David Epstein

Shares counterintuitive advice on the most effective path to success in any domain while revealing the essential contributions of generalist, not specialist, team members

Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

Range

The instant Sunday Times Top Ten and New York Times bestseller SHORTLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES/MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2019 A Financial Times Essential Reads of 2019 pick 'I loved Range' - Malcolm Gladwell 'Urgent and important. . . an essential read for bosses, parents, coaches, and anyone who cares about improving performance.' - Daniel H. Pink 'So much crucial and revelatory information about performance, success, and education.' - Susan Cain, bestselling author of Quiet A powerful argument for how to succeed in any field: develop broad interests and skills while everyone around you is rushing to specialize. From the '10,000 hours rule' to the power of Tiger parenting, we have been taught that success in any field requires early specialization and many hours of deliberate practice. And, worse, that if you dabble or delay, you'll never catch up with those who got a head start. This is completely wrong. In this landmark book, David Epstein shows you that the way to succeed is by sampling widely, gaining a breadth of experiences, taking detours, experimenting relentlessly, juggling many interests - in other words, by developing range. Studying the world's most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors and scientists, Epstein demonstrates why in most fields - especially those that are complex and unpredictable - generalists, not specialists are primed to excel. No matter what you do, where you are in life, whether you are a teacher, student, scientist, business analyst, parent, job hunter, retiree, you will see the world differently after you've read Range. You'll understand better how we solve problems, how we learn and how we succeed. You'll see why failing a test is the best way to learn and why frequent quitters end up with the most fulfilling careers. As experts silo themselves further while computers master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, Range shows how people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive and why spreading your knowledge across multiple domains is the key to your success, and how to achieve it.

How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

Kunal Mishra

Charlotte Dann

This just didn't do it for me. Full review on chareads.com.

Jimmy Cerone

This book turns so much conventional knowledge about expertise on its head, without being dogmatic. He paints a full, nuanced picture that gave me so much hope as a curious generalist.

Deniz Kahraman

The main concept of this book is very close to my personal development ideology. It was nice exploring the excellent author’s research on the topic accompanied with a solid confirmation in the form of several great examples answering the question “Why?”.

The writing style was a bit repetitive on some chapters.

Radimir Bitsov

The main concept of this book is very close to my personal development ideology. It was nice exploring the excellent author’s research on the topic accompanied with a solid confirmation in the form of several great examples answering the question “Why?”.

The writing style was a bit repetitive on some chapters.

farah

Just some bullet points of what I took away from the book.

	• Integrating from different fields is the advantage
 that comes from being a generalist

	• Having many different life experiences leads you
 to draw on different "lenses". It allows you to see
 problems in unique ways, and give you more tools
 to solve problems
		○ this can lead to a better performance even if
 they lack the specialised knowledge

	• hedgehogs vs foxes
		○ foxes can update their prediction when new
 results come in. Sort of like a K-filter :)
		○ hedgehogs maintain course. non-feedback
 system

	•Kind vs Harsh Learning Environments
While kind-learning environments reward the 10k hours,
harsh-learning environments show that experience does
not lead to better performance. In fact the opposite can 
be true. Due to a fossilization of your mental processes
and jumping to use the same tools
		○ kind - get immediate feedback 
			 sports (golf/tennis etc)
			 specific surgery
		○ hasrsh - real world
			 firefighters
			
	• my personal tldr 
 - try get more life experiences. take risks. 
 dont worry too much about building skills upon each other

Nick Gracilla

Range argues that early specialization — and especially deep, hyper specialization — stands in the way of innovation, insight, and significant progress. Ah-ha style insightful moments spring from connections between different areas of focus and expertise. Recommended.

Felipe Saldarriaga 

Recuerda mucho el estilo de Malcom Gladwell. retrospectiva e historias de casos donde los estilos generalistas y de especializados se han podido comparar.

