Apparently Jane’s Addiction is touring with the Smashing Pumpkins this year into the next, and there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that Eric Avery is back with the band; apparently they worked out their differences again, and providing everyone doesn’t turn into a dick they can continue to make music together. The bad news is that Dave Navarro has long COVID and isn’t touring with them, thus negating any reason to see them. This would have been a dream tour up until about fifteen years ago but I have no desire to see Smashing Pumpkins anymore—I’ll hang on to my memories of seeing them in their prime, thanks—but it would be cool to see JA live before they have to detune the songs another full step to account for Perry’s aging vocal cords.
In this article, Stephan Ango writes about the strategy of hybridizing vs. specializing: focus on being a generalist and bringing multiple pursuits together to find unexpected connections vs. focusing completely on one career path.
Having a wide base of skills with one or two specialties gives you more tools in your toolbox — more ways to solve problems.
As an unintentional hybridist (illustrator, designer, game designer, coder, front end developer, videographer, photographer, carpenter, teacher and contractor) I can now maybe claim I had this brilliant strategy mapped out for my whole life, or I can admit that I have the attention span of a moth. Whatever the case, I do see how this mixture of pursuits has helped me think beyond just that of an illustrator (which is what it says on my diploma).