dilettante

Person who who relentlessly fails to figure out what they “want to do with their life” and thus flits from interest to interest like a hummingbird among lilies. Often well-meaning, empathetic, and creative, the dilettante shoots him/herself in the foot over and over again by forsaking specific skills and knowledge and starting from scratch.

Traditionally, only royalty and aristocrats could play at dilettantism, but the type has proliferated since since mid-century prosperity in North America, Europe, and elsewhere has expanded the middle- and, especially, upper-middle class. The dilettante has reached its apotheosis in contemporary millennials, especially college-educated ones. They tend to feel alienated by corporate culture and spurned by the economic crisis, and postpone taking on family responsibility, which usually ends dilettantism, until later than previous generations.

The dilettante is an easy target for scorn, but essentially tragic, often overwrought, full of angst, sometimes tormented by the “grass is greener” fantasy. Most dilettantes eventually grow out of their dilettantism—making it a phase disease—and settle into something that provides constancy and direction to their lives.

Jenna: So, what do you do?
Dillon: Well, I studied business. Then I worked at a bank. But I hated it. So I traveled around the world for a while. Then I worked on an organic farm, in Montana, where I took up landscape painting. But somehow I still felt incomplete, so I moved to the city and I'm thinking about next steps.
Jenna: Wow, that's a lot...
Dillon: Yeah, I'm such a dilettante.

142👍 20👎

Dilettwat

An inept dilettante without redeeming qualities. A self-absorbed person who repeatedly fails to figure out what they "want to do with their life." Whenever you talk to them, they harp on all the new, pretentious stuff they're doing badly. Dilettwats lack any semblance of grit. They are take off on flights of fancy about their futures, but forsake plans at the first sign of adversity. You have little hope for them. They are so navel-gazing and annoying you do not even want them succeed. When conversing with a dilettwat, if you start talking about yourself, their eyes glaze over and you can tell they're thinking about one of their crackpot projects. The best thing to do when stuck talking to a dilettwat at a party is to chug your beer, excuse yourself and walk away shaking your head.

Bob: Hey Dill, how’s it going?
Dill *sad and frustrated*: Horrible. I slept in and missed yoga class this morning. Then I fell off my unicycle. Then I got so mad 'cause I just couldn't figure out this Bob Marley song on my uke. Then, to top it all off, I got stung like fifteen times trying to harvest the honey from my beehives!
Bob: Dude, do you even have a job.
Dill: ...job?
Bob *shaking head and walking away*: You’re such a dilettwat.