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10 things about being an actually useful "generalist"

worktopia.substack.com · 1,423 words · saved by 1 readers

Everyone’s really excited about the re-emergence of generalists, and by everyone, I really mean a certain part of Twitter. The argument goes something like, “experts are fake, smart generalists rule the world. everything is designed by people no smarter than you, and courage is in shorter supply than genius.” Look — as the Twitter princes themselves admit, “of course our civilization works via a deep tangle of speciation and specialization.” They’re not saying that we should get rid of specialists, and of course experts are not really fake. It’s a provocative statement! It gets the people going! The statement is trying to counter the feeling that generalists are easily dismissed in favor of specialists. Specialists have meaningful flaws: they can be hidebound, limited by their field’s orthodoxy, and artificially elevated. In order to push the work beyond the specialist-constructed confines, generalists should screw up their courage and have opinions. They should be bolder. Stop deferri

10 things about being an actually useful "generalist" Don't be intimidated by specialists, for one. Tara Seshan May 18, 2024 18 3 1 Share a painting of stem cells Everyone’s really excited about the re-emergence of generalists, and by everyone, I really mean a certain part of Twitter. The argument goes something like , “ experts are fake, smart generalists rule the world. everything is designed by people no smarter than you, and courage is in shorter supply than genius. ” Look — as the Twitter princes themselves admit, “of course our civilization works via a deep tangle of speciation and speci

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