Specialists vs Generalists - Range
Knowledge increasingly needs not merely to be durable, but also flexible – both sticky and capable of broad application - DAVID EPSTEIN
Epstein reports that champion golfer Tiger Woods held his first golf club at the age of 18 months. Conversely, Roger Federer sampled various sports before settling on tennis in his teens. Both became world champions. Both athletes, Epstein point outs, engaged in deliberative practice – following explicit instructions on the best methods known – to become standout stars. While early specialists have an advantage at the start of their careers, the author notes that late specialists typically find employment that better matches their skills and abilities.
Wicked Domains Certain areas of expertise, such as sports, chess and firefighting, suit hyperspecialists, the author suggests, because the clear rules in such fields reward intense concentration and repetition. Practitioners can memorize patterns and chunk information for easy retrieval. However, ambiguous situations, with unclear rules and unreliable feedback – wicked domains – Epstein reveals, require a range of skills and experience. In a wicked world, relying upon experience from a single domain is not only limiting, it can be disastrous. DAVID EPSTEIN
Hyperspecialization Specialists, according to Epstein, focus on internal details that distort their thinking. Their experience makes them overly confident that they can apply the same procedures even to novel problems. Overspecialization can lead to collective tragedy even when every individual separately takes the most reasonable course of action. DAVID EPSTEIN In the past, the author suggests, employers had more control over their employees’ career trajectories. In today’s knowledge economy, employees, Epstein asserts, have the advantage, and can take high-risk, high-reward jobs when they are young. This idea provides a useful broader conceptual framework for such people when they specialize later in their careers. Many authors make the point today that employees have the advantage in the job market. But any job seeker will tell you that may be an ivory-tower fantasy.
Messy and Inefficient Epstein cites how an evocative simple problem – for instance, discovering how the body responds to a paper cut, for example – becomes complex because a hematologist and an immunologist study only their parts of the puzzle, and not the overall picture.
The most successful experts also belong to the wider world - DAVID EPSTEIN
Specialists stay in parallel trenches the author says, which means that they seldom learn what people in other trenches are doing or discovering.