Generalist in a Specialized World

Are we generalists becoming extinct? We often question ourselves such as: 

• I’m surrounded by so many people who know more than me!
• I’m not an expert in anything!

What can we generalists do when the world seems to reward specialists? Technology has become so technical that one needs to spend quite an inordinate amount of time in a specific area. In this complicated, complex, lightspeed changing world, so much knowledge is needed to handle the tough challenges of today. For example, oncologists now rarely specialize in Oncology, they specialize in cancer of specific organs. 

A breadth of experience and interest drives innovation

David Epstein in his 2019 book Range doesn’t think we generalists are becoming extinct. “Generalists may take a little longer to find their path in life, but they are more creative, and they can make connections between diverse fields that specialists cannot. This makes them more innovative and, ultimately, more impactful.” 

He goes on to give examples. 

• “Yo-Yo Ma first tried violin and piano and only moved to cello because he didn’t like the first two. In a study of students at a British boarding school, music psychologist John Sloboda found those children identified as exceptional were those who tried out three instruments.” 
• “Vincent van Gogh tried everything from working in bookstores to teaching and art dealing to preaching before finding his calling as an artist.”
• “Andy Ouderkirk, an inventor at the multinational company 3M, was named Innovator of the Year. He found that inventors who were most likely to succeed within 3M and win the company’s Carlton Award were not specialists. They were polymaths, people with one area of depth, but a great deal of expertise in other areas as well.”
• “As a young boy, Roger Federer dabbled in squash, skiing, wrestling, skateboarding, basketball, tennis and badminton. Later, he gave credit to this range of sports experience for helping his hand-eye coordination and athleticism.”

“Roger Federer’s winding path to tennis success points to the fact that sampling (experience), rather than specialization, can often be the best route to eventual success. And plenty of evidence across multiple disciplines supports this.”

What to do if you want to prosper as a generalist

• Build your integration/problem solving skills.
• Embrace failure: Epstein says, “Dean Keith Simonton, a creativity researcher, has shown that the more creators produce, the more failures they produce, but they are also more likely to produce a superstar success.”
• Be confident in your ability to work across many functions/disciplines to handle the most difficult challenges. 
• Enhance your influence skills to get people to willingly follow you even though you may not have authority over them. 

Please share your thoughts on this.