Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

by David Epstein

Each dark horse had a novel journey, but a common strategy. “Short-term planning,” Ogas told me. “They all practice it, not long-term planning.” Even people who look like consummate long-term visionaries from afar usually looked like short-term planners up close.

In wicked domains that lack automatic feedback, experience alone does not improve performance. Effective habits of mind are more important, and they can be developed.

He emphasized that there is a difference between the chain of command and the chain of communication, and that the difference represents a healthy cross-pressure.

When all you have is a volcanologist, I learned, every extinction looks like a volcano. That is not necessarily bad for the world. They should challenge accepted wisdom, and it drives those narrowly focused experts to find volcano knowledge where no one else is looking. But when entire specialties grow up around devotion to a particular tool, the result can be disastrous myopia.

You have people walking around with all the knowledge of humanity on their phone, but they have no idea how to integrate it. We don’t train people in thinking or reasoning.”

As one researcher suggested to me: “When you get fit, it will look like grit.” That is, if you help someone find a good fit, they are more likely to display the characteristics of grit—like sticking with something—even if they didn’t before.