Se puede discrepar al momento en que se ofrece el "generalismo" como la mejor o única opción, lo cual no es del todo cierto; también requerimos de especialistas que lleven a otro nivel las aplicaciones necesarios.

Puntísimo a favor: la integración de ambos perfiles a soluciones innovadoras.

Julien Sobczak

A world with more Roger Federers and less Tiger Woods.

The subject of expertise attracts much attention and numerous books and articles are published on the subject every year. My reference on the subject is Peak, written by leading researcher Anders Ericsson, famous for what Malcolm Gladwell had regrettably named the 10,000 hour rule.

Deliberate practice was revealing but may lead to the conclusion that early specializers have a huge advantage when it comes to reaching expertise. That was what I thought before reading Range.

In this hyper-specialized world where becoming an expert takes more and more time, a few continue to value range. These late specialists use the power of breaths, diverse experience, and lateral thinking to succeed where hyperspecialization cannot. Roger Federer is the most illuminating example. Federer started playing at the age of 8 and credits his hand-eye coordination to the wide range of sports he played as a child, including badminton and basketball.

The book is full of stories, developed at some length to conclude each chapter with a new insight leading to a new question answered by the following chapter. Range is very different from other books like Peak or Mindset (my new trio to demystify expertise). David Epstein is a journalist, and he did a remarkable research work to assemble this compelling collection of anecdotes. In the end, main ideas can obviously be reduced to a few pages, but I loved being challenged with new ideas told as stories. 

As a developer, I think we have a lot to learn from this book. Several decades ago, the first hackers demonstrated range, whereas today, specialization is more and more omnipresent among programmers -- Frontend/Backend/Full Stack developer, DevOps engineer, Automation engineer -- how to create a large impact when your attention keeps on shrinking. 

I loved this book and I’m so glad to have read it to challenge earlier hyperspecialization as the only path to expertise. That’s not the end of deliberate practice. But success must not depend only on our ability to learn quickly and easily. And career change must not be wasted. Enter Range.

Todd Luallen

This book was a bit of fresh air for someone that considers himself a jack-of-all-trades. If you, like me, love learning about a variety of subjects and are just generally interested in broad strokes, you'll love this book. The book presents the case that many industry leaders and breakthrough successes come from those that have a wide range, and not from those that are hyper-specialized. Epstein does not dismiss specialization, but instead says that generalists that connect the dots from many specialists are more likely to have breakthroughs. 

Epstein fills the book with excellent examples to bolster his claims, from Roger Federer, Django Reinhardt, and Nintendo, to the Columbia and Challenger Space Shuttle disasters. A book that could easily be all about the data, is peppered with a healthy dose of practical examples to keep it interesting. 

Epstein suggests that "head-starts" are not necessarily the best option because often times those that start later will bring a new perspective to the table that will prove pivotal in pushing the field forward (because of their outsider perspective). And he also suggests that changing careers (for those that are seeking change) is likely to result in a happier career life and greater success in the chosen field. Essentially there is little point in staying in a career (if you desire a change) even if it seems like you'd be wasting the time you've accrued if you made a change.

One critique I would like to mention is that Epstein used Jackson Pollock (and a couple other artists) as examples of successes in art that didn't have any formal training. The art examples were the poorest examples of the "range" that Epstein is promoting. I don't think history is going to be kind to Pollock and many of the other modern artists that cannot be differentiated from a typical Pre-school recess. While it is true that art is somewhat subjective, it is also true that Bernie Madoff was seen as a genius before he wasn't.

brendan sudol

‘The psychologists highlighted the variety of paths to excellence, but the most common was a sampling period, often lightly structured with some lessons and a breadth of instruments and activities, followed only later by a narrowing of focus, increased structure, and an explosion of practice volume.’

‘The parents with creative children made their opinions known after their kids did something they didn’t like, they just did not proscribe it beforehand. Their households were low on prior restraint.’

‘Successful problem solvers are more able to determine the deep structure of a problem before they proceed to match a strategy to it... As education pioneer John Dewey put it in Logic, The Theory of Inquiry, “a problem well put is half-solved.”’

