Hello, I'm the original creator 👋hehehe It's so nice to see I've sparked more interest in this topic and seeing other creators' perspectives. I've watched the video and here are my thoughts: - Taking this on from an economist's perspective is really interesting. Trying to make sense of human emotions in their scale of work in economics is an abstract that I really hope we can build upon. - You've clarified OBT which I've covered in my video in a more concise manner with the 80/20 rule 👍 - You've made great examples of generalists with writers & artists, something that I may have missed out on my video 👏 - The sense of accomplishment and purpose as an incentive for people to work so that they can enjoy what they're doing, instead of working because they only want the outcome (i.e. monetary value, prestige, etc). Very good. Overall a breath of fresh air in perspective. Really solid video, 10/10.
This is against the rules. You two made a video on the same topic. You need to argue like elementary school children in 2 hour long video essays. Fulfill your youtube terms and start the war.
if i had been RPG specialist, i would neverhave got a 100% completion on The Messenger, or Super Blood Hockey, but i am a retro-ghamer generalist, with specilized passions for styles. Likewise,having got my 1st degree as an analyst programmer, then one in litterature, and learning music all my life on the side, drawing all my life, i amassed the skills to build a small indie game for a personal project. I'll be working on this this year
True. What I understand is that a specialist would be hyper-skilled in 1 task and completely unskilled in others as if he'd never done them or trained on them. A generalist would be equally good at every single task he's ever come across. We don't give all our time to the same task, nor do we give all our tasks the same time. Over the course of life, we happen to lean into 1 task more than others due to having to choose at least SOMETHING, since "life is short", but we also don't only choose that 1 thing because "life is too long" (or rather the perception of time gets too long due to mundanity). One could say that the realistic definition of a Specialist is one who efficienty utilises all sub-experiences for enhancing his Primary experience/task, which is what the video also describes when mentioning "the best professionals". Sort of just thinking out loud lol.
This is the only truth I believe in. People like to believe their lives are monotonous and classified. I Master in some aspects, but I also know other aspects that I'm bad or average, that's no JOAT
People usually forget the last part of the saying. It's "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one" and the last part is often so damn true
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ― Robert A. Heinlein
I find the idea of “generalist RUclipsrs” very interesting. I would say a good example of this would be vsauce. He covers a wide range of interesting topics about science, math, psychology, and basically anything. He’s been on RUclips for many years and he’ll never run out of ideas because of the broad area of topics he covers in his channel.
That's how I aspire to be but I don't want to create videos. Blogposts maybe, but I don't know how many people are reading blogs these days. About macroeconomics, the stock market, psychology, philosophy, tech etc.
i think creative people have a lot of trouble being "specialists" anyway. inevitably, my mind will drift off to all the other things i could or wanna do.
Well im a veterinarian i work with small animals (dogs and cats) ive 2 specializations anesthesia and image (Ultrassound, radiology, endoscospy etc), yet im a generalist, i know and have experience in every aspect. Clinic, surgery, intensivism, management and administration, wild animals and soo on. My job now its kinda teach ppl how to work haha, and be paid to close the diagnostic.
i honestly find the idea dread inducing. but that means i have no place in society. when i went to college i was immediately bored since i learnt all the curriculum by accident in hs through youtube. i'd spend 2 or 3 hours on an essay an get a c or b grade while others in my class had to spend a week on the assignments. since i branched out an self taught a wide array of subject i just seemed to get things more an i hated how slow pace everything was, at the height we had an assignment a week when i knew i could do two...
I like where you're going here. After all, one of the big deals about the agricultural revolution (back in the Stone Age) was that food surpluses gave people the opportunity to develop specialists. This trend is still going strong.
Unless you're in a leadership position. If you're good at leading, you don't need to know everything, just enough to understand the feedback and issues your specialized team is facing, since most of the time you're dealing with people with different specializations .
“The Jack of all trades is master of none, but oftentimes better than the master of one” The original saying actually understood this concept but we just decided to chop off the last half
We do that with a lot of idioms "Curiosity killed the cat- -but satisfaction brought it back" "Blood-" of the covenant "-is thicker than water "of the womb" And it's strange that these chopping of idioms creates the exact opposite of their intended meaning.
Jack of all trades main weakness is multitasking. Kinda like in video games logic where jack of all trades' power scale were pretty much half-assed than the specialists. Example: A. Jack of all trades: Attack: 50 Strength: 50 Intelligence: 50 B. Specialist: Attack: Either 100/anything Strength: Either 100/anything Intelligence: Either 100/anything
I think the generalist is the guy that will surpass the XP limit and be 100/100 on every stat. The develop of the character will be slower, but the result will be much stronger.
If we were to translate this analogy into a MOBA or Party RPG, the Jack of all Trades would be the Support/Roamer role or the Warlock class from DnD/WoW games. Jack of all trades have the unique ability to explore, experiment, and pioneer to make better versions of themselves aka 'specialists'. Generalists are supposed to lead, manage, control specialists. 1v1 a specialist can beat a generalist any day. But a Generalist beats all specialists on a strategic level in the long run. Problem is that the global order incentivises specialists obviously because of the meta, specialists suck as leaders.
@@danlightened Well, yes. But you aren't the one in charge. The thing that you hyperfixate on is chosen for you. You will not look away. It's 3 am. Nothing else matters.
@@aiacfrosti1772 Isn't that like ADHD? I have ADHD and I totally hyper fixate on random stuff, even though my life maybe dumpser fire. Maybe I have AuDHD.
