Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
- Downloads：7417
- Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
- Create Date：2021-04-29 21:31:26
- Update Date：2025-09-07
- Status：finish
- Author：David Epstein
- ISBN：0735214506
- Environment：PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle
Reviews
Florin Grigoriu
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An excellent argument for both depth and breadth ， I love it probably because I have a generalist mindset， though the arguments in the book go against the socially accepted norm of early specialization as the main path for success
Cara Wood
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Epstein draws on a number of historic， pop culture and business examples to demonstrate the danger not only in specialization but also in relying on process rather than innovation to solve problems。 This book examines what it takes for human minds to cope with change and build up practice tackling new ideas in order to learn how you learn best and discover your true talent and passion。
Tim Q
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I love “contrarian” opinions and this book is the perfect foil to the popular notion that you need to specialize and specialize early to be successful。 As someone who like to try many new things and continue to learn， I found the research， stories， and conclusions especially encouraging。 Specific to military members looking to retire or RELAD - that book should be required reading。
Stefka
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I was expecting more from this book。 There were a lot of stories about people who exhibited generalist behavior at some point in the peek of their career - as in people who know a bit about a lot of varying topics， aka having range。 But then the author labels people as foxes （generalists） and hedgehogs （specialists） and that is where I was shaking my head at yet another bucketization of complex human beings。 I think because I just read Think Again by Adam Grant， it felt like I was re-reading par I was expecting more from this book。 There were a lot of stories about people who exhibited generalist behavior at some point in the peek of their career - as in people who know a bit about a lot of varying topics， aka having range。 But then the author labels people as foxes （generalists） and hedgehogs （specialists） and that is where I was shaking my head at yet another bucketization of complex human beings。 I think because I just read Think Again by Adam Grant， it felt like I was re-reading parts of that book， but this book is not as well focused on the 'why' and 'how' behind rethinking known notions as Think Again is。 In summary， this is a long book stating that there is essentially no real evidence to point to that proves starting early in life at anything （music， sports， anything） gives any sort of advantage over late starters。 It points at overused historical examples that show diversity of thought and team makeup are crucial to success。 It does provide some insight into how people leave unsatisfactory careers to start anew and how it turns out to be more of an advantage to success than a years lost to useless persuits。 Nevertheless， I just happened to be in the right mindset to take something away from this book。 。。。more
Joshua
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A detailed and entertaining insight as to why forgoing a head start in favour of match quality and breadth of knowledge is not only a good， but necessary， tactic for excellence。
Daphne
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Motivating read
Patricia
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This book gave me confidence to celebrate not having a set understanding of what I want to do with my life :） Makes me think especially about how joyful （and， I suppose， pragmatic， with Epstein's logic） it is to explore and how being young offers such great opportunities to do so！ Epstein's writing is filled with examples to illustrate points that at times the analysis and life lessons can get convoluted， but it also left me with lots of things to chew on。 This book gave me confidence to celebrate not having a set understanding of what I want to do with my life :） Makes me think especially about how joyful （and， I suppose， pragmatic， with Epstein's logic） it is to explore and how being young offers such great opportunities to do so！ Epstein's writing is filled with examples to illustrate points that at times the analysis and life lessons can get convoluted， but it also left me with lots of things to chew on。 。。。more
Peter Adams
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The book is much needed in a time of hyper-specialization， where we're told we need to find one thing from an early age and stick with it ceaselessly if we ever want to be great at it。 Epstein flips these views and gives plenty of examples where generalists outperform specialists， where the ground-breaking scientific discoveries were found not by people who had dedicated their entire life to that particular field - but those who could draw from a wide range of expertise。 The way you learn determ The book is much needed in a time of hyper-specialization， where we're told we need to find one thing from an early age and stick with it ceaselessly if we ever want to be great at it。 Epstein flips these views and gives plenty of examples where generalists outperform specialists， where the ground-breaking scientific discoveries were found not by people who had dedicated their entire life to that particular field - but those who could draw from a wide range of expertise。 The way you learn determines how well it's going to be generalizable。 If you try to learn a skill with a program or tool that promises that it's going to be "fast and easy，" stay clear。 True generalizable learning comes from hard， painstaking work and experimentation。 You don't want to get as good as fast as possible， cram for tests， but that's counterproductive in the long term。 Epstein points out one study where the in an airforce program， math classes where the students evaluated the teachers the *worst* did better in the following math classes。 