Generalist vs. Specialist: What's better'?

It's 2018.

I'm lying in bed, scrolling YouTube and looking for another video that will finally make my side hustle take off.

"You need to specialize in marketing - this is where the money's at right now!" the ad before the YouTube video screams at me.

"Sales is the secret to growing your business to 10k monthly income and beyond." the next one says.

Next time, it's web design, then public speaking, and after that copywriting.

The general message is clear. If you want to achieve even the smallest bit of success in your life, you have to specialize in something. If you don't, you'll end up as a "jack of all trades, master of none". This isn't how people make millions.

For a long time, I believed in those voices.

My only problem: I didn't know what to specialize in. I didn’t even know if I want to specialize at all. This kept me in a deadlock for way too long. I realized the flaw in this logic only after some dreadful months of contemplation.

That is why today, I would like to give you my opinion about this question:

Should you specialize or become a generalist?

Let's dive in!

The extremes never work out

Imagine doing just one thing for the rest of your life.

Now, imagine having to learn a new skill every day for the rest of your life.

This is what the two extremes of a specialist and a generalist would look like. Do you think people lead happy lives following one of the two models outlined above?

I don't think so.

Here's why the extremes will not work out:

Specialization is too one-dimensional

The specialist's main issue is that he inflicts one-dimensionality on his entire life. 

Only living for one topic will eventually make him see other ideas and concepts as threatening. Everything around him is new and foreign - and should therefore be avoided. Instead of being confident in new situations, he gets anxious - like a fish out of the water.

A life like this will become boring and stressful in the long run.

The generalist has to fight overwhelm

Generalists love to engage in new topics and therefore thrive in diversity.

They see it as an intellectual playground free for them to explore instead of fearing the unknown. On the other side, this can lead to overwhelm. If everything strikes your interest, you'll end up spreading yourself too thin. Especially, when you want to do everything at once.

Therefore, generalists need to be very cautious to not burn out from too many interests.

Curiosity cannot be suppressed

When I heard those "gurus" talk about specialization, my main concern was this:

"I am interested in many topics - does specialization mean that I cannot engage in all of them anymore?"

Looking back on this, I learned one important thing:

You cannot suppress your curiosity.

Curiosity is an extremely strong emotion. It's what doesn't let you sleep at night when you:

• think about the next day's events

• stumbled over yet another interesting topic

• want to know what Fred told Emma yesterday in school

You cannot turn off the urge to "want to know", you can just surrender to it.

By exploring all your interests, you'll eventually realize that your hunger for trying new stuff wears off. 

You'll find yourself circling back to activities you tried out before and enjoyed a lot.

That is when you know that you should keep doing those things and build them into your daily routine.

You cannot suppress curiosity, but the more you explore it, the less strong the urge for new will become.

My recommendation: Be clear on which level you ask this question

Here's my take on this topic:

Become a specialized generalist (also known as a T-shaped person).

Go out and explore your interests.

See what sticks and what you don’t like.

Once your hunger for the new wears off, combine some of your interests (not one, but also not 100) into a unique stack of skills.

The rarer those skills are, the more valuable their combination will be.

Everyone knows a skilled person in marketing and strategy. These skills aren't rare, and they are often combined.

But think about someone skilled in investing, the crypto market and public speaking. Don't you think this person could provide higher-level value than the one above?

Let me close with one last idea:

Specialization might guarantee great performance, but only in one area of life.

A world-class movie director might also be a drug addict. The best sales-person you know might be overweight and unhealthy. There is no specialist with a fully balanced and happy lifestyle.

The fight for a good life is fought on a different level than the one specialists fight themselves daily.

Stay seeking.

Philipp