Introspective few days - learning about “TMA”
May 31, 2008
I’ve had an introspective few days, taking stock of life and whatnot. The recent IQ tests (and first set of results) played a part in this renewed self-examination, but it’s been brewing for a while. I stumbled on this page and it was as if someone had been following me around for the past 15 years or so. I’m self-diagnosing as a “TMA” using the article’s terminology - TMA meaning someone with “Too Many Aptitudes”.
From the article:
“Among the clearest psychological effects of having many talents are problems of focus. TMAs are drawn in many different and conflicting directions. It is like being an engineer, a lawyer, a cook, a teacher and a musician–all at once, with all of them demanding their share of time and energy. Self-structuring thus becomes a major problem for TMAs. Unable to use themselves well, they usually end up as employees–and resent it.
TMAs often become job hoppers, instinctively trying to satisfy their diverse needs. Job hopping rarely leads to financial success. It also doesn’t lead to the consistent building of knowledge, expertise and reputation that is necessary for significant success in any area.”
This has summed up the last 5 years of my life for sure, but even the decade before that had strong echoes of these two paragraphs.
The problem, as I see it, is that the article just describes what’s going on, but not how to fix it. I kept reading on, hooked and fascinated, but ultimately disappointed, as there’s no ‘cure’ to speak of. How do you focus? How do you fix this? In rather stark terms, the author goes on:
“TMA is not something that can be ignored or cured. It is something that has to be worked with. For most multi-talented people, it is likely to cause problems at one stage of life or another. Many TMAs never learn to use themselves well. Usually their worst problems are associated with lack of financial or professional success.”
Again, like this person’s been following me around for some time now. 
This was probably not the thing to be reading right before going to bed, as it’s put me in a rather sour funk. If you’re a “TMA” (as described in this article) how are you getting along?
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May 31st, 2008 at 10:30 pm
This page also seems to have a lot of good info. The HRIP description fits me eerily well too. Most people I’ve worked with will attest to that one 100%. Off to bed now…
June 1st, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Hey Mike - chin up, mate!
I agree the description fits you, but I disagree that having many talents is really such a terrible thing. Many great geniuses were “TMA’s” - DaVinci and Einstein come to mind. Sure, at some point, one does need to focus long enough on *something* to do well at it. For you, it seems, that’s been Web Development, and you’ve arguably done quite well at it. You might not be creating the Next Big Thing or whatever, but that usually requires taking a huge risk, which most folks aren’t really in a position to do. As for the “job hopping” issue, I think that has more to do with the fact that most work environments generally suck, rather than your lack of ability to “fit in”, or suck it up & stick with it. Like you, I have multiple talents (music and computers chief among them), and I’ve changed jobs quite a bit in my career, and I know what kind of job makes me happy: one where my talents are recognized and put to good use, where I’m allowed to speak my mind and where my input is valued, and where management makes good decisions that efficiently drive the company toward success. Unfortunately, such opportunities are few and far between. In general I’ve found that companies focussed on building a *product* as opposed to a “web site” or “web service” tend to work best for me. I also need to have a really good relationship with the management from the get-go. But there *are* good jobs out there for folks like us. I have faith that you’ll find your place in the sun soon, or perhaps create it yourself!
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:20 am
Oh, and one other piece of advice - I’m not sure who originally said this, I think it was Aristotle or one of those ancient Greek dudes:
“The under-examined live is not worth living, but the over-examined life cannot be lived.”
It took thousands of years of human evolution for Nike to shorten this to 3 words: “Just do it.”
June 6th, 2008 at 6:53 am
I had a slight uplift when I got results from second test. Overall score/s was somewhat higher, though there was a marked low score in the area of ‘processing speed’ - I was only in the 66th% percentile. That certainly explains some of my problems in previous positions. I’ve sometimes been thrown in the deep end with little or no explanation on things. I typically do well, but sometimes need more intense and in-depth explanation of an issue or technology to really ‘get’ it. When that’s not there, I can flounder. Looking back, that’s happened on a few occasions that spring to mind, and I can look at that and say that the “processing speed” was probably one of the key factors at play. It’s not that the concepts were necessarily too hard to comprehend, but I can’t understand them all in just a few seconds - I needed more time to digest things.
To be certain, I may be misreading what “processing speed” means - it may *only* be referring to immediate at-hand situations, not issues scoped out over days/weeks. But it feels like a correct assessment overall, so that’s what I’m sticking with until I get more clarification. http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/intell/wais_history.html has more description of the ‘processing speed’ component of this particular test, which I’ll delve in to later.