To be fair, I think it’s important not to conflate underperforming “generalists” (e.g. not a generalist at all, just someone who is equally unskilled in everyth

To be fair, I think it’s important not to conflate underperforming “generalists” (e.g. not a generalist at all, just someone who is equally unskilled in everything) and a true generalist, that is, someone who is a journeyman in every relevant field. Regarding not reading the docs - I think good generalists are as likely to read the docs as a specialist. Reading the docs is a shallow form of learning that most generalists would surely utilize - on the other hand, a specialist’s knowledge in a given field runs much deeper (they consume talks and research, draw from years of their own observations in that field, have a network of people who are also specialists in that field). On the utility of generalists vs specialists in a setting like the one you describe, I think it’s extremely important to have both at your company.