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Ask HN: Do you regret being a generalist?

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Re: Ask HN: Do you regret being a generalist?

#221
I’m a generalist and have no regrets, as I’m too ADHD to specialize and do one specific thing to the point of mastery.

On the upside, I credit my current role (head of marketing) to the fact that I kinda sorta understand every aspect of what my team works on, including my developer, designer, and content team.

On the downside, I’m pretty sure I’d have an easier time and make more money if I just did one thing better than everyone else.

I comfort myself by believing the thing I specialize in is having a wider breadth of knowledge and experience than most.

Re: Ask HN: Do you regret being a generalist?

#222
My advice is if you specialize, make sure you specialize in a technology that is used in a wide variety of industries. I went specialized in a very narrow industry that was retracting and on its downslope. I decided to coast that hill to the bottom thinking by the time I got there I’d be done and ready to retire. Low and behold, there was a steeper drop off at the end of the hill and the industry is basically dead 7 years sooner than I expected.

You don’t want to put yourself in the position as the last telegraph operator when you need another 7 years left to fill your nest egg.

Re: Ask HN: Do you regret being a generalist?

#223
post #112

No, it makes me more valuable to startups. I’m a 0 to 10 engineer, 10 to 50 is rough, 50 to 90 is boring and 90 to 100 is like watching paint dry for me. If you want to be valuable for the startups that need 0 to 50, you need to wear some different hats. You also need to know yourself. Figure out what you love in this and do that, you’ll never be burned out or bored. When I’m in the right place, I can happily code al…

> When I’m in the right place, I can happily code all night, do 2 Months of work in a day. I know what you mean, but I'd be cautious making such statements. The other way to read this is that when you're in the right place you do one day of work in a day, and when you're in the wrong place, you do 1/40 of a day's work in a day...

Meh. I think the people who hire at early stage startups understand this statement perfectly, and my work and references speak for themselves.

Re: Ask HN: Do you regret being a generalist?

#224
Fullstack 20+ years of xp here :

There's a great deal of fun to be able to understand a system from top to bottom. It helps design robust and elegant solutions.

Yet, i do sometimes regret not having gone super deep in a field. However to me that would have meant do a Phd in that field and start a career as a researcher. If you stay at the "assembler" level (aka not inventing anything, just putting stuff together), then you'll have plenty of time to become good in multiple fields during your career.

Re: Ask HN: Do you regret being a generalist?

#225
post #218
post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Over reasoning? Because I ask a developer what they want to work on during an interview? Guess what, turnover is high when your developers are unhappy with the work they're doing. I've had developers do work that they didn't like to do, and they quit, so now I make sure they're gonna be happy where I want them. I'm not second guessing anything, in fact my comment says the exact opposite. If a developer reworks their…

Well, rereading your original comment again, I see the second paragraph could be taken in the way you mean in your reply. I think paragraph 1 and 3, sandwiched around 2, created an effect of negation. So thanks for the clarification, and thanks for returning my goat.

My pleasure brother. Hope no one will be throwing either of our resumes in the trash.

Re: Ask HN: Do you regret being a generalist?

#226
A perspective from the other side: I definitely don't regret specializing rather early on in my career.

Doing a little bit of everything early on is great, and in fact is required to figure what you're good at and what you enjoy, both important factors in choosing what to specialize in.

But going deep into one specific craft to the point where I could confidently assert that I was one of the best in the world at the craft has been an extremely fulfilling experience. Deep expertise is also something that peers will naturally look up to and respect, and can unlock the highest tiers of compensation a lot faster than breadth alone.

I've been forcing myself to branch out ever since deciding to start my own startup, but the focus on gaining deep expertise in a single craft early in my career is what eventually allowed me to contain imposter syndrome and gain the confidence needed to start this new journey.

Re: Ask HN: Do you regret being a generalist?

#227
Context: I'm a consultant, in that I work for a company that does product and technology development for others (Cambridge Consultants, in the UK). I'm a generalist embedded software engineer by background, although I studied electronics. These days I mostly lead technical teams that include SW, FPGA, Electronics and Mechanics.

Not having a specialism is occasionally annoying. It makes my 'career path' less clear, I don't have anything particular to write down as my USP to clients.

In practice though these have been minor. My value has usually been that I understood all aspects of the system including cross domain. This meant that there were bugs that I could diagnose and fix easily that other people had no idea about (using an oscilloscope to diagnose software bugs is a useful skill).

As I became more senior and started running teams it became even more valuable because I understood what all the different disciplines were talking about and dealing with. It's a great advantage to architecting, planning and prioritising (some of this has been learning as we go along - I now know a fair amount about injection moulding despite being a SW engineer because I keep asking the mechies questions).

As other people have said, often it's about framing your skillset. Previously I have highlighted a relevant aspect of my experience as a specialism when talking to clients. These days I say "I am an expert in leading multi-disciplinary teams for product development".

Re: Ask HN: Do you regret being a generalist?

#228
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, that’s a 50-year old quote and maybe times have changed?

Have humans really changed in the last 2000 years? You can still find books today published back during Roman times complaining about kids these days and how they mispronounce latin.

We have changed in some important ways in the last 20 years, and are yet the same in other ways as our nearest primates today and therefore probably our ancestors 2 million years ago.

When we all have smartphones with access to WolframAlpha, do we need to know how to solve equations ourselves, or is it sufficient to just know how to phrase the problem so the software can answer it? Even excluding vegetarians and vegans, who even has access to hogs to butcher them — and given food delivery options, how many need to bother even if they can?

Re: Ask HN: Do you regret being a generalist?

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d add: - write an effective contract and be able to tell if one that someone hands you is reasonable - be able to explain to people you feel some responsibility towards how to install and operate a VPN - have a grip on basic statistics and economics - cook a tasty meal from grains, legumes, vegetables and/or fungi

Vegeterian?

Not necessarily. Just to be able to.
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