How to survive to semantics.

giulia pezzullo

© photo by giulia pezzullo

Once I saw a TED talk video, one of those who leave you a mark. It started with two simple questions that left me halfway between scepticism and curiosity: How many of you have been ever asked "What do you want to be when you grow up? And for how many of you has this ever caused any anxiety? The distress of response, that of making a wrong decision, the terrible feeling of not being able to pursue that path. Even the most aware people of their future have at least once experienced this feeling of veiled fear that suffocates and catches on. After all, how to disagree?

The professional success, nowadays, echoes less defined but extremely overwhelming and strong needs. A society in constant evolution and traveling at the speed of light is asking for more and more, screaming loudly that it needs novelty and excellence, cooperation and professionalism, warriors of work and "puzzle" figures. Professionals wedged and well placed as in a game of Jenga, ready to do their part and to achieve the "multidisciplinary" goal. But what does it mean to be "multidisciplinary professionals"? In the common imagination, the concept of affirmed "professional" enjoys an incredibly entrenched absolutism. In fact, from 18 years onwards, life must be devoted to achieving a single, unitary, well-defined and circumscribed goal. Woe to go off the rails, woe to think bigger because the important thing is to affirm yourself in something and become "professionals".

The first definition of "professional" from the vocabulary is: Whoever exercises an intellectual or liberal profession as a primary economic activity (Treccani, online vocabulary); and still later: In common use, those who carry out their work, whatever it may be, with specific skill and competence (Treccani, online vocabulary). Two definitions all in all rigorous and open-minded, which take everything and nothing into consideration, which open to different interpretations incongruent to each other. Semantically speaking, the adjective "primary" indicates something that in a succession, list, ranking comes before the rest and in fact establishes an order, a preference. This makes us think that being professional in something means making a unique choice by skimming all the possibilities that exist, basically making a list of pros and cons and giving an order to the various items.

Sacrificing something? For sure.

After all, that of the profession is a primary choice.

However, the other side of the coin sweetens this concept and apparently facilitates the mental (or physical) writing of this list for the future. The primary work, whatever it may be, must be carried out with specific skill and competence. So here the skimming becomes simple, now the goal can be seen and almost touched: choosing a profession was not that difficult!

But in second place on the list, what is written on it? And in third place?

If they arrived on the podium, the skills are there anyway. They maybe will not be specific but they are certainly sufficient to open your mind to the concept of multidisciplinarity understood as multipotentiality. Multipotentiality is the ability to express yourself in different fields and commit in different activities by developing appropriate skills, capable of making improvements and innovations. We are not talking about excelling, being an example or a guru. It is about engaging your potentialities in different fields and for different purposes, knowing that you can make a difference in any work or research group.

It seems a perfect picture, a situation of peaceful coexistence between multipotential professionals who let their knowledge flow in order to create a powerful network of synergies to start and conclude great works. Likely, this should be the case in a 2020 firm. Thinking about it, it is like putting the concept of the Second Industrial Revolution into motion again, but with much more awareness, precision and skill; each gear is perfect if taken individually and, potentially, it knows how to do its job, but only when inserted in a larger complex does it perform its real job.

The problem that emerges, however, is the consideration that we have of those who not only fit into the concept of multidisciplinarity but assimilate it and become an active part of it by providing their skills in adapting and being resilient. The one who doesn’t choose a primary profession becomes a visionary, dreamer, slacker, a Peter Pan of work. Despite having one/two/three degrees, specialization courses, aspirations, dreams and although doing greatly different jobs, those who don’t wear a mask to look straight necessarily have something less than those who do a banner of glory of the primary profession. But this is not because there is no need for a wide range of different mentalities ready to come up with the right card at the right time. The only real reason that leads to the research of an outlined but hybrid figure (because, let's be clear, you, yes you, can be as professional as you want but if your boss asks you to meticulously review a text in German and you only know Spanish, you have to find a solution) is the deep need for people able to read between the lines who, however, don’t reveal themselves as multipotentialites but simply as open- minded and ready to learn and work in a team (translation: multidisciplinarity-friendly).

That is less scary. And it's cooler.

So, to respond to a society that seeks multidisciplinarity every day everywhere, it would be necessary: choosing a profession in which being great; proposing as creative, intelligent, accommodating, adaptable individuals and big fans of teamwork and continuous learning. Semantically speaking, you should introduce yourself as a primary professional and hide your multipotentiality between the lines.

Which basically means that we are being fooled by semantics.