‘A key to creative problem solving is tapping outsiders who use different approaches “so that the ‘home field’ for the problem does not end up constraining the solution.”’

‘Compare yourself to yourself yesterday, not to younger people who aren’t you.’

Rachel Kwon

Did I think this book was good only because it validates my own meandering career path? Probably!

Florian

The book has some interesting points, but it's one of those that is 200 pages too long. A lot of it is about individual studies or anecdotes, which often aren't all that interesting or entertaining and also don't provide much evidence for the points made.

I understand that the idea is to provide a different perspective on generalists vs specialists, but it could have been done in 100 pages and been just as good. It's kind of funny that in one chapter he summarises "Superforecasting" by Philip E. Tetlock, which in my opinion has exactly the same problem.

The main takeaway for me being: I shouldn't stop exploring and start exploiting. The headstart in experience and income isn't worth the match quality deficiency.

Volkan Yorulmaz

Tiger Woods, yoğunlaştırılmış uygulamanın miktarının başarıyı belirlediği fikrini ve uygulamanın mümkün olduğunca erken başlaması gerektiği fikrini sembolize etmektedir. Hepimizin karşılaştığı zorluk, aşırı uzmanlaşmayı giderek daha fazla teşvik eden, hatta talep eden bir dünyada çeşitli deneyimlerin ve disiplinler arası düşüncenin faydalarını nasıl koruyacağımızdır. Tiger Woods'un erken gelişmişliğine ve amacının netliğine sahip bireyler gerektiren alanlar olduğu kuşkusuz doğru olsa da, karmaşıklık arttıkça - teknoloji dünyayı her bireyin yalnızca küçük bir parçasını gördüğü birbirine bağlı sistemlerin daha geniş ağlarına döndürdükçe - daha fazla Roger Federer’lere ihtiyacımız var: Geniş bir başlangıç yapan ve ilerledikçe farklı deneyimleri ve bakış açılarını benimseyen insanlar. Çok yönlü olan insanlar...

https://vurgulananlar.blogspot.com/20...

The instant Sunday Times Top Ten and New York Times bestseller SHORTLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES/MCKINSEY BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2019 A Financial Times Essential Reads of 2019 pick 'I loved Range' Malcolm Gladwell 'It’s a joy to spend hours in the company of a writer as gifted as David Epstein' Susan Cain, bestselling author of Quiet 'A goldmine of surprising insights. Makes you smarter with every page' James Clear, bestselling author of Atomic Habits 'Urgent and important. . . an essential read for bosses, parents, coaches, and anyone who cares about improving performance' Daniel H. Pink A powerful argument for how to succeed in any field: develop broad interests and skills while everyone around you is rushing to specialize. From the ‘10,000 hours rule’ to the power of Tiger parenting, we have been taught that success in any field requires early specialization and many hours of deliberate practice. And, worse, that if you dabble or delay, you'll never catch up with those who got a head start. This is completely wrong. In this landmark book, David Epstein shows you that the way to succeed is by sampling widely, gaining a breadth of experiences, taking detours, experimenting relentlessly, juggling many interests - in other words, by developing range. Studying the world's most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors and scientists, Epstein demonstrates why in most fields - especially those that are complex and unpredictable - generalists, not specialists are primed to excel. No matter what you do, where you are in life, whether you are a teacher, student, scientist, business analyst, parent, job hunter, retiree, you will see the world differently after you've read Range. You'll understand better how we solve problems, how we learn and how we succeed. You'll see why failing a test is the best way to learn and why frequent quitters end up with the most fulfilling careers. As experts silo themselves further while computers master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, Range shows how people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive and why spreading your knowledge across multiple domains is the key to your success, and how to achieve it.

Jürgen Schweizer

Only dropped the book because I already got so much value out of it. Highly recommended. Now I am even more curious about other topics.

