The Reign of Specialists is Over with David Epstein, Best-Selling Author of Range and The Sports Gene

01/19/22 • 32 min

Growing up, we’re all asked what we want to be when we’re older. Our answer is normally met with an explanation of the years of education and dedication we’ll have to go through to get there. Whether it’s trade school, medical school, a PhD, or apprenticeship, we start to understand that we’ll need years of specialized training to get to where we want to be. But what if that whole way of thinking is wrong?

Today, we’re learning to completely shift our approach to the understanding of expertise. Our guest is David Epstein, bestselling author of Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World and The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance. He shares why you should shift your focus from being a specialist to a generalist, and how that can exponentially increase your odds for success. You won’t want to miss it.

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"The people who are good forecasters sometimes have an area of specialty, sometimes they don't, but more important than what they think, is how they think." - David Epstein

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Time Stamps

(0:00) How Satyen became a generalist

(2:52) Why IQ tests aren’t as helpful as you think

(5:53) What makes an environment kind or wicked

(13:23) Getting comfortable with sporadic success

(18:31) The perks of generalization

(22:57) The shortcomings of specialization

(26:36) What we can learn from Vincent Van Gogh

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Sponsor

This podcast is presented by Alation.