3 ms·
Though I agree that the manifest is worded a bit negatively in a few places, being somewhat of a generalist does not mean that you're mediocre in everything, or
by wladimir 16y ago
Though I agree that the manifest is worded a bit negatively in a few places, being somewhat of a generalist does not mean that you're mediocre in everything, or a cheap employee.
"We are experts in nothing, yet we know a great deal about almost anything." to me, seems to imply that you know a lot about a lot of things, and have developed your skills, though have not dived deep enough to be considered expert in some narrow area.
It's the kind of person I've always aspired to be, as I have very wide interests. Also: technologies come and go, which means that, if you're invested too much in a specific niche, you might find yourself "useless" some day.
- Wolf_Larsen 16y ago"being somewhat of a generalist does not mean that you're mediocre in everything, or a cheap employee." No, it doesn't.
- stcredzero 16y agoIt's very important that you're not mediocre in absolutely everything. There should be at least one field you know in depth. As far as I know, this is the only way anyone ever gets a good feel for what it means to know anything in depth. It's much better to know two or more things in depth. Then the generalizations you make about deep knowledge in areas where you're not an expert will be operating on more data. It's also common to know one thing in depth, but then fail to realize what this implies about every other field of knowledge. It's not a good thing, IMO.
- stcredzero 16y agoAlso: technologies come and go, which means that, if you're invested too much in a specific niche, you might find yourself "useless" some day. Be familiar with underlying principles. Those don't go out of style.