The Future of Generalist Work

a common misconception about going deep in a subject and researching it day in and day out is that its novelty will wear off. it doesn't wear off, but your perspective on novelty changes. for a novice, novelty is newness. for an expert, novelty is nuance.

Soona x.com

How to clarify a concept you can’t articulate:

1. Change mediums. Draw it. Photograph it. Sing it.

2. Change levels. Explain what is one level up (bigger picture) or one level down (finer details).

3. Change fields. What would this concept look like in different fields?

James Clear • 3-2-1: On hard conversations, how to ruin a good strategy, and asking for what you want

How great generalists think

I believe “what effect do you want to have on people” is one of the most important questions we should ask when we are making something. Life isn't just a series of problems to be solved but experiences to be had.

Things I'm thinking about

Mihika likens the role of a 0-to-1 team within a large company to that of Hestia in Greek mythology, who is the “keeper of the hearth.” It is Hestia’s job to always keep the hearth burning, even while other gods go out on separate quests. This means always keeping the 0-to-1 project alive and helping it spread to others, mostly through setting... See more

Lenny Rachitsky • Vision, conviction, and hype: How to build 0 to 1 inside a company | Mihika Kapoor (Product at Figma)

Don't decide too soon. Kids who know early what they want to do seem impressive, as if they got the answer to some math question before the other kids. They have an answer, certainly, but odds are it's wrong.

paulgraham.com • How to Do What You Love

The tools that are available to each of us are so powerful, so varied and so complex that even the free ones are ignored or misunderstood. We’re too busy doing work to get much done.

And so we end up with the convenient and sexy tools (like the smartphone you might be reading this on) and fail to do the few hours or days of training we might need to... See more

PW 4: Productivity and tools

Steve Jobs explains the importance of both thinking and doing:

“The doers are the major thinkers. The people who really create the things that change this industry are both the thinker-doer in one person.”

Generalists, with their diverse skills, adaptability, and ethical awareness, are at the vanguard of this new epoch. They aren’t just visionaries but also implementers, merging AI-generated efficiency with human creativity and ethical discernment.

Adhithya • The rise of generalists in the AI era