Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

by David Epstein

New collaborations allow creators “to take ideas that are conventions in one area and bring them into a new area, where they’re suddenly seen as invention,” said sociologist Brian Uzzi,

work that builds bridges between disparate pieces of knowledge is less likely to be funded, less likely to appear in famous journals, more likely to be ignored upon publication, and then more likely in the long run to be a smash hit in the library of human knowledge.

Experimentation is not a tidy prescription, but it is common, and it has advantages, and it requires more than the typical motivational-poster lip service to a tolerance for failure.

Musicians arrive at greatness via an incredible diversity of paths, but early hyperspecialization is often not necessary for skill development

Everyone progresses at a different rate, so don’t let anyone else make you feel behind.

start planning experiments. Your personal version of Friday night or Saturday morning experiments, perhaps.

there is nothing inherently wrong with specialization. We all specialize to one degree or another, at some point or other.