4 ms·

Being a generalist by nature makes it very hard to build a successful career. I'm a generalist and what I see is the society is built around specialization.

abootstrapper 8y ago
IMOP the best profession for a generalist is entrepreneurship. Not that entrepreneurship doesn't entail its own hardships though.
- qwerty456127 8y ago
  Perhaps but entrepreneurship sounds quite fearsome for people that neither feel really sociable (and I doubt many generalists do) nor have a serious financial capital they can risk safely.
  - rhizome 8y ago
    Testify, brother!
Nasrudith 8y ago
Personally I think being a generalist is ironically is effectively the same niche as yet another specialization. It sounds nonsensical and contradictory at first glance but makes some sense. If you are able to do everything equally well you will likely be out-competed in any given field by specialists (barring say a generally applicable approach flat out being better like an engineer designing tools which can outperform master craftsmen in both volume and precision). However if there is a task which requires broad knowledge (say integration) or it is just more efficient or otherwise better for the current scaling due to the costs of trying to maintain a stable of appropriate specialists it is a niche where a generalist will win out. We usually see a general practitioner first instead of heading straight for a dermatologist about a rash.
- pjmlp 8y ago
  Quite right, an area where you also see this is consulting.
  - qwerty456127 8y ago
    Consulting is not an "area". You are supposed to specialize in some area and accumulate specialized expertize in it first before you can become a consultant anybody would be interested to consult to. Isn't this so?
- ahje 8y ago
  > We usually see a general practitioner first instead of heading straight for a dermatologist about a rash. Which is why, sadly, most polymaths within tech end up getting stuck at tech support.
pjmlp 8y ago
In consulting it pays off to be a generalist. On my case it helped quite a few times to jump between projects, or to be person that customer would like to ask to jump at an existing issue.

abootstrapper 8y ago

IMOP the best profession for a generalist is entrepreneurship. Not that entrepreneurship doesn't entail its own hardships though.

qwerty456127 8y ago
Perhaps but entrepreneurship sounds quite fearsome for people that neither feel really sociable (and I doubt many generalists do) nor have a serious financial capital they can risk safely.
- rhizome 8y ago
  Testify, brother!

Nasrudith 8y ago

Personally I think being a generalist is ironically is effectively the same niche as yet another specialization. It sounds nonsensical and contradictory at first glance but makes some sense. If you are able to do everything equally well you will likely be out-competed in any given field by specialists (barring say a generally applicable approach flat out being better like an engineer designing tools which can outperform master craftsmen in both volume and precision). However if there is a task which requires broad knowledge (say integration) or it is just more efficient or otherwise better for the current scaling due to the costs of trying to maintain a stable of appropriate specialists it is a niche where a generalist will win out. We usually see a general practitioner first instead of heading straight for a dermatologist about a rash.

pjmlp 8y ago
Quite right, an area where you also see this is consulting.
- qwerty456127 8y ago
  Consulting is not an "area". You are supposed to specialize in some area and accumulate specialized expertize in it first before you can become a consultant anybody would be interested to consult to. Isn't this so?
ahje 8y ago
> We usually see a general practitioner first instead of heading straight for a dermatologist about a rash. Which is why, sadly, most polymaths within tech end up getting stuck at tech support.

pjmlp 8y ago

In consulting it pays off to be a generalist. On my case it helped quite a few times to jump between projects, or to be person that customer would like to ask to jump at an existing issue.