The teachers with the bad evaluation made it hard and painstaking for them to learn， mastering the basics。 Even though they didn't feel they were learning that much， they were better off than the others。Specialization gives results more immediately， whereas generalization， learning the hard way， figuring out underlying patterns & patterns gives results slower。 But， once the generalist's ceiling is higher。I've found for myself that there are certain solid rules behind every skill。 Mastering one skill clears the path of learning another， and one skill can provide a framework of analogy to another， which is may prove invaluable。 I lean towards generalization because when I look at people who have excel at something， they tend to have a very wide range of expertise。 Some people have a range and depth of expertise beyond belief， and I can only understand it by how understanding is generalizable。Epstein closes the book with the advice "don't feel behind。" Funnily enough， not knowing exactly what you want to do from an early age might be an advantage。 The book is probably one of the best non-fiction works written in recent years， and as someone with a wide range of interests， reading it was like a long injection of morphine。 。。。more
Ovidio Diaz
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Epstein offer a wide range of information from research and real life people about generalists。Higly recomended
Fangzhou
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The book advocates trying out possibilities and embracing broader interests。 The message is very clear。 At some places， it could feel trying too hard to convince by deploying tangential examples。
Stephen Phillips
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This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers。 To view it， click here。 I enjoy the message of this book -- it admittedly fits to my personal biases so there is some confirmation bias going on here。 The basic ideas are interesting and laid out well。 Some of them are pretty uncontroversial， others difficult to implement， so there are weak points。 But the ideas of discipline cross-pollination at the end I find particularly inspiring。
Chris
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I had a professor my freshman year of college tell me， after a flopped graphic design class， “you’re the kind of person who will be good at just about anything he tries， but will never be great at anything。” I knew he was right， I could never stick with anything long enough to develop an expertise so I figured I would live out my life being slightly more than mediocre。 I wisened up some over the years， but this book just gave me my mojo back。 Highly recommended whether you’re a specialist or a g I had a professor my freshman year of college tell me， after a flopped graphic design class， “you’re the kind of person who will be good at just about anything he tries， but will never be great at anything。” I knew he was right， I could never stick with anything long enough to develop an expertise so I figured I would live out my life being slightly more than mediocre。 I wisened up some over the years， but this book just gave me my mojo back。 Highly recommended whether you’re a specialist or a generalist。 。。。more
Emily
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Loved this- here’s to generalists！
Gonzalo Cordova
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David Epstein provides in this book detailed research to cover the advantages and practical uses of breadth instead of depth。 Range is full of examples that illustrate the benefits of a generalist approach。 Still， this book maintains a healthy balance to identify when specialization is useful and becomes the preferred tool。The main topics I liked are sampling as a method to achieve meaning and passion， the difference between kind and wicked learning environments， cognitive entrenchment and how t David Epstein provides in this book detailed research to cover the advantages and practical uses of breadth instead of depth。 Range is full of examples that illustrate the benefits of a generalist approach。 Still， this book maintains a healthy balance to identify when specialization is useful and becomes the preferred tool。The main topics I liked are sampling as a method to achieve meaning and passion， the difference between kind and wicked learning environments， cognitive entrenchment and how to avoid it， knowledge transfer， durable and flexible learning， distributed practice， far transfer， analogical thinking， match quality， culture congruence， and circular management。I would strongly recommend this book to anyone looking to develop beyond his/her own field of expertise。 。。。more
Petinka
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What I got from the book: “Compare yourself to yourself yesterday， not to younger people who aren’t you。”
Carlisle
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I got up to around 75% completion and just had to cut it loose。 Each chapter is a different （isolated） case study with very little comment so the book never really seems to 'go' anywhere。 There's a lot to learn from top performers-- but if the message of the book is trying to qualify the generalist and comfort everyday folk， I'm not sure exploring the achievements of the world's anomalies is the way to go。。。 I got up to around 75% completion and just had to cut it loose。 Each chapter is a different （isolated） case study with very little comment so the book never really seems to 'go' anywhere。 There's a lot to learn from top performers-- but if the message of the book is trying to qualify the generalist and comfort everyday folk， I'm not sure exploring the achievements of the world's anomalies is the way to go。。。 。。。more
Chun Hu
