Everything relates to everything (oh so existential).

Having hobbies are a great start. Find a passion for things outside of your domain. You never know what might inspire your next innovation. It’s critical to think about the parallels between your field of expertise and all of things that aren’t. Cross pollinate and become better than good, become great.

Extra Credit Link: Ben Fry merges Emergence with Programming