“Monday 5 Things” ….. Bailiwicks …..
26.09.07 By D. Paul Graham
Because Mondays are easier when you let the universe fend for itself until you’re sufficiently caffeinated to intervene.
“Ne Oublie” The Graham Clan Crest and Motto. Photo by D. Paul Graham. Never Forget what matters, or the ground upon which you stand.
I find that airports are the most wonderful places to observe humanity. Everyone is going somewhere. Half of them are late and stressed, a quarter are standing in the wrong line, and at least one person is having a conversation loud enough that the rest of us have been involuntarily added to the meeting.
A number of months ago while waiting for a flight, I found myself within earshot of what I can only describe as an almost argument between a woman and someone who, based on his increasingly limited participation, had clearly concluded that his survival depended upon him saying as little as possible.
I have no idea what started it. I don’t know who was right. But I do know that the woman repeatedly used the word ‘bailiwick’ and I jotted the situation into my M5T notes.
“That’s not my bailiwick.” “Well, that would be his bailiwick.” “I’m simply saying it falls outside my bailiwick.” By the third bailiwick, I had stopped pretending not to listen. By the fourth, I was invested. Not in the argument. In the word.
Bailiwick.
It’s a magnificent word. Slightly antiquated. Wonderfully specific. The sort of word that sounds as though it should be delivered in a tweed jacket, smoking a pipe, and holding a rare single malt scotch, neat of course, whilst standing elegantly in front of a roaring fireplace.
I have no idea what those two people were almost arguing about, but the woman had given me something far more useful than airport entertainment. She had gifted me with the rudiments of a Monday Five Things.
With thanks to that overheard, unknown woman, this morning’s M5T considers the territory we know, the things we are responsible for, the places where our experience and expertise reside, and to realizing that much of life may come down to figuring out what belongs in ours. In a word, our Bailiwick.
1. FIND YOUR BAILIWICK. A bailiwick is, quite simply, your particular area of knowledge, responsibility, interest, or expertise. Originally, it was literally the jurisdiction of a bailiff. Over time, geography became the metaphor. Today, your bailiwick is the territory you know.
There is enormous pressure to be reasonably good at everything. We are expected to understand markets, technology, wine, AI, geopolitics, nutrition, retirement planning, home repair, social media algorithms, and why the smoke detector only discovers a low battery at 3:17 a.m. It can be exhausting.
Perhaps a better ambition is to become unreasonably good at a few things. The things that make you curious enough to keep learning after everyone else has quit wondering. The things you notice that other people walk past. The things where years of accumulated mistakes have quietly turned into instinct.
I think that those are the clues. Your bailiwick is rarely something you announce. It’s something you slowly earn.
2. GO DEEP. We live in the age of the instant expert. Almost anything can be learned superficially in fifteen minutes. Watch a video. Read a summary. Ask AI. Listen to half a podcast at 1.7x speed. Guilty as charged your honor. Suddenly we know enough to be dangerous at almost everything.
Depth, however, remains stubbornly expensive. It requires time, repetition, failure, and experience. Depth is those thousand tiny observations that never quite make it into the instruction manual.
There is a considerable difference between knowing about something and actually knowing something. One gives you information. The other gives you sound judgment, which is usually earned somewhere deep inside your bailiwick.
3. LEARN TO SAY, “NOT MY BAILIWICK”. This may be the most useful part of the word. We spend a stupefying amount of our lives wandering into situations where we have neither responsibility nor control. Other people’s opinions. Other people’s decisions. Arguments on the internet. Office politics. Neighborhood drama. What someone really meant by that email. Whether the person in front of us grasps the internationally recognized purpose of the left lane on a highway. Those groups of airport-slow-walkers who spread across the width of the corridor. We tend to take up residence in problems that don’t belong to us.
Wisdom, and peace of mind are found by recognizing that not everything requires our participation. I shall forever reserve the right to exercise my personal intolerance and judgment of airport-slow-walkers. But there is tremendous freedom in being able to look at someone and say, “Not my bailiwick.” Not because you don’t care, but because you’ve decided where your energy should actually belong.
Your attention is finite. Spend it accordingly.
4. OCCASIONALLY LEAVE YOUR BAILIWICK. I also believe that once you find your bailiwick, you should occasionally escape from it. It’s premise of mine I have lived by for years. Expertise is useful. Comfort can become dangerous.
Some of the most exciting things happen when we deliberately become beginners again. Take the unfamiliar road. Read something completely outside your profession. Photograph something you normally wouldn’t. Sit next to someone you don’t know. Start a conversation with them. Travel somewhere that makes you slightly uncomfortable. Try something that you are fairly certain you will be terrible at.
There is humility in being a beginner. It reminds us how much of what now feels natural was once awkward and unfamiliar.
Being outside your bailiwick restores and energizes your curiosity, allowing for discoveries that can change you for the better.
5. BUILD A LIFE WITH A FEW GOOD BAILIWICKS. This all begs the question of “what if the goal isn’t just to have one bailiwick?” What if a good life is actually a collection of bailiwicks?
Work you understand deeply. People you know well. Places that feel familiar. Interests that continue revealing themselves after decades. A craft you keep trying to master. A table where you know where everyone sits. A road you’ve driven enough times to recognize the curves before you see them.
These become little territories of meaning. Places where experience accumulates. Where familiarity becomes intimacy. Where we eventually stop trying to prove that we belong. We simply just “do.”
The world will always encourage us to expand our jurisdiction. More responsibility. More opinions. More obligations. More matters of consequence that demand our attention. Perhaps wisdom eventually moves in the opposite direction. Knowing what deserves your attention. Knowing what you are willing to invest in to become good at. Knowing what’s yours to carry and, perhaps equally important, knowing what isn’t.
This week, take inventory of your bailiwicks. Protect the important ones. Go deeper into a few. Occasionally wander beyond their borders. But, when the world presents you with some completely unnecessary drama demanding your immediate attention, remember that the English language has been kind enough to provide the perfect response. “Not my bailiwick.”
Here’s to a week of knowing what’s yours, getting good at it, and leaving the rest alone.
Paul continues to embrace his bailiwicks and yet remains enthusiastically unqualified for several thousand other things.
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