In praise of the dilettante: an anti-hero for an over-optimised age
Aeon · In praise of the dilettante · Jay Miller
Dilettante is usually a put-down: superficial, uncommitted, never serious enough. Jay Miller turns that judgement around. In a hyper-specialised world that treats lifelong devotion to one field as the only respectable path, moving freely between interests and pursuing them for pleasure rather than achievement may be an underrated way to live. Drawing on Kierkegaard’s “crop rotation” and Nietzsche’s “free spirit”, the essay sketches a different ideal: engaged enough to go deep, detached enough to move on.