I’ve come to realize: being a generalist isn’t something we choose. It’s something inherently in our nature — it’s how we see the world. We can think of this approach as a ‘cognitive preference’.

specialized generalist or generalized specialist generally specializing in...

Being a generalist feels like a superpower in the startup world but a misfit elsewhere.

You know a bit of everything—product, design, sales, marketing, even customer support—but you’re not the expert in just one.

In entrepreneurship, this makes you adaptable, resourceful, and ready to build.

But in companies, there’s no job description for someone who... See more

Doing all of the things you genuinely love doing seems like it wouldn’t be hard but it is. This is for many reasons (that I am discovering and writing about here) but one of the strongest sources of discouragement can be that specialists tend to find traditional success faster than generalists. Simply put, by dividing your focus across many areas,... See more

What generalists are

Generalists are usually curious people who like to hop around from domain to domain. They enjoy figuring things out, especially in areas that are uncertain or new. They’re good at solving problems that domain experts struggle with, because they’re able to bring bits of knowledge from diverse fields together.

As Nat notes, because

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