Makers, Managers, Visionaries

Paul Graham splits people into makers and managers, and Michael Gerber into technicians, managers, and entrepreneurs. More generally I prefer visionaries.

It's not that each each of us is only one. It's that each of us can choose to embody their accompanying skills when a situation calls for it.

• The maker (or technician) is the one building things. They're socializing, coding, podcasting, reading, writing. They're the ones selling. They perform the day-to-day operations of living and working. However, they're also the most myopic.
• The manager switches on when we're paying bills, scheduling, managing relationships. They keep the ship moving in the right direction, although they too cannot see very far ahead.
• The visionary is the one with the telescope. They're the ones musing. They're asking "What if X? Then Y?" They're the ones that can work through where we should be headed and what the possibilities are. They are also the persona that we are most likely to disregard in favor of our daily to-dos.

Each day, we have the option to be a maker, manager, and/or visionary. Often we're all three. It's been useful for me to think about how I split time between these categories. Choose your players wisely, hone their individual skills as you will.