Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

Herman Hesse left us with a quote, that I consider the essence of reading – not only reading but reading the best books worldwide. He was conscious enough when he said, “Without words, without writing and without books there would be no history, there could be no concept of humanity.”

ROGER VS. TIGER

Goldmines are not only those on the earth, bringing forth the purest forms of gold – Epstein’s Treasure in Range captures this best. His format of writing is unique as it helps the reader follow up on the concepts that he intended to pass on to the readers. His main discussions revolve around how generalists prevail over specialists in the world as we know it. He starts off the book by introducing us to the lives of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer. Both are experts in their crafts. What differentiates the two world-class players is how they reach the top and be recognized as the world’s best. Earl Tiger together with the mom built the boy into the man Tiger Woods is known for, golf.

The introduction of the ten-thousand-hour rule to expertise translates into highly specialized training whose intent is to ensure accomplished skills development. Tiger has become an embodiment of honing your skills over time (quantity) and the idea that an individual starting early guarantees success. Roger Federer, who admires and respects Woods in equal measure is a late bloomer with him trying a variety of sports before settling on tennis as his niche. Sports scientist Ross Tucker, downplays the debate between specialization and generalization in sportsmanship by saying, “We know that early sampling is key, as is diversity.”

THE CULT OF THE HEAD START

The Cult of the Head Start as introduced by Epstein in the book revolves around the idea of educating your children early enough to endear them to a subject. This in the end makes them the best in their specialty. A case in point of the Polgar sisters – Susan, Sofia and Judit – raised by their parents Laszlo and Klara who became champions of the game of chess in Hungary by beating the old and their peers. This is similar to the nurturing that occurred with Tiger Woods in his skills development journey.

Chess and golf appear best to be honed through specialization. ?What makes them easy to develop and nurture to pundit status? This question was well answered by Psychologist Gary Klein. Through his model under “naturalistic decision making” (NDM), Firefighters and grandmasters were cognizant of the patterns that they had previously used that made them successful. Any previously adopted moves are easily remembered and used for the good of the need currently. These patterns are referred to as “tactics”.?However, to win the war – the game of chess- it will be important that the player adopts a range of bigger-picture planning to win according to Susan Polgar. An interesting debate was spawned, and it created the need for an assessment. This assessment was between the chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov and IBM supercomputer, Deep Blue. In the end, Kasparov was beaten with Deep Blue evaluating two hundred million positions per second. The result was what artificial intelligence pundits refer to as Moravec’s paradox - “machines and humans frequently have opposite strengths and weaknesses.”

FLIRTING WITH YOUR POSSIBLE SELVES

The story of Frances Hesselbein is one of idealization that anything in the world as we know it is a possibility. A leader in her own right having scaled the heights of leadership to the chief executive officer (CEO) position in different organizations is no small achievement.

At the age of thirty-four, a prominent woman in the community dropped by her place and suggested to her to help in leading a girl’s scout troop 17 as a volunteer since the other woman that had held that position had travelled off to India in a missionary role. She received the news and professed to know little to nothing about girls since she was nursing her eight-year-old son. However, she took up the role with the promise of handling it for six weeks as they sought another leader.

This was her first position of influence whereby she helped nurture girls in the scouting movement. She went on to take up an executive director position in the Girls Scout Council after the holder of the position had left. This left the organization in the pits financially. She confessed to taking up the position for six months as they looked for a suitable replacement.

She did well in this posting and in 1976, she was invited to New York for an interview for the Girl Scouts CEO. She refused to go. However, her husband volunteered to drive her there. She proceeded to hold a position previously held by a psychology professor, university dean and first personnel director at IMF. All these did not overshadow what she went on to achieve. This is a good revelation that breadth is more important than depth in all spheres.

THE OUTSIDER ADVANTAGE

Einstellung effect occurs in most problem-solving endeavors whereby the “problem solvers tend to employ familiar methods even when better ones are available.” This has denied successes that would have revolutionized many segments of the world.

There are several examples that cement the role played by outsiders in developing answers to problems that bedevil humanity. In 1989, Exxon Valdez hit a reef leaking its content into Prince William Sound. This was a monumental disaster having commercial fishing and environmental-related effects. ?Chocolate mousse happened to remain on the Alaska coast for close to twenty years. Scott Pegau, a research program manager at the Oil Spill Recovery Institute in Alaska, contracted InnoCentive to provide a solution to this problem. A token of $20,000 was put forward.

John Davis, a chemist from Illinois reduced the issue to the adoption of zero chemical procedures since there is already a pollutant in place. He visualized the issue as an individual drinking slushy. “You end up having to whip around the straw to stir it up. How could you make it so you don’t have to work so hard to get that slushy out?”

With the observation knowledge that came from construction. How concrete that was about to harden was fluidized. This experience made the whole difference as it was the eureka moment in this dilemma. This required several vibrators to be assembled and run through details and diagrams with the solution being close to three pages.

This says it all, sometimes a different opinion might come from a different discipline from the one we expect. Karim Lakhani, co-director of the Innovation Science Laboratory at Harvard summarized this well, “Big innovation most often happens when an outsider who may be far away from the surface of the problem reframes the problem in a way that unlocks the solution”

Knowledge is also good, but it makes us blind to some key segments that provide solutions that ail us. Therefore, range is important as it bridges the gap between specialists and generalists. This is good as it provides a good wavelength of coexistence that spurs growth and development in all disciplines.