Wynn Netherland

As a generalist software engineer who has worked among specialists for over two decades, this book resonated with me. It doesn't make the case that specialization or generalization is The One True Path, but it does suggest generalists are in a position to succeed as the world grows more complex. 

Much of the supporting research is anecdotal. We'll see if it holds up as a proper counter argument to Gladwell's 10,000 hours school.

Omar Fernandez

"Not all those who wander are lost"

When we take a leap and shift our career focus, change hobbies, explore new interests in unrelated fields, we are often afraid. We feel that we are unfocused. This is a problem. 

We hear often about the person who was passionate about something early on, the early piano or chess prodigy, and how that early focus got them to success. But, we don't hear enough about those who just explore many things and over time bring it all together to make an outsized contribution. In many fields, this book argues, we need more of the latter. Those that wander and absorb skills and knowledge in different fields, have experiences in different settings and situations, train under different programs, and then connect concepts from that varied experience to bring about a new insight with the potential to truly change things. 

Many great examples in the book, worth listening to the full audiobook (which I did) even if 1/3 of the way through you feel like you "get it" because there are more great examples later in the book that you may relate more to.

Joseph

Ivaylo Durmonski

Plenty of experts talk only about specializing in one specific field but that’s not what David Epstein thinks.

When you specialize, you become better at doing one thing, yes. However, life is more complicated than what we tell ourselves. Executing well only one simple task won’t get you far.

After all, we’re all different people at different times of the day. We might be parents, teachers, managers, creators, investors, and all kinds of other things. It’s stupid to think that learning one specific set of skills will prepare you for this sophisticated dance called life. That’s why I’m really glad that this book exists.

It’s surely different than what you’ll find out there in terms of improving your life, business, and the way you tackle problems. Surely creatives who are early in their career should study the lessons and the case studies provided by the author.

The only downside I found is that at times the books becomes a bit tiring. There’re simply way too many facts and sophisticated words that you’ll find hard to understand – or at least I did.

Still,

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein is definitely worth taking the time to read.

My key takeaway?

Specialists do a great job when the rules of the game are clear and they can easily measure their performance. Generalists, on the other hand, are the ones that thrive in the “wicked” world. The place we live in. When nothing is clear and the boundaries are vague, the generalist are the ones that will find a way to innovate and push the limits further.

Raluca Piteiu

Some nice ideas in the book, but at some point I felt like reading the same ideas over and over again. Could have packed this into an article in my opinion.

Faheem Kajee

The idea that generalists trump specialists is fairly contrarian today. The author makes a good point, that being a generalist keeps you familiar with learning new things and switching approaches — which is very valuable in fields which are very dynamic. There’s also the benefit of applying knowledge from one field in unrelated fields — and as a result being able to arrive at new insights.

Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. David Epstein discovered that in most fields generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel.

Amplitud (Range)

Victor Gomez Estevez

Entretenido, con puntos muy interesantes aunque a veces tiene demasiadas historias puntuales para reafirmarse

Lisa Charlotte Rost

Read it because David Bauer has it on his all-time favorites list: https://www.davidbauer.ch/bookshelf/

I don't see myself as a generalist, so I wasn't sure how much I would take out of reading this book. Turns out: a lot. This book makes you learn lots, changes your beliefs about "geniuses" and yourself, and encourages to wander around in other fields; to experiment. 

I would have liked a few pages about what brain research has to say about that topic. And maybe a bit more research (also the author does present quite a few studies). But besides that, I'm happy. The book made me happy. And I'll certainly come back to it.

Jeremy Cote

I found this book to be a great read, with a lot of interesting things to say about the notion of specializing. If there's one thing I took away from the book, it was that exploring and jumping from idea to idea and domain to domain isn't a bad thing. It's not detrimental to have a variety of interests. Yes, you need to eventually focus your efforts if you want to make great work, but you don't need to always be doing one single thing.

It was definitely a fun book, and I'd recommend it to those who feel like they can't enjoy a variety of interests because they are afraid it will slow down their career.

Range Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

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