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A good book to explore the concept and impact of range。 The author is the opponent of the 10，000 hours rule from his book The Sports Gene。 This book started from sports but touched on wider scope。 It questioned the emphasis on an early start， when generalization and late specialization would be more beneficial， when data driven approach is harmful， and the success stories of late starters。 It would be a good read to ease anxious parents who want young kids to start things early。 The takeaway of A good book to explore the concept and impact of range。 The author is the opponent of the 10，000 hours rule from his book The Sports Gene。 This book started from sports but touched on wider scope。 It questioned the emphasis on an early start， when generalization and late specialization would be more beneficial， when data driven approach is harmful， and the success stories of late starters。 It would be a good read to ease anxious parents who want young kids to start things early。 The takeaway of the book is - don’t be afraid of left behind。 Early starters and 10，000 hours may not triumph a late starter with range and determination。 。。。more
Renata Stuhlberger
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Good ideas but why SO REPETITIVE？
Mauricio Torres
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"We learn who we are in practice， not in theory" "We learn who we are in practice， not in theory" 。。。more
Seale Rapolai
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This book was quite insightful with regards to the dichotomy between Generalists and Speciaists。 In short， it's not so much of whether one is better than the other， but rather that each one excels in its own regards。 To paraphrase one of the key messages I got from the book "The world needs both frogs that live in the mud and can see in detail the flowers， bees and butterflies around， though they cannot see very far。 As well as， birds that fly high and can see far and wide， but not in-depth deta This book was quite insightful with regards to the dichotomy between Generalists and Speciaists。 In short， it's not so much of whether one is better than the other， but rather that each one excels in its own regards。 To paraphrase one of the key messages I got from the book "The world needs both frogs that live in the mud and can see in detail the flowers， bees and butterflies around， though they cannot see very far。 As well as， birds that fly high and can see far and wide， but not in-depth details of the ground。" Where the frogs are specialists and the birds are generalists。 。。。more
Yubai Huang
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-finished 10/12 chapters。 a great challenge to 10k hour rule and don't be afraid of falling behind。-specialists are good with patterns but they perform worse than novices when their familiarized patterns change-broadly applicable reasoning tools are more important than detailed knowledge-the more struggles you have during learning the better results in a long term run-when match quality isn’t good， quitting is a better way out to seek other options you feel passionate about where grit and persev -finished 10/12 chapters。 a great challenge to 10k hour rule and don't be afraid of falling behind。-specialists are good with patterns but they perform worse than novices when their familiarized patterns change-broadly applicable reasoning tools are more important than detailed knowledge-the more struggles you have during learning the better results in a long term run-when match quality isn’t good， quitting is a better way out to seek other options you feel passionate about where grit and perseverance are in the way of ‘quitting’ （students choose majors too early） 。。。more
Ben Robinson
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This is one of those books that the people around you get annoyed with because you always want to talk to them about what you’ve learned from it。 My only critique would be that he doesn’t delve into any of the case studies that he talks about past the surface level， but it’s tough to list that as a critique when the whole point of the book is to spend time examining things from a whole bunch of areas of discipline！
Scott A Gibbs
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An excellent spin in the over used argument that focus， grit， and specialization are keys to unlocking mastery in your “craft”。 In an increasingly complex and changing world， being able to think outside your domain of expertise is the way for wicked learning。 It’s time to rethink the importance of specialists。
Modestas
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Highly recommended read because the author explains the importance of open， wide and universal thinking， gives thoughts about organisational culture， importance of experimentation etc。 However， the name and the insight is not universal。 Both - deep specialisation and ability to combine or use a lot of knowledge from different areas are needed， just their the application is different。 In my oppinion to say that "universals triumph in our world" is to bold and to catchy title。 But that being said Highly recommended read because the author explains the importance of open， wide and universal thinking， gives thoughts about organisational culture， importance of experimentation etc。 However， the name and the insight is not universal。 Both - deep specialisation and ability to combine or use a lot of knowledge from different areas are needed， just their the application is different。 In my oppinion to say that "universals triumph in our world" is to bold and to catchy title。 But that being said the book is a “must read”。P。s。 Lithuanian translation of this book is terrible。 。。。more
Maxz
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All of the information made sense and was well presented， the book could have been 1/4 the size。
Tom Rowe
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Premise: People who know a little about a lot come up with breakthroughs that people who know a lot about a little do not。 Followed by lots of examples and stories。 It starts off interesting and then turns into background noise。
Roberio Moreira
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Just read it。 You won’t regret it。 I became a fan， can’t wait dor David’s new book！
Yachen Sun
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This is a great book about creativity。 Offers me a lot to think about。
Malena
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Loved the book until chapter 5。 After that， it got bit tedious and repetitive but overall， great informative read。
Sasha
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