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I somewhat agree with this. It doesn't actually matter what their skill in X and Y are. What sets generalists apart (or really anyone who claims to be cross-dis

I somewhat agree with this. It doesn't actually matter what their skill in X and Y are. What sets generalists apart (or really anyone who claims to be cross-discipline) is not that they have some skill in X and Y (and Z etc etc), but that they have skill in connecting and using X and Y together. And potentially, they've gone one more level meta and are skilled at seeing potential connections between X and Y and other things they aren't actually skilled in. A dabbler (generally.. ha!) lacks that ability to connect X and Y. Though you can certainly be both. You can be a generalist at work, but then in your hobby time enjoy doing a bit of everything. As a thing you do to enjoy, there's no real superior thing between dabbling and being 'a generalist'. Do whatever pleases you. But in a work environment, there certainly is a difference. Unless you just happen to want a guy to split his time at work as UI designer on one project, and as a programmer on another (that have nothing to do with each other what so ever), then you'll probably want an actual generalist, than a dabbler.

dedward 16y ago
Where does "generalist" usually fit in your mid to large corporate structure these days? It seems to me a good generalist tends to either leave/get fed up because at some point the company grows and he doesn't fit within their new structure - so they try to pigeonhole him into some role - losing the somewhat abstract benefit they had from having that generalist around. What do you do with a guy who can debug better than 3/4 of your coders, handle networking better than most of your network team, see the "big picture" where others won't - but really doens't like to be painted into a corner. If these people make it into senior positions with management backing, they tend to stick around, and help out where they can and drift to where they are needed - but that's often not the case.

dedward 16y ago

Where does "generalist" usually fit in your mid to large corporate structure these days? It seems to me a good generalist tends to either leave/get fed up because at some point the company grows and he doesn't fit within their new structure - so they try to pigeonhole him into some role - losing the somewhat abstract benefit they had from having that generalist around. What do you do with a guy who can debug better than 3/4 of your coders, handle networking better than most of your network team, see the "big picture" where others won't - but really doens't like to be painted into a corner. If these people make it into senior positions with management backing, they tend to stick around, and help out where they can and drift to where they are needed - but that's often not the case.