Generalists vs. specialists

December 1, 2008 · Chris Peters

Everyone has the choice in their career to either go really deep into a topic (specialist) or to learn a little bit about a bunch of topics (generalist). Both types of workers are needed for different scenarios.

Everyone has the choice in their career to either go really deep into a topic (specialist) or to learn a little bit about a bunch of topics (generalist). Both types of workers are needed for different scenarios.

Yesterday, I was talking to a generalist who had a funny comment:

The generalist route has worked very well for me so far. People think I’m smart because I know stuff about a lot of different things. The thing is that if they talked to me for 5 minutes longer about one topic, I would exhaust all of my knowledge about it.

Taking the specialist route is not a bad idea either. Just make sure that a generalist never knows something about your specialty that you don’t know.

About Chris Peters

With over 20 years of experience, I help plan, execute, and optimize digital experiences.

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