To be or not to be good at everything

As long as it was true that the best way to improve in something was to spend time doing it (or studying it, researching it, etc...), then there was a drawback to trying to be good at everything.

You might lose the chance to be the best at one thing.

How to be good at everything

I always enjoy looking back at random old scrap papers or notebook pages of mine.  You could see everything from simple scoreboards and notes about video games, to detailed plans for my own games, attempts to solve random math problems, personality investigations, game theory investigations, and more.  There was even a paper on which I wrote the things I believed necessary if you wanted to become good at everything...

The Next Chapter

Classes started today for me.  This would be the beginning of my Master's program (well, I guess you could say I had done some previous work that would be a part of my Master's program already).  My degree would be in Math and Computer Science.  You were supposed to choose either the Statistics, Applied Math, or Computer Science option (in fact, the departments were soon to be separated), but I found my way to do more.  My Master's thesis would be on a project on the computer science side (although it will probably also use a reasonable amount of theoretical math), but I would be taking applied math courses instead of computer science courses.  Not only that, but I would also be doing an applied math project that could have been a thesis project, just for... well, just to have a better resume?  Just for the challenge?  Just for fun?  Just because I could?  Was I too indecisive to choose one subject, or was I choosing not to make a choice?  Heh, who knows?

I want to be a-

With all that theoretical math stuff, you might expect that I was set on a path to become a theoretical mathematician.  But, maybe ironically, I haven't taken much theoretical math in college.  It's a shame.  I could have been good at it.

I could imagine that my old physics teacher would have said I should become an astrophysicist or something.  I probably could have been good at it.  I was pretty good at chemistry too.  And I seemed to have some skill for statistics.  You know, I enjoy game design too.  Have you seen some of the games I've made?

I knew I was really fortunate to have a lot of opportunities.  PhD programs, funded PhD programs maybe, a good chance to get whichever job I wanted...
By the way, which job did I want?  Uh, I want to be a- a- I don't know...

Just before I graduated from college, the head of the computer science department gave me some advice.  She said that often the trouble with being good at so many things was that it made it hard to choose one thing you wanted to do.  But she recommended just choosing one path and sticking with it, going after it to the fullest (she advocated for a path in computer science a little, of course).  I thought it was good advice.  But I kind of wanted to ask:

The Fibonacci Sequence, Part 2

The last time I wrote about the Fibonacci sequence, I mentioned an explicit formula giving the numbers of the sequence.  That post made me think back on another problem, one for which I had already come up with a method that I believed would solve the problem, although I never followed through on it completely.
What if the sequence didn't start with 1, 1?

Can I make you smarter?

I've had people say to me things like, "I wish I was as smart as you" or "Can you just give me some of your smarts?" (No! Never! I want it all for myself! Oh wait, that's not even possible...)  Well I don't know of a way to transfer smartness, but, if you're willing to work with me, maybe I could find a way to make you "smarter".  Is what I sometimes wanted to say (although I never actually did).

What makes me special

Well, nothing, maybe.
I argued that point as much as I possibly could.  I thought it would be foolish to think highly of my own ability.  First of all, I couldn't expect myself to be able to judge myself correctly, and second of all, I'd lose my reason to push myself, my drive to improve, if I thought I was already good.  If I wanted to show that there was truly something special about me, it was going to have to be through some kind of undeniable proof.  And the one least accepting of any of it was going to be me.
Few things are absolute.  It was very likely that I would never find that certain proof I required of myself.  Still, there were some things that were hard to deny.

Teachers and classmates probably figured that it was math that was my specialty, although my old physics teacher would also recognize my skills in physics, my old chemistry teacher wouldn't doubt my skills in chemistry, etc...  Sure I was good at math, but I've competed in enough math competitions that I didn't win to know that it was possible to be better.
A glance through my YouTube channel might make you think that video games or maybe programming was what I was best at.  Well, I really didn't have as much programming experience as I could have, and as for video games, for many of the things I did someone existed who could do them better.
The thing is, I don't think it's one thing specifically that I'm good at.  I think it's... well...
everything.

Intelligence

What does it mean to be "intelligent"?  I mean, you'd be a fool if you called yourself smart without having some clear definition of intelligence.

Merrian-Webster's dictionary gives this as the first definition of intelligence:

(1) : the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations : reason; also : the skilled use of reason (2) : the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one's environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (as tests)

 But, even after looking at Wikipedia and online dictionaries, there are still a lot of things that I'm unclear on.  The following questions are asked with the knowledge that there is no set scientific definition of intelligence, so there really probably aren't any right answers.

Memory

A good friend of mine once told me that they say that the further back into your childhood you can remember, the smarter you are.  (He then proceeded to tell me, in detail, about some of the things that happened when he was really young.)  By that standard, the only type of genius I would be is the self-proclaimed kind.  I remember hardly anything from elementary school (I'm not even sure I remember my teachers' names).  Even from middle school and high school, most of what I remember is blurry, more general concepts than specific details.  A lot of mistakes stand out, some trivial (I can't believe I said "matrixes" instead of "matrices" in front of 2 friends who wouldn't care over 3 years ago) and some more serious (I can't believe I didn't turn in that assignment what, 6 years ago, 7 years ago?).  But, in order to not torment myself pointlessly, I've tried to stop myself from focusing on all of my mistakes, somewhat successfully.  Other than that, I don't remember much more than the big events that happened.

And that's not even it.  People, faces (I tended not to look at people's faces much) and names (I didn't use names much either); I didn't seem to remember those very well either.  Directions, places, scenery...
Did I ever suffer from amnesia?  I'm not sure; I can't remember.

But you know they say there's always two sides to every story.  And you could probably guess by now that this is only half of it.

Recently Played Games

These would have been recent if I had actually wrote this a while ago.  Back at the end of the semester, I started playing a lot of online games.  I saw a video of someone playing Pixel Purge and got motivated to try and beat their high score.  I also went for the highest level I could get and got 40-something... it was enough to get max level in all but one category.  Then I played some word games.  I haven't played Word Bubbles in a while but I've played Scramble pretty recently.

My highest score (under current score).  That's 8 digits, by the way.