The Art of Doing Science and Engineering: Learning to Learn

by Richard Hamming

As remarked in an earlier chapter, as our knowledge grows exponentially we cope with the growth mainly by specialization. It is increasingly true: An expert is one who knows everything about nothing; a generalist knows nothing about everything. In an argument between a specialist and a generalist, the expert usually wins by simply (1) using unintelligible jargon, and (2) citing their specialist results, which are often completely irrelevant to the discussion. The expert is, therefore, a potent factor to be reckoned with in our society. Since experts both are necessary and also at times do great harm in blocking significant progress, they need to be examined closely. All too often the expert misunderstands the problem at hand, but the generalist cannot carry though their side to completion. The person who thinks they understand the problem and does not is usually more of a curse (blockage) than the person who knows they do not understand the problem.

potentially disagreee with this. A generalist is often seen as someone with surface level understanding, but true value comes from a generalist who has the minimal viable knowledge of a given area and then can flex and combine with other areas of knowledge