How to Become a Specialist or an all rounder

How to Become a Specialist or an all rounder

How to Become a Specialist or an all rounder. Become a versatile person who has broad insight in dealing with complex problems.

This time I will discuss the book Range, Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein. This book deals with the problem of being a versatile person, which turns out to have its own advantages in a highly specialized field.

David has researched the most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors and scientists. In his research, David found an interesting fact. People who are versatile or known as generalists can be even more successful.

It breaks the old notion that if you want to become an expert in a field, you have to start from scratch and become a specialist in the long run.

David has a different argument. Generalists usually find their way longer because at first they try many things instead of focusing on one thing. However, their experience in many ways turns generalists into people who are more creative, more flexible, and easier to communicate with others.

This advantage provides its own color to be able to bring a generalist to his own ladder of success.

How to Become a Specialist or an all-rounder, You Can Try

I summarized them into three highlights from the book Range, Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein:

First, why be a generalist?

Are you a specialist or a generalist? Are you an all-rounder or an expert in one area? Of course we can't choose both, because of our limited time.

This is indeed a dilemma. Many people think that being a generalist is not a good thing, there is even a term Jack of All Trade Master of None, meaning that if we are all-rounder, we don't have any skills.

Plus, we're used to being taught that in a competitive world, we have to be great specialists to differentiate ourselves from others.

David had a different view. We have to try many things first, get mixed experiences, and experiment endlessly.

Professional athletes can reach the pinnacle of their careers because they spend more time training than their peers. However, there is something interesting when scientists study the development of this athlete from childhood. It turns out that when they were young, these professional athletes went through a phase that scientists call the “sampling period”.

This is the phase where they try different types of sports. At that time, they acquired various physical skills and began to understand each other's abilities, until finally they chose to focus on one area.

Tiger Woods, who is an international golf world champion, has been practicing golf since he was two years old. But not all successful athletes have to be like Tiger Woods, who has been a specialist since childhood.

Roger Federer who is one of the best tennis players in the world has a different career path. When Roger was a child, he tried many sports before falling in love with tennis.

Some of the sports involving little Roger such as skiing, basketball, skateboarding, and badminton. Although his mother was a tennis coach, she never coached Roger because she didn't want to interfere with Roger's sporting choices.

Until finally Roger just started to focus on tennis when he was a teenager. For Roger, trying different sports helped him build good eye-hand coordination. Roger and Tiger have different paths to success.

Second, a different learning environment

There is a theory from a psychologist named Robin Hogarth. He divides a person's learning situation into a kind learning environment and a wicked learning environment.

How to Become a Specialist or an all rounder

First, the kind learning environment is a condition where the learning pattern is clear and most importantly, every time you do something, the feedback is clear what it looks like.

David provides examples of good learning environments such as chess and golf. In both sports the rules are very clear and what steps you take, so you can immediately see the feedback in a pattern, you just have to adjust it. In this condition, you can definitely become a better player if you do it continuously so that you understand the pattern better.

The second is a wicked learning environment. Well this is a 180 degree different condition. Sometimes the information we receive is not 100% known to us, the feedback is also late or even inaccurate. Under these conditions, we need broader capabilities, not just in one area.

Initially I had time to discuss about Tiger Woods and Roger Federer. David argues that they both achieved success in different ways because of their different environments.

According to David, golf, chess, and firefighting are good learning environments because these activities are not too dynamic and are limited to certain patterns. Therefore, people who have repeated it hundreds to thousands of times have superior abilities.

On the other hand, tennis, financial prediction, and technological innovation are activities that are classified as evil learning environments. This activity is very dynamic and has an erratic pattern. So, experience in various fields will help you make better decisions.

Third, Career Journey Is Not Like A Straight Line

Skill development and career advancement are rarely linear from point A to B. However, along the way we will face problems, twists and turns, and is full of experimentation.

For David, learning is best done slowly and thoroughly. It takes time for someone to try other fields. That's why we shouldn't feel left out. Especially if we look at the people who first started in the field we are living in now.

Don't compare yourself to others who are younger than you, but compare yourself to your past self. Most importantly, don't be afraid to experiment and try different experiences before finally deciding on the field you are interested in.

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There may be an assumption that switching skills is a waste of time, for example you initially worked as an accountant, two years later you switched professions to marketing.

How to Become a Specialist or an all rounder

You may feel that the time you spend being an accountant is a loss instead of being useful because now you are in the profession of a marketer. Try if you start from the beginning to marketing, maybe your career will be faster. Is this true? Not necessarily. Your previous experience is not useless, but it will help you in the profession you are in now.

Closing

That's what I wrote about How to Become a Specialist or an all rounder, I was reminded of the story of Steve Jobs, he said when he was in college, he took a calligraphy class. Maybe many people see it as useless for career development.

But it turns out that calligraphy classes helped Steve Jobs in designing letters at Apple so that now we have a great font on the computer.

So it's not true that what you learned before is useless, they will help you in the future because it gives you a new perspective. Never feel too late to start. Your past skills will help your future career development.

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