We live in a specialist’s world. In everything we do, we are
advised to go deeper and deeper to specialise so that we gain the ultimate
knowledge on what we do. ’Total competency, full focus and specialisation’, the
mantra goes like this. In management theories ‘core competency’ had become a
critical asset for professionals, thus, making him a specialist.
Here is a book by David Epstein, which glorifies the
generalists than the specialist. He had taken considerable examples of people
and situations to reiterate his argument. In these times of specialisation, we
can take the book only with a pinch of salt, for, the experts always say that
specialisation is critical for meeting career and life ambition.
After reading the book, we have to appreciate that there are
two ways of living, either as a specialist or as a generalist; both could be
interesting and exciting. This book highlights achieving success as a
generalist and we see so many successful people in this category; Aristotle,
Leonard da Vinci, Bertrand Russell, Noam Chomsky etc., all big names! When David Epstein argues that generalists can see the big picture, can see the forest for
the trees, can tell us deeper stories of our times and are more apt to see the macro
picture; what about it? And he has question to ask such as: How do you make
systemic change to avoid extinction without generalists? Without generalists in place, how do
communities survive economic downfall? At the highest level of society, how do
you prioritize without generalists? He emphasises that a society that is
atomized by specialists stays on only because of the integration done on it by
the generalists.
David Epstein, the author of this
book, has been translated into 21 languages. He is a master's degree holder in
environmental sciences & journalism and he worked as an investigative
reporter for ProPublica and also as a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. Another
successful publication of him is ‘The sports gene’ and that was before this
book.
This book busts the theories of ten thousand hours of
deliberate practice for becoming successful & the 'tiger moms'. It encourages
readers to try lots of things, doing them broadly and failing many times. It suggest a mind-set of not going down any
single rabbit hole to the exclusion of everything else in this life, which is another way of saying that in general, specialists
are unable to see beyond their own domain. Someone widely read, having wider
experiences and knowing many things about different fields; can have much
greater chance to make creative connections that most others will miss. It's
not about knowing any one thing. It is on the ability to see the forest than
the trees. About seeing and intuitively feeliing the bigger picture. It's about
grasping out trends, and tossing out the bad ideas!
As a sports journalist David Epstein uses the example of
Roger Federer, one of the all-time greats of Tennis, in this book. As a young kid, Roger didn’t focus on tennis
and didn’t get fancy coaching or strength training. He played a range of
different games including Soccer, Badminton, Skateboarding, Swimming and Table
Tennis. Until he was a teenager, he didn’t start playing competitive Tennis.
Even his parents did not encourage him to take up Tennis. But once he became a
Tennis Pro, he turned into one of those rare, preternatural athletes who appear
to be exempt, at least in part, from certain physical laws! This, Epstein
attributes to the wider level of experiences and learnings that Roger Federer
has had in his formative years, as he embraced diverse experiences and
perspectives while he progressed, before
becoming a Pro. Epstein also cites Charles Darwin, the creator of the most
fundamental book of science, ‘On the origin of species by means of natural
selection’. Before Darwin got aboard the HMS Beagle and sailed to the Galapagos, he had trained
not only in natural history but also medicine, theology, philosophy, and
geology which helped him to have the acuity to analyse and conclude the origin
of species.
Another interesting finding of Epstein is that a lot of
successful people, in various domains, did have unusual career paths. He
observes this as a natural
process. He says, “Our work preferences and our life preferences
do not stay the same, because we do not stay the same”. This
leads to the observation against too much focus on personality traits in work
environments because the reality
is that personality tends to change over the time.
Bill Gates recommended
‘Range’ as one of the 5 good books to read for a lousy year 2020. Gates liked the book very
much and has this to say about the book and the author “Epstein provides a good
framework for understanding why polymaths are so important for innovation. He
writes that when great innovators are studied, the researchers find “systems
thinkers” with an ‘ability to connect disparate pieces of information collected
from multiple sources’ and who read more and more broadly than other
technologists”
The
book poses a serious question on how can go we back from a culture that focuses
too much on specialisation. The general criticism of ‘Range’ is that Epstein creates an impression of
being too critical of specialists. Against this, Bill Gates gives good advice.
“If you’re enthusiastic about a hyper-specialized field like molecular biology
or quantum physics, go for it. However just give some room yourself to explore
what your colleagues and friends in other fields are learning”, says Gates.
I find the
‘Range’ as a myth busting book. However, it is a very slow read, as one needs
time to digest the hypothesis that Epstein throws at you, chapter by chapter. I
recommend it as a must read all thought leaders.
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