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For various reasons, though, the specialist era is waning. The future may belong to the generalist. Why’s that? To begin, our highly interconnected and global economy means that seemingly unrelated developments can affect each other.

Vikram Mansharamani • All Hail the Generalist

Writer Hugh Walpole on being a generalist and a specialist:

“The whole secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and a thousand other things well.”

James Clear • 3-2-1: On confidence, the power of going first, and being a generalist

Connolly’s primary finding was that early in their careers, those who later made successful transitions had broader training and kept multiple “career streams” open even as they pursued a primary specialty.

David Epstein • Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

Secondly, specialists toil within a singular tradition and apply formulaic solutions to situations that are rarely well-defined. This often results in intellectual acrobatics to justify one’s perspective in the face of conflicting data.

Vikram Mansharamani • All Hail the Generalist

practice development would involve identifying, documenting, and promoting their specialized knowledge, through brochures describing previous engagements, client newsletters, or special seminars on topics related to the firm’s particular area of experience. Experience based practice areas would tend to have a more clearly focused…

Some highlights ha

David H. Maister • Managing The Professional Service Firm

I like the term generalist, it’s one of the best descriptions of my career(s) and also a good representation of something I see as vital: being able to understand different domains and translate between them.

Patrick Tanguay • Generalists

As technology becomes a commodity with the democratization of information, it’s the big-picture generalists who will predict, innovate, and rise to power fastest.

Harvard Business Review • In Defense of Polymaths

I think there’s a prevalence of generalists, people who have moved between different careers, and it’s a reflection of our macro-historical moment. Don’t get me wrong, the silos of the industrial society are still here, but they have melted to some extent. So you have people trying to understand how to exist in that murkiness where society’s tradit... See more

Patrick Tanguay • Conscientious Urban Technology

And he refused to specialize in anything, preferring to keep an eye on the overall estate rather than any of its parts. . . . And Nikolay’s management produced the most brilliant results. —Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

Sublime

Vikram Mansharamani • All Hail the Generalist

James Clear • 3-2-1: On confidence, the power of going first, and being a generalist

David Epstein • Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

Vikram Mansharamani • All Hail the Generalist

David H. Maister • Managing The Professional Service Firm

Patrick Tanguay • Generalists

Harvard Business Review • In Defense of Polymaths

Patrick Tanguay • Conscientious Urban Technology

(Journalist) David Epstein • Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World