Generalist | Read Write Collect

Replied to The Downsides of Generalism by

The path to generalism is indeed more challenging, yet the reward at the end of the rainbow is genuine satisfaction. Generalists are much more creative. Generalists are more curious. Generalists as system-thinkers are better at solving high-level problems.

I am not sure if I am really a generalist with various pokers in the fire as you seem to have Wouter, but I am always willing to dive into new areas of learning. I wonder if the biggest challenge with this is the narrative, something you touch upon. This week I was asked to step into a different position, one more technical. It is not necessarily my background, but it is what is needed for the project I am a part of. I plough on, connecting the dots, making new pictures, remaking old ones.

Liked range & inefficiency (jarche.com)

Diversity is the key to learning and creativity, and overall success in pretty well all fields of work. Successful professional networks allow for easy movement of individuals, porous departmental boundaries, and cross-disciplinary cooperation. It’s all about ‘range and inefficiency’.

Harold Jarche reflects on David Epstein’s book Range.

Liked Generalise, don’t specialise: why focusing too narrowly is bad for us (the Guardian)

Learning about the advantages of breadth and delayed specialisation has changed the way I see myself and the world. The research pertains to every stage of life, from the development of children in maths, music and sports, to students fresh out of college trying to find their way, to midcareer professionals in need of a change and would-be retirees looking for a new vocation after moving on from their previous one.

The challenge we all face is how to maintain the benefits of breadth, diverse experience, interdisciplinary thinking and delayed concentration in a world that increasingly incentivises or even demands hyperspecialisation. While it is true that there are areas that require individuals with Tiger’s precocity and clarity of purpose, as complexity increases – as technology spins the world into vaster webs of interconnected systems in which each individual only sees a small part – we also need more Rogers: people who start broad and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives while they progress. People with range.

Adapted from Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialised World by David Epstein, published by Macmillan