A THREAD on key ideas from "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" by David Epstein:
1/
You have people walking around with all the knowledge of humanity on their phone, but they have no idea how to integrate it.
We don’t train people in thinking or reasoning.
1/
You have people walking around with all the knowledge of humanity on their phone, but they have no idea how to integrate it.
We don’t train people in thinking or reasoning.
2/
A rapidly changing, wicked world demands conceptual reasoning skills that can connect new ideas and work across contexts.
A rapidly changing, wicked world demands conceptual reasoning skills that can connect new ideas and work across contexts.
3/
The more constrained and repetitive a challenge, the more likely it will be automated, while great rewards will accrue to those who can take conceptual knowledge from one problem or domain and apply it in an entirely new one.
The more constrained and repetitive a challenge, the more likely it will be automated, while great rewards will accrue to those who can take conceptual knowledge from one problem or domain and apply it in an entirely new one.
4/
Detailed prior knowledge is less important than a way of thinking.
Detailed prior knowledge is less important than a way of thinking.
5/
Modern work demands knowledge transfer: ability to apply knowledge to new situations and different domains.
Our most fundamental thought processes have changed to accommodate increasing complexity and the need to derive new patterns rather than rely only on familiar ones.
Modern work demands knowledge transfer: ability to apply knowledge to new situations and different domains.
Our most fundamental thought processes have changed to accommodate increasing complexity and the need to derive new patterns rather than rely only on familiar ones.
6/
Learners become better at applying their knowledge to a situation they’ve never seen before, which is the essence of creativity.
Learners become better at applying their knowledge to a situation they’ve never seen before, which is the essence of creativity.
7/
Specialization is obvious: keep going straight.
Breadth is trickier to grow.
Specialization is obvious: keep going straight.
Breadth is trickier to grow.
8/
The challenge we all face is how to maintain the benefits of breadth, diverse experience, interdisciplinary thinking, and delayed concentration in a world that increasingly incentivizes, even demands, hyperspecialization.
The challenge we all face is how to maintain the benefits of breadth, diverse experience, interdisciplinary thinking, and delayed concentration in a world that increasingly incentivizes, even demands, hyperspecialization.
9/
Everyone needs habits of mind that allow them to dance across disciplines.
Everyone needs habits of mind that allow them to dance across disciplines.
10/
Career goals that once felt safe and certain can appear ludicrous, to use Darwin’s adjective, when examined in the light of more self-knowledge.
Our work preferences and our life preferences do not stay the same, because we do not stay the same.
Career goals that once felt safe and certain can appear ludicrous, to use Darwin’s adjective, when examined in the light of more self-knowledge.
Our work preferences and our life preferences do not stay the same, because we do not stay the same.
11/
Seeding the soil for generalists and polymaths who integrate knowledge takes more than money.
It takes opportunity.
Seeding the soil for generalists and polymaths who integrate knowledge takes more than money.
It takes opportunity.
12/
Whether chemists, physicists, or political scientists, the most successful problem solvers spend mental energy figuring out what type of problem they are facing before matching a strategy to it, rather than jumping in with memorized procedures.
Whether chemists, physicists, or political scientists, the most successful problem solvers spend mental energy figuring out what type of problem they are facing before matching a strategy to it, rather than jumping in with memorized procedures.
13/
The labs in which scientists had more diverse professional backgrounds were the ones where more and more varied analogies were offered, and where breakthroughs were more reliably produced when the unexpected arose.
The labs in which scientists had more diverse professional backgrounds were the ones where more and more varied analogies were offered, and where breakthroughs were more reliably produced when the unexpected arose.
14/
It is better to be a scientist of yourself, asking smaller questions that can actually be tested—“Which among my various possible selves should I start to explore now? How can I do that?”
Be a flirt with your possible selves...
It is better to be a scientist of yourself, asking smaller questions that can actually be tested—“Which among my various possible selves should I start to explore now? How can I do that?”
Be a flirt with your possible selves...
...Rather than a grand plan, find experiments that can be undertaken quickly.
“Test-and-learn,” Ibarra told me, “not plan-and-implement.”
“Test-and-learn,” Ibarra told me, “not plan-and-implement.”
15/
Nationally recognized scientists are much more likely than other scientists to be musicians, sculptors, painters, printmakers, woodworkers, mechanics, electronics tinkerers, glassblowers, poets, or writers, of both fiction and nonfiction.
Nationally recognized scientists are much more likely than other scientists to be musicians, sculptors, painters, printmakers, woodworkers, mechanics, electronics tinkerers, glassblowers, poets, or writers, of both fiction and nonfiction.
16/
The world is not golf, and most of it isn’t even tennis.
Much of the world is “Martian tennis.”
You can see the players on a court with balls and rackets, but nobody has shared the rules.
It is up to you to derive them, and they are subject to change without notice.
The world is not golf, and most of it isn’t even tennis.
Much of the world is “Martian tennis.”
You can see the players on a court with balls and rackets, but nobody has shared the rules.
It is up to you to derive them, and they are subject to change without notice.
17/
It is difficult to accept that the best learning road is slow, and that doing poorly now is essential for better performance later.
It is so deeply counterintuitive that it fools the learners themselves.
It is difficult to accept that the best learning road is slow, and that doing poorly now is essential for better performance later.
It is so deeply counterintuitive that it fools the learners themselves.
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