Comments on: Become a specialist at being a generalist

By: Alice Yoo

Alice Yoo — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 20:12:35 +0000

Really good post. I like how your thoughts are neatly organized. Running my own social network, I’m constantly thinking about whether I need to go more niche – if we need to specialize and hone in on a topic. What I’ve found is that being a generalist is sometimes to our advantage – consuming large amounts of data and then filtering them to my group saves them time in the end.

Thanks for your tips.

By: Carlos Bueno

Carlos Bueno — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 01:16:38 +0000

I suggest a #6: Be like a bee, cross-pollinating ideas between disciplines.

I try, whenever I am introduced to someone new, to remember something specific in their field I’ve always wanted to know more about. Genuine curiosity about their favorite thing is the best icebreaker. It keeps you on your toes too.

A film collector: what about that new copy of Metropolis that was found in Argentina? A social worker: are people on the street getting enough nutrition given the downturn? Bioinformatics: is there foundation for pure computer scientists to get to work, or are you still discovering first principles? Journalist: blogs might be able to take care of distribution and advertising, but is there any replacement for the research tools a newspaper makes available to you? Etc.

By: Are You a Specialist or a Generalist? | Jason Slater Technology Blog

Are You a Specialist or a Generalist? | Jason Slater Technology Blog — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:45:11 +0000

[...] towards the specialist route it gives some good observations. Another interesting view is in Become a specialist at being a generalist that offers up a number of recommendations including Stay up-to-date with your area of [...]

By: sundeep

sundeep — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 19:26:21 +0000

great post ..
as one of those “startup-headed, caffeine-infused, entry-level engineers”, I found the point about knowing what to ignore especially thought provoking.Thinking about it , i *do* need to do more filtering ..

By: Amateur Hour: Become a Specialist at Being a Generalist « Self Interest and Sympathy

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:41:58 +0000

[...] The Creative Generalist; full original article here. There is a good post on this topic over at Wishful [...]

By: eismann-sf » Specializing in Generalism

eismann-sf » Specializing in Generalism — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 22:12:50 +0000

[...] Sarkar with a few hot tips on becoming a specialist at being a generalist. 1. Stay up-to-date with you area of generalization 2. Know what to explore and what to ignore. 3. [...]

By: Is CI a generalist or specialist role? « [CI]

Is CI a generalist or specialist role? « [CI] — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 13:53:19 +0000

[...] Five key tips on being a brilliant generalist according to Pras: [...]

By: Åsa says » links for 2008-07-11

Åsa says » links for 2008-07-11 — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:33:38 +0000

[...] Become a specialist at being a generalist (tags: generalist career reading creative specialist skills jobbet) [...]

By: Vimal

Vimal — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 07:50:36 +0000

This is the first blog post I read today(got it from my twitter stream) and I can tell you that, this really made my day. No more moping around wondering why I’m such a scavenging struggling-to-ride-the-wave technology magpie.

Points 1 and 5 are significant and worth noting. But 2,3 and 4 are however usually wired into us thru , you know typical homebrew commonsense from mom/dad. (maybe this is a desi phenomenon and asssociated with out innate conservative-ness)

Points 2 and 3 are somehow related to ‘Don’t re-invent the Wheel’ i think. Its amazing how many asinine re-implementations of a concept exist.

Keep spreading the Good gospel.