<story><title>Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/28/books/review/david-epstein-range.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Snoozle</author><text>I feel strongly about this topic because I&amp;#x27;m at the point in my career where I&amp;#x27;ve done several different positions instead of getting better at one and I&amp;#x27;m wondering if I made a mistake.&lt;p&gt;I started off in the software field as a developer. I&amp;#x27;ve been in the software field for almost 10 years but I&amp;#x27;ve only actually spent two years as a full time developer. I&amp;#x27;ve also done project management, product management, marketing, customer support, and management. I find myself struggling to fill one of those individual roles because I don&amp;#x27;t have the same level of experience as those who have dedicated themselves to those for the full ten years.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m currently a VP of Engineering for a small company. I know most would probably say that I&amp;#x27;ve made it, but I&amp;#x27;m looking for my next opportunity and struggling. It&amp;#x27;s hard to get a job at a larger (200+ employee) company as each role filled is expected to be specialized and focused. At a smaller company or startup, though, I kick the crap out of anyone else applying because I know so much more about the business in general and can wear many different hats.&lt;p&gt;In addition, I feel a strong benefit is that my experience enhances my ability in each other role. For instance, if I&amp;#x27;m working on a marketing email campaign, I can use my developer skills to pull relevant data from the application that helps me focus my targeting. If I&amp;#x27;m developing, I will specifically build small helpful tools for customer support and marketing departments because I already know what they want and they don&amp;#x27;t know they can have it. It takes a small amount of time but provides a big value.&lt;p&gt;I would probably also have a leg up on starting my own business compared to someone who has a deep specialized knowledge of enterprise level applications but no idea how to put together a customer support and good user experience.&lt;p&gt;Still, we are always looking at the greener grass, and there are times when I wish I could just apply for a senior developer role at a larger company and focus on one thing. Somehow, I don&amp;#x27;t think that my lack of React experience will be made up for by letting them know that I will be able to directly interact with the customers or set up marketing campaigns. They already have 5+ people doing those things.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sytelus</author><text>I would suggest not reading too much in these self-help books. NYT, WSJ etc have great &amp;quot;relationship&amp;quot; with high-end publishers who propel several poorly researched myths but written in very appealing way. Self-help books are amazing amazing business netting 10s of millions of dollars in book sells per book. These publishers also know what sells: bottle a simple advise that is rather naive but has lots of anecdots and make claims to have found magic formula to make anyone insanely successful at everything. Entire self-help industry is disgusting because they take advantage of human vulnerability to the maximum extent with full knowledge of what they are doing. To some, it serves purpose of getting inspired for a week or month for $20 and that&amp;#x27;s their best outcome.&lt;p&gt;The main topic discussed in this book, i.e. breadth vs depth is perenial delima also recasted in multiple forms such as exploitation vs exploration. There is no magic bullet in one side or another. The art of getting somewhere is very delicate balance between two. The best approach that has worked for people is either &lt;i&gt;get lucky&lt;/i&gt; or find people who have made mistakes, analyze their mistake and, of course, &lt;i&gt;get little bit less lucky&lt;/i&gt;.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/28/books/review/david-epstein-range.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Snoozle</author><text>I feel strongly about this topic because I&amp;#x27;m at the point in my career where I&amp;#x27;ve done several different positions instead of getting better at one and I&amp;#x27;m wondering if I made a mistake.&lt;p&gt;I started off in the software field as a developer. I&amp;#x27;ve been in the software field for almost 10 years but I&amp;#x27;ve only actually spent two years as a full time developer. I&amp;#x27;ve also done project management, product management, marketing, customer support, and management. I find myself struggling to fill one of those individual roles because I don&amp;#x27;t have the same level of experience as those who have dedicated themselves to those for the full ten years.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m currently a VP of Engineering for a small company. I know most would probably say that I&amp;#x27;ve made it, but I&amp;#x27;m looking for my next opportunity and struggling. It&amp;#x27;s hard to get a job at a larger (200+ employee) company as each role filled is expected to be specialized and focused. At a smaller company or startup, though, I kick the crap out of anyone else applying because I know so much more about the business in general and can wear many different hats.&lt;p&gt;In addition, I feel a strong benefit is that my experience enhances my ability in each other role. For instance, if I&amp;#x27;m working on a marketing email campaign, I can use my developer skills to pull relevant data from the application that helps me focus my targeting. If I&amp;#x27;m developing, I will specifically build small helpful tools for customer support and marketing departments because I already know what they want and they don&amp;#x27;t know they can have it. It takes a small amount of time but provides a big value.&lt;p&gt;I would probably also have a leg up on starting my own business compared to someone who has a deep specialized knowledge of enterprise level applications but no idea how to put together a customer support and good user experience.&lt;p&gt;Still, we are always looking at the greener grass, and there are times when I wish I could just apply for a senior developer role at a larger company and focus on one thing. Somehow, I don&amp;#x27;t think that my lack of React experience will be made up for by letting them know that I will be able to directly interact with the customers or set up marketing campaigns. They already have 5+ people doing those things.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wyatty</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m surprised no one has asked this, but why don&amp;#x27;t you just go and work for a startup (or small company)? You mention that you are well positioned for a role where you have many different responsibilities.&lt;p&gt;Another option is that you can start your own (you mention this too). It doesn&amp;#x27;t have to be solo. From the experience you describe, it seems like you could partner with a technical cofounder and really compliment their skills. There&amp;#x27;s a lot to gain from experience like that and it can open the door to a lot of opportunities in the future that you don&amp;#x27;t know about right now.&lt;p&gt;You haven&amp;#x27;t made a mistake. You can provide a lot of value to an organization. You just have to find the right opportunity where you can do so.</text></comment>