Ted Wang a master of none
Hi there! Welcome to my personal page. I am currently a software engineer at
TikTok. I like to write about
technologies, things that I learned at work, and interesting researches that I have been involved
in. I have a wide range of knowledge in software development, robotics, AI, and mechanical design!
When I'm not working, I like to swim and play basketball and tennis. I also like to carry my camera
around and capture random pictures, such as the one below (taken at Lake Tahoe, NV).
I like to refer myself as a "jack of all trades, master of none". Hmmm... let me try to explain this. Of course, who doesn't want to be a "master of all trades" ? But there is only a limited amount of time for all of us to develop those skills. In my opinion, having a wide knowledge base outweighs being a "master of one" , which could easily be done by A.I. nowadays. Let's talk about software development, for example, it is definitely great to be an expert in frontend development, but to me, having an encompassing knowledge about the backend, frontend, infrastructure, architecture, and etc. is much more valuable than knowing the syntax of some rare frontend libraries. You see, my point is, it's nice to be extremely good at one thing, but if you spend all your time on that, it can also limit your imagination and creativity. If I have to chose to be a master of something, I would go with problem-solving, but that just contradicts itself since there are so many different types of problems and each one requires different skill sets. Being a good problem solver means that one can tirelessly jump out of his or her comfort zone, adapt quickly to different problems, and develop the skills to solve them. So yea, I am probably a master of none, but an excellent problem solver.
But all that above is just too long to explain, if you want a short version of the answer, let me just answer you with a quote from my favorite book.
Why do you call yourself a "master of none"?
I like to refer myself as a "jack of all trades, master of none". Hmmm... let me try to explain this. Of course, who doesn't want to be a "master of all trades" ? But there is only a limited amount of time for all of us to develop those skills. In my opinion, having a wide knowledge base outweighs being a "master of one" , which could easily be done by A.I. nowadays. Let's talk about software development, for example, it is definitely great to be an expert in frontend development, but to me, having an encompassing knowledge about the backend, frontend, infrastructure, architecture, and etc. is much more valuable than knowing the syntax of some rare frontend libraries. You see, my point is, it's nice to be extremely good at one thing, but if you spend all your time on that, it can also limit your imagination and creativity. If I have to chose to be a master of something, I would go with problem-solving, but that just contradicts itself since there are so many different types of problems and each one requires different skill sets. Being a good problem solver means that one can tirelessly jump out of his or her comfort zone, adapt quickly to different problems, and develop the skills to solve them. So yea, I am probably a master of none, but an excellent problem solver.
But all that above is just too long to explain, if you want a short version of the answer, let me just answer you with a quote from my favorite book.
“If you do something too good, then, after a while, if you don't watch it, you start showing off. And then you're not as good any more.”
— J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye