#87 – Be the Generalist In A Specialized World

February 26, 2024
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​Greetings

February has almost concluded, we’ll leap into March on Friday. I had hoped to be further along on my infrastructure build. But, it takes the time it takes. I just keep plugging away at the details and it will get done.

Spent some time during the last three weeks developing a post that pulls the curtain back on how I use AI in my workflow. In particular, how I use it to create my Reflective Echoes. It’s one of my longer pieces I’ve written at 3200 words.

Yesterday I received a comment on an older Medium post I wrote on the art style ‘ambient occlusion’. The writer was asking me some questions about the prompts I used for the piece. I’d not shared them in the post. I started looking up the prompts to respond and then got curious about how the images would come out using the new version of Midjourney.

The updated post will be out this coming week.

Hope you have a great week.

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I call this newsletter Nicheless & Loving It because it captures who I am as a creative. For years I bought into the so called expert advice to “find my passion”, “decide on a niche”, “do one thing well” etc.

It was years of frustration for me.

Not because I couldn’t do one thing well. It was because I not only could do multiple things well, I also enjoyed doing a diverse range of “things”. I finally decided to go rebel and just embrace the fact that there are many things I want to write about and to try out. I decided to be nicheless and proud of it.

For me, learning didn’t end with school. I’ve always been an avid reader and curious to try new things. I’ve self-taught myself a lot over the years. According to author David Epstein in his book “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World”, there’s a term for that — broad learning.

A person who is a broad learner develops diverse skills and experiences. In doing so, they foster a more adaptable, creative and innovative mindset.

I’ve often found myself thinking outside the box when problem solving and a little mystified why others didn’t arrive at the same solutions. Oddly enough, I’d not made the connection that my wide range of interests was a gift.

Epstein challenges the conventional wisdom that people should decide on their focus early in life and then pursue it as their specialty. He suggests people who opt for a broader learning / work experience and then specialize later gain other advantages:

– Adaptability – their broad knowledge aids in adapting to new and changing situations.

– Creative Problem-Solving – ideas drawn from a diverse spectrum can lead to more innovative thinking outside the silo of a specialty

– Resilience With Change – the world is in a constant state of change. Generalists with a range of knowledge and skills are open to and can adapt more readily.

– Better Decision Making – the wider range of experiences and knowledge generalists draw from widens their perspective when problem solving.

– Learning Transfer – a person who has varied experiences and knowledge can transfer their knowledge into multiple areas. This ability can be especially valuable in solving problems that touch on multiple fields.

A person doesn’t need to have the genius level skills of da Vinci to be a broad learner. Curiousity and the willingness to learn across a broad spectrum of topics is where you start. Finding the crossover on those topics is where the gold is.