What's Better... Specialization or Generalization?

It's generally recognized that getting ahead in a career requires dedication to attain excellence, expertise or mastery in that domain. It's estimated that 10,000 hours is a general rule to master a field.

Source

This is the specialization that has led to the progress of civilization. Imagine if everyone was doing things on their own. All of our time would be spent in doing everything ourselves. But, when we outsource and specialize our own talents, and then exchange with others, we tend to have extra time left over.

Specialization allows faster progression as a species/culture and saves us time in our daily lives, in general. But what are the costs?

Specialization tends to focus all learning on one thing, or immediately adjacent related topics to enhance the primary field. Although mastery of a particular field may be had, the overall mastery of integrating several bodies of knowledge about reality into a syncretic view, may be lacking.

When learning from many trades/fields instead of just one, we are able to link the individual disciplines into a holistic practical approach to life in general. Over-specialization can be a detriment. Let's not forget how compartmentalization works in organizations, whether corporate, military or political, information and decisions are compartmentalized often on a need-to-know level of secrecy. Certain information is power.

There is the phrase:

"Jack of all trades, master of none".

This is to reference a general competency in all abilities as opposed to one in particular.

The phrase can also be changed to blend specialization and general competency as:

"Jack of all trades, master at some."

This way, you can be competent in general, while also being a specialist in one or a few fields where you surpass the knowledge of the general person.

Think of it like being a Swiss Army Knife, or Boy Scout. You're always prepared and competent to deal with anything because your array of knowledge spans a large area.

In some situations, nonexperts can make better predictions than experts. Not predictions about a highly specialized task like surgery, but of contemporary problems that require thinking across a spectrum. Narrow vision can block seeing the forest from the trees. The "wisdom of the group" also works this way sometimes.

Being neither a pure generalist or pure specialist, means being in a new category called polymaths. Generally, this is when you branch off into other domains after having specialized in one field of study. Another term is flexperts, for being flexible in the expertise you have acquired.

Humans can reach their fullest potential, not by revering a specialist compartmentalized way of living, but by broadening to understand reality in more ways to integrate a larger view of how things function overall. There is much variability, multiplicity and diversity in existence and life. Having more broad general skills, rather than less skills but more specific, can be very advantageous.

There is too much to know in the universe. Breaking things up and choosing one thing over another (i.e. scire, science, knowledge), allows us to speed up the progression of knowledge and collectively progress as a species. Dividing tasks up gives us more freedom in that way. But it also creates more dependence and therefore less self-sufficiency and less freedom as well. We depend on society to survive. Very few in the modern world are now capable of survival if society would break down. Like many things I talk about, it's dual, with both positives and negatives to each side.

What do you prefer? To know a lot about a little and be an expert, or know a little about a lot and wear many hats?

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Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.

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References:

• Specialization (functional)
• Jack of all trades, master of none
• The Danger of Having Too Many Experts

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