Snapshot Question: The Many Meanings Of Best

[silveradept]

Two-parter for those wishing to answer. Please provide reasoning and detail to your heart's content.

a) If a question asks you what kind of work best uses your skills, what does that mean to you? Please answer this question completely before proceeding to the next one, so that your answer is not tainted. Write it in the comment box or something.

b) If a question asks you what kind of work best uses your skills, can/does it mean what kind of work most uses your skills? If yes, should it? If no, why not?

Context will follow after some amount of responses are collected and when I can get to a keyboard...

Comments

[cbpotts.livejournal.com]

I always took that phrasing to mean "what can I do that no one else can do as well as I can" (given the pool of people available, not all of humanity) For example, in a volunteer group I belong to, the best use of my skills can be grant writing, even though I can do other things, and other people in the group certainly have the capability to do the grant writing, no one can do it as well as I can, and I can do other things in the group but not nearly as well as other people can do them. (For example I can drive the big brush truck, but I don't do so with the sort of reckless elan one needs to get to an accident scene very very quickly)

I'm not sure I understand the second question wholly - grant writing, for example, is not a taxing endeavor for me - I don't feel like I'm pushing myself or using every bit of my knowledge to do an acceptable job, but sometimes the experience of using skill becomes a place where you don't experience it as effort BECAUSE you're skilled, if that makes sense?

Hope this is helpful.

[silveradept]

That's quiet helpful, thank you.