Range

Description

The ranges: why generalists triumph in a specialized world, by David Epstein, surveys how breadth of experience and wide contexts often produce more successful outcomes than depth of specialization, especially where environments are complex and unforeseeable. Here, he pits the “generalists” against the “specialists” while speaking to the truism that generalists—whose interests are diversely oriented and whose experience is multidimensional—are simply better innovation and problem-solving actors. Using sports, science, and business as examples, Epstein suggests that early specialization actually hampers problem-solving abilities, creativity, and flexibility, while diverse experiences enhance success in many fields by encouraging a “sampling period” early on before final specialization.