Range - Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World - David Epstein
Summary
The world today focuses a lot on specialization, but evidence is mounting that generalization is what gives us more creativity, better ideas and better mental models to understand the world around us. Epstein lays out some very convincing arguements to prove this
How I discovered it
Bill Gates recommendation
How the book changed me
I have always loved learning different fields, even though people sometimes look at me askance. This has been very encouraging that being a generalist is okay, and sometimes even an advantage.
Details
Duke Ellington, famous composer and musician did not get serious about music when young. Instead he focussed on drawing and baseball.
Susan Polgar, Chess grandmaster, was trained from an early age to excel. This works with something specific like chess where the rules do not change (see also, Tiger Woods and golf). But in most things in life, the rules change by the day and this kind of specialized training may not be beneficial.
In more comple fields, the rules are unclear or incomplete, and there may be no easy pattern to recognise.
