Tuesday, April 26, 2005

specialist vs. generalist

A discussion in office made me realize that I (and maybe some others too) think of myself as a generalist. Maybe I even take pride in it.
I want to know about many subsystems in my project. I want to be able to play many instruments. I want to be with many girls. I want to be a writer, musician, singer, entrepreneur, actor and spiderman.
Yet I am d>none of the above.

So what am I doing wrong:

Laozi tells the secret of success is to be a specialist (It's a cartoon - will take seconds to look/read)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0385472595/ref=sib_rdr_prev2_ex3/104-6804031-7899169?%5Fencoding=UTF8&p=S00B&j=1&ns=1#reader-page

This blog has started social networks and an anonymous group!
Mama - Don't let your baby become a generalist:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001978.php

Erwin Scroedinger and Jose Ortega Y Gasset's comments on why a specialist can easily become a demon (from Knowledge Management Research Group):
http://kmr.nada.kth.se/cm/generalist-specialist.html

Hope we all be what we were meant to be.
Hope we all can accept what we are.

3 comments:

Sid said...

Hope we all be what we want to be.

ravi srinivasan said...

i'll drink to that, siddo

Finny Forever said...

since what we were meant to be is what we be, what's to hope for baby?