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Generalists vs specialists – Who has a greater chance of success? (2019)

abhijitbhaduri.com

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Re: Generalists vs specialists – Who has a greater chance of success? (2019)

#41

Post by herodoturtle »

jhoechtl wrote: post #20

In a devastated economy the generalist, in a highly functional economy the specilist. Now please come up with a measure if an economy is elaborated and functional.

> Now please come up with a measure if an economy is elaborated and functional.

A friend once referred me to a "public transport" measure, which might not be the panacea for defining an economy's success, but it's certainly an interesting take.

I wish I could find the paper / article (I tried), but in essence, the extent to which an economy has implemented effective public transport can be used as a measure of economic success.

Edit: I also completely agree with your first point.

Re: Generalists vs specialists – Who has a greater chance of success? (2019)

#42

Post by loteck »

noodle wrote: post #28
bhattisatish wrote: post #4

I am not sure I buy the authors argument. I am not even sure if I am clear about how the author defines a generalist and specialist!! The way the world knowledge is evolving, there is a blurring of what we call specialist and generalist. For e.g. If you are a medical researcher, then knowledge of biology, biochemistry, software development (simulation anyone) and maths is required. Now is this specialisation or being…

> And which is better? It all depends on context! I long considered myself a generalist because I typically work with early stage startups to get them going and growing, and that requires being competent at many things, wearing many hats. I now position myself as a specialist at growing early stage startups, because that wide of a skillset is exactly what you need to be successful in that context. In many cases, its…

You specialize in generalism?

Re: Generalists vs specialists – Who has a greater chance of success? (2019)

#43

Post by K0nserv »

I wrote a blog bost[0] about the idea of The Stalactite Developer about a year ago. I like this metaphor better than T shaped and I have applied it effectively throughout my career.

0: https://hugotunius.se/2020/01/19/the-stalactite-developer.ht...

Re: Generalists vs specialists – Who has a greater chance of success? (2019)

#44

Post by herodoturtle »

godmode2019 wrote: post #22

Book recommendation: Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth - by Buckminster Fuller Just the first chapter will blow your mind.

For anyone that's wondering, link to Chapter 1 on Google Reads:

https://books.google.co.za/books?id=DqflDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA59&sou...

Link to the full book: https://www.amazon.com/Operating-Manual-Spaceship-Buckminste...

Re: Generalists vs specialists – Who has a greater chance of success? (2019)

#45

Post by ipaddr »

jiriknesl wrote: post #15

I doubt, there's such a thing as a real generalist, that knows SW development, negotiation, history of Italy, international politics, engine design, ... to the same level of depth. When we speak about successful generalists, they are still quite specialized. They might know some data analysis (maybe limited by Excel and VB macros), some teamwork skills, some marketing/sales/product ownership knowledge, some competiti…

Being more capable in all situations can be a goal. What you are describing is a

Renaissance man, also called Universal Man, Italian Uomo Universale, an ideal that developed in Renaissance Italy from the notion expressed by one of its most-accomplished representatives, Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72), that “a man can do all things if he will.” The ideal embodied the basic tenets of Renaissance humanism, which considered man the centre of the universe, limitless in his capacities for development, and led to the notion that men should try to embrace all knowledge and develop their own capacities as fully as possible.

Re: Generalists vs specialists – Who has a greater chance of success? (2019)

#48

Post by nxc18 »

jbluepolarbear wrote: post #17
Snoozle wrote: post #3

I always feel like these types of posts are too kind to generalists. Maybe that's just because I am one and I am falling for the greener grass. It's true I've done well in my career, but I've never felt particularly competent. I can do a half assed job as a manager, developer, product owner, and salesman, but I am not any better at those tasks than someone who specializes in doing those things. I could argue that I h…

I guess it’s perspective, I’m a career long generalist and I feel confident that I can be put on any team and preform at or better than the average specialist in the same position. I’ve backed this up with every position I’ve had and have built a network of people that know and trust when I say I can do something. I think that’s more important than any specialist because if I don’t know an answer or how to solve some…

I tend to agree, and for strong performers/individuals (or just people who are willing to learn quickly/go outside of their comfort zone), it is often possible to become proficient at many ‘specialized’ roles. Especially with softer things, like moving between Java/C#/Kotlin/Swift, or Android/iOS development. There’s a lot involved in each ecosystem, but there’s also a lot of commonality. And, frankly, we shouldn’t pretend like the average contributor on every team is a genius.

There are still roles that probably do require actually specializing to become great at (e.g. graphics/game engine dev comes to mind) but those roles are comparably rare. Most of the Android/iOS/Java/C#/React/JS/TypeScript/etc developers I’ve met could become proficient in any of those other technologies, they just choose not to, perhaps out of comfort. FWIW, in my personal experience, willingness to learn new things/broaden perspective & skill base (a.k.a. being a generalist) is correlated with job performance to the point where ‘not in my job description’ and ‘no I won’t learn UIKit, I’m an Android developer’ stand out as major red flags. “I don’t have time to learn React because I need to familiarize myself with the 8 new types of pointers C++ added this release’ feels a little more reasonable, but again, the great C++ developers I’ve met are still willing to get their hands dirty in other areas.

Tl;dr specialists are (usually) generalists with an attitude problem

Re: Generalists vs specialists – Who has a greater chance of success? (2019)

#49

Post by pjbster »

ipaddr wrote: post #45
jiriknesl wrote: post #15

I doubt, there's such a thing as a real generalist, that knows SW development, negotiation, history of Italy, international politics, engine design, ... to the same level of depth. When we speak about successful generalists, they are still quite specialized. They might know some data analysis (maybe limited by Excel and VB macros), some teamwork skills, some marketing/sales/product ownership knowledge, some competiti…

Being more capable in all situations can be a goal. What you are describing is a Renaissance man, also called Universal Man, Italian Uomo Universale, an ideal that developed in Renaissance Italy from the notion expressed by one of its most-accomplished representatives, Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72), that “a man can do all things if he will.” The ideal embodied the basic tenets of Renaissance humanism, which conside…

Reminds me of the Cyrano de Bergerac line:

  Cyrano:  I was wandering in a maze
           I’d too many complicated paths to take:
           I took ...

  Le Bret: Which?

  Cyrano:  Oh! Of them all, the simplest one.
           I decided to be brilliant at everything, with everyone!

Re: Generalists vs specialists – Who has a greater chance of success? (2019)

#50

Post by sokoloff »

faeyanpiraat wrote: post #35
eagsalazar2 wrote: post #33

I think this is like asking "which batter will do better, the one who swings low and inside or the one who swings high and outside?". Ok, I don't really follow baseball so maybe the metaphor is broken but my point is - it depends on what the situation requires and there is no way to predict that in advance. For any tendency or trait an individual demonstrates there will be times when that trait results in success or…

The point is that you can calculate odds of success. Yes, you cannot predict the future precisely, but if you can estimate, that there is an X chance that in the future 70% specialists and 30% generalists are required, and the population will be 50/50 generalist/specialist, then you can make an informed decision which path should you choose if your goal is money/job security. You may proven to be wrong, you may turn…

To find differentiated success as a specialist in such a world, you need that imbalance of supply and demand and to have a relevant specialty. A specialist in buggy whip making or blood-letting can still likely suffer for a lack of demand for their specialty relative to the supply that they’re offering, even if the global demand for specialists is high.
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