Specialization Vs Generalization

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In this fast pace world we live in, thinking linearly can't take you very far and before you know it, you're already left behind eating the dust. IQ is good, EQ is great but to thrive you need Adaptive Quotient (AQ). A master is someone who pratices a skill for a decade or more. All masters are wise but not all wise people are masters, some accumulated their knowledge from different areas.

When the world is moving very fast and innovation is happening rapidly, there's not enough time to specialize in just one area. The area you choose to focus on might even go through different iterations forcing you to speed up if you want to stay relevant and up to date. However, when just starting out you can't afford to be a generalist because you won't have the resources to go broad. You're unknown buried around a lot of noise, only depth(specialization) can take you out of it.

This post is about whether one should specialize or generalize in this fast moving world we live in.

Specialization

Specialization is the act or process of focusing on one area fully engaged in it. In most cases the goal is to fully understand and become the best at it. Most experts go through this route: Doctors, Engineers, Architects, etc. Spending decades in a single industry ritually refining their expertise, this has propelled our civilization into new heights; increased human life expectancy, landing on the moon and so on.

When it comes to career, specialization has a proven track record that anyone can follow. It's just a matter of commitment and sticking to it but the tide might not be in your favor now compared to 10 or 20 years ago when there was less noise and less transformation. The world is literally changing right before our eyes so the past can only be taken for reference. Doctors now are no longer strictly doctors, some are also politicians, businessmen, authors and even influencers!

Life is complex now and multi dimensional, everything is happening concomitantly and it is demanded of us to develop new models of understanding in order to keep up with the flow. Models such as non-linearity.

Generalization

Being a generalist is far from easy, it requires a distinct mindset that's capable of comprehending different topics and connecting the dots between them. It's more like being on an aircraft surveying the whole terrain. You see how things relate to each other, what happened before and what will happen next.

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Since there's an element of zooming out, it also requires some emotional detachment because seeing the big picture can sometimes be overwhelming. There is too much to process so you end up doing nothing!

Hitting a home run is easier with a generalist and almost impossible for a specialist. For the former, it's how many times are you willing to try? 6 out of 10 will fail, 3 will turn out good and 1 will be the rocketship that will put you at the top.

With specialization, you normally see things that are right in front of you, concerned with the daily and weekly activities. For generalization, your eyes are normally fixed at the horizon, concerned with quarterly and yearly activities. It's a different way of thinking but both are needed to thrive. The problem is how and when to switch between the two. Timing is everything!

Conclusion

There is a famous saying: Nothing is new under the sun. I'm going to disagree with it because self driving cars are new, robots are new, the Internet itself is new. All of these didn't exist half a century ago but you can argue that the Internet is not under the sun, it's somewhere in the sky invisibly sending waves around the globe!

We're transiting from an age of specialization to an age of generalization. They're currently overlapping each other and things are not clear cut yet. A general advice if you're starting out is to specialize in more than one area. If you're a veteran, branch out to other areas and broaden your mindset. Most Importantly be a perpetual learner, you can't slack or get comfortable.

Thanks For Reading!