Best Read of 2021

Is starting young and practicing a lot, and focusing on one specialization an essential factor for success? This book is trying to find an answer to this controversial yet crucial question

The topic is nothing new: specialized thinking vs. broad thinking. We have it in evolution in Darwin’s famous fitness of surviving species. It has nothing to do with size or teeth or muscle strength. Rather, it’s about adaptability. It also applies to thinking processes.

Thus, the author examines the different psychological variations within the human population throughout history.

There are many stories of people being successful (or not). All these stories - along with many studies - show that being a polymath is the way to go. Yes, there are some outliers (such as Tiger Woods), but generally speaking, it’s better to nurture many interests and try out different things, taking risks instead of always just falling back on experience (though there is nothing wrong with the experience itself, it's just that it doesn't help in every situation).

What I learned from this book

1) Is experience the best teacher?

The author says that extra focus on specialization making us dumber and tunnel-visioned to a certain extend and mentions that it is the reason why the generalists are triumphing over the specialists

“Scientists examined the life path of the athletes. Eventual Elite athletes typically devote less time early on to deliberate practice in the activity, which they will eventually become experts. Instead, they undergo what the researchers call a?sampling period. They play a variety of sports and gain a range of physical proficiencies.?They learn about their own abilities. Only later did they focus on and ramp up practice in one area. Late specialization is the key to success in these cases."

"Whether or not experience inevitably led to expertise, they agreed, depended entirely on the domain in question. The narrow experience made better chess and poker players and firefighters, but not for better predictors of financial or political trends, or of how employees or patients would perform"

2) Cardiologists and Oculostenotic reflex

It is the urge of the cardiologists to correct coronary disease upon visualization by the stent deployment.

"Randomized clinical trials show that stents for patients with stable chest pain prevent zero heart attacks and extend the lives of patients by a grand total of not at all. The cardiovascular system isn't a kitchen sink that turns out treating out one blocked pipe doesn't help. When an entire specialty grows up around devotion to a particular tool, the result can be disastrous myopia. ”

3) Knowing when to quit

If you liked the book The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit?by?Seth Godin, you would like this part of the book. It specifically tells us about the idea of quitting and switching jobs.

"Knowing when to quit is such a big strategical advantage that every single person before undertaking an endeavor should enumerate conditions under which they should quit.?The important trick is staying attuned to whether switching is a failure in perseverance or astute recognition that better matches are available."

My favorite three lines from this book

“Learning stuff was less important than learning about oneself. Exploration is not just a whimsical luxury of education; it is a central benefit.”

“Overspecialization can lead to collective tragedy even when every individual separately takes the most reasonable course of action.”

"Compare yourself to yourself yesterday, not to younger people who aren't you. Everyone progresses at a different rate, so?don't let anyone else make you feel behind.?You probably don't even know where exactly you're going, so feeling behind doesn't help."