Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

by David Epstein

But like the others in the room, he had been told, implicitly or explicitly, that changing directions was dangerous.

learning itself is best done slowly to accumulate lasting knowledge, even when that means performing poorly on tests of immediate progress. That is, the most effective learning looks inefficient; it looks like falling behind.

Overspecialization can lead to collective tragedy even when every individual separately takes the most reasonable course of action.

The challenge we all face is how to maintain the benefits of breadth, diverse experience, interdisciplinary thinking, and delayed concentration in a world that increasingly incentivizes, even demands, hyperspecialization.

In wicked domains, the rules of the game are often unclear or incomplete, there may or may not be repetitive patterns and they may not be obvious, and feedback is often delayed, inaccurate, or both.

Our greatest strength is the exact opposite of narrow specialization. It is the ability to integrate broadly.