Competent man

The competent man or competent woman is a stock character who can do anything well, or at least exhibits a very wide range of abilities and knowledge, making him a form of polymath. While not the first to use such a character type, the heroes (and heroines) of Robert A. Heinlein's fiction are generally competent men/women, and one of Heinlein's characters Lazarus Long gives a good summary of requirements:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

— Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

The competent man, more often than not, is written as having achieved his wide range of skills and abilities through practical experience and not through books or formalized education.

Examples

• Adam Reith, from Jack Vance's Planet of Adventure series
• Batman
• Doc Savage
• Derek Flint
• Samurai Jack
• James Bond
• Ryo Saeba
• Nicholai Hel, titular character seeking Shibui
• Yoko Tsuno
• the protagonists of many early Alfred Hitchcock films
• the heroes of most Neal Stephenson novels
• MacGyver
• Forrest Taft
• Jarod
• Peter Wimsey
• Psmith
• Stile, from Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept series
• The Stainless Steel Rat, hero of Harry Harrison's series of the same name.
• Gordon Freeman, the protagonist of most of the Half-Life series, may be considered a competent man as, despite being a scientist, he is able to use a wide range of weaponry, defeat highly-trained military personnel (including Black Ops operatives), operate scientific, military and construction equipment (with no prior training for the latter), drive different types of vehicles as well as writing essays on scientific topics.