Kindle Pick of the Week: RANGE: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
Saturday, May 25, 2019 at 7:23PM On sale this week:
A great read to start your summer!
David Epstein—science writer and author of the New York Times bestseller The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance—is a stunning, lucid, and provocative writer. In his new book “RANGE: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World” (Riverhead Books; On Sale May 28, 2019) he turns decades of self-help advice on its head. Self-styled performance gurus (and our parents!) have all told us to specialize early, stay the course, climb the ladder. But Epstein marshals a mountain of scientific research to argue that the most impactful inventors, athletes, artists, musicians and more are the ones who cross domains, rather than deepening their knowledge in a single area. With cutting-edge research distilled into captivating prose, RANGE will change how you think about your career, your education, your hobbies, and the way you parent.
Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you'll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research on the world's top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule.
Epstein shows that in most fields—especially those that are complex and unpredictable, and difficult to automate—generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. Generalists often find their path late, abandon projects (or even entire careers) readily, and juggle many interests rather than focusing on one. They're also more creative, more agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can't see.
Provocative, rigorous, and engrossing, RANGE explains the benefits of breadth, diverse experience, interdisciplinary thinking, and delayed concentration in a world that increasingly demands hyperspecialization. Captivating and enthralling, Epstein’s potent insights and delightful storytelling make RANGE a vital read for everyone.
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