Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

The 10000 hours myth about how only riguous training makes you an expert in a field, only applies to very narrow procedure-based fields (sports, musical instruments, chess, ..). The book presents how these qualify as “kind” learning environments, where the playing field is clearly staked out, the rules are rigid and the feedback is straightforward and quick. Yet most of our world and most modern-day problems lean towards “wicked” learning environments: Where the playing field might change from day to day, rules evolve and feedback is delayed or innacurate. Epstein shows how lateral thinking and interdiscplinarity (in people, and in teams) triumphs over specialication in these scenarios. A good approach is to find a balance between procedure-based training and abstract thinking. You still need specialists for specialists tasks, but you need generalists - who are good at abstract and lateral thinking - if you want to innovate your discipline. Creativity is the ability to change/improve one's discipline. Creativity comes from observing and dabbling in many different ideas and fields. Epstein says that nowadays there should be less need for specialists, because knowledge and information is shared widely. There's a higher need for generalists - “connectors” - to make use of and innovate on top of the available knowledge. Epsteins defines: Specialist ... as experts in very narrow fieldsGeneralist ... to have elementary knowledge in many different fields Polymath ... as generalists with one focus specialisationGreat popsci book, easy to read, and full of real-world examples. The first chapters about kind and wicked learning environments were novel to me, the rest of the book though, its praise of interdisciplinarity is rather similar to Steven Johnson's [b:Where Good Ideas Come from: The Natural History of Innovation 8034188 Where Good Ideas Come from The Natural History of Innovation Steven Johnson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1311705993l/8034188.SY75.jpg 12645873].