Someone at my workplace described me as “A Jack of all trades”. Now, I think I am supposed to take it as a compliment, but I am not sure that this is the case.
If I am a “Jack of all trades, master of none”, then I might take it as an insult. It implies that I am not very skilful in any of the areas in which I claim expertise or knowledge or that my skills are superficial rather than comprehensive.
However, the phrase was formerly intended as a compliment, meaning that a person is a generalist rather than a specialist, versatile and adept at many things.
The complete saying was, “A Jack of all trades, master of none, though oftentimes better than a master of one”. It implies that being mostly good at many things is better than being great at one thing and terrible at everything else.
I can relate to that.
