Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

Arab historiographer Ibn Khaldun, considered a founder of sociology, pointed out centuries ago, a city dweller traveling through the desert will be completely dependent on a nomad to keep him alive. So long as they remain in the desert, the nomad is a genius.

Exposure to the modern world has made us better adapted for complexity, and that has manifested as flexibility, with profound implications for the breadth of our intellectual world.

The more constrained and repetitive a challenge, the more likely it will be automated, while great rewards will accrue to those who can take conceptual knowledge from one problem or domain and apply it in an entirely new one.

The ability to move freely, to shift from one category to another, is one of the chief characteristics of ‘abstract thinking.’”

In the wicked world, with ill-defined challenges and few rigid rules, range can be a life hack.

In Flynn’s words, “the traits that earn good grades at [the university] do not include critical ability of any broad significance.”*

it is certainly true that modern life requires range, making connections across far-flung domains and ideas. Luria addressed this kind of “categorical” thinking, which Flynn would later style as scientific spectacles.

Conceptual schemes are flexible, able to arrange information and ideas for a wide variety of uses, and to transfer knowledge between domains. Modern work demands knowledge transfer: the ability to apply knowledge to new situations and different domains. Our most fundamental thought processes have changed to accommodate increasing complexity and the

The domains Klein studied, in which instinctive pattern recognition worked powerfully, are what psychologist Robin Hogarth termed “kind” learning environments. Patterns repeat over and over, and feedback is extremely accurate and usually very rapid. In golf or chess, a ball or piece is moved according to rules and within defined boundaries, a conse