This just makes me reflect: I’m on my first job rn, KFC cook, and these lazy-ass people on customer service do nothing. They don’t clean dishes, they don’t change bins and they don’t do maintenance despite having ample free time (between serving customers). And then you have me, who is constantly cooking chicken then rotating it and cleaning the kitchen: “Hey, manager, I finished all my jobs.” The manager: “Ok, cool. Clean the dishes, change the bins, do maintenance.” That’s why I don’t tell the managers I finished my jobs anymore. 😅
@@Deleted-User12535 It’s a casual-job and, yeah, my very first. I’d actually consider it a good first job because it’s made me much more resilient and patient, plus I’ve learnt how to socialise better (there are lots of people I like there, despite how angry my comment is). I’ll be finding a new job soon though, for sure.
It's great how menager wanting to make work more effective (by giving extra tasks for the same salary) is making it less effective because no one ever wants to finish anything before the day is over
Yeah, most jobs are like this. Unless it's physical labor, there's a lot of periods of downtime where you basically do nothing. Office work is extremely easy and there's almost never enough of it to keep you busy the full day. The only people who are busy are the managers and that one guy who knows a little about everyone's job and gets pulled for help (or just to do the job for them) all hours of the day.
The key is looking busy at all times and stretching out your tasks to fill the time you've been given. Only go above and beyond when its going to make your own life easier or you are directly asked to do so. Especially in minimum wage jobs. Otherwise you'll get saddled with busy work and your coworkers who aren't working hard may resent you for showing them up.
I've always loved learning and trying new things back then and even now. But now that I'm an adult suddenly i felt inadequate that i never got any remarkable results from the things I've done over the years. Played alot of video games but never got really good at any of them, learned how to play instruments but only ever learned to play a few songs, learned how to draw but felt like I've already hit the wall of how good I'll ever get. But this video reminded me of why I do these things, I do them because they're fun. Creating, learning, and experimenting are the stuffs i live for. It reminds me that there is so much to do in life, so many things you could experience and discover for yourself in a single lifetime. It doesn't matter how inadequate my results are compared to others or what is expected of me, what matters is that I've learned something new, and it's this feeling that I accomplished something important for myself that no one can take away from me.
The experience and knowledge of certain things however random can come to be of use in the most farther fields from it. It's hard to know when, but it does. And even if it doesn't, to be human and alive, is to experience life. So, it's okay to keep experiencing.
Attempting to specialize in something you enjoy can suck the fun out of it. I've heard to never make your hobby into your career because a painters walls always need painted but he's just got home from painting all day, the last thing he wants to do is paint his own house.
have you heard the concept that some people learn in reverse? they need to be taught the complicated topics first an work backwards to simple stuff, as the work back the complex topics make more sense
17:39 I can't tell how much I needed to hear this back in high school man: I would practice playing cello EVERY DAY for at least an hour and I would feel like I wasn't improving and i was just miserable watching my peers surpass me... It literally made me a worse person for that time in my life
Generalisation is good but too broad a spectrum is bad. Too much choice will kill action especially for overthinkers like myself. I guess like in everything in life you need a good mixture of components.
Yeah, I mean one mostly doesn't need to know a whole lot of random facts as mentioned in Random facts #637 etc. Or did you know. Like such and such planet has alcohol in it and such and such fish has this kinda exoskeleton and so on. Unless you're in a related field. I personally love the bigger picture, that's why I keep reading up on philosophy, psychology, sociology, macroeconomics etc. or watching videos about them on RUclips.
The irony with Pirate Software is that often times the fact that he is making a game is secondary to his personality and how he engages with his audience. There is almost no actual hype for HeartBound itself, only for Thor and PirateSoftware.
Calling him a game dev is... generous. Not entirely inaccurate, true. But Thor is to game devs, what Pluto is to planets. 😉 Doesn't quite meet a reasonable standard, but certainly plays in the same sandbox.
Im very confused about PirateSoftware, his advice seems very valuable on a myriad of topics but whenever i see anything technical related to HeartBound it makes me question if he's a fraud, no offense to him.
Thanks for this video! I was feeling down for being burnt out from working, creating content, hobbies and believe it or not, even gaming. I feel like I’m doing so many things and I’m not allowed to enjoy that because I’m not hyper-focusing on one thing to push me forward.
I had specialist come in and said our modifications on the machine made it “unsafe” so he brought it back to stock and the modified part that was reverted back nearly caused our operator hands getting crushed by the 400 pound guard. So we removed his dumb check valve and the guard does not drop at all while setting up machine. Just having the “specialist” does not make you better than the generalist. I can machine parts weld rebuild/repair machines, and do a bit of engineering. Generalists don’t get the credit they deserve. Its not hard working on one machine everyday and understanding how it works in every action. Its harder to do that on every machine in the plant
Specialists will often format things so that it works for their purposes and their knowledge. Generalists will format things so that it works for everyone.
Isn't he generalist in this case? He used general knowledge on how things should work, while you used your very specific knowledge from the experience working with the machine to modify it
great video and very well doe how you describe the circumstances of both sides. I agree with you on your words, believing too to do things because you see fun and joy in them. I read, I draw, I make videos, I play games - All that when I know, it helps to change the mundane day of my life to a more focused calm.
So I clicked on this video thinking it was about Specialization vs Generalist in TTRPG given the thumbnail. Instead I’m watching a video that seems to be about the Human condition in regards to work vs fulfillment.
You're changing my whole perspective on making youtube video's. I want to make a career out of you tube, but honestly I'm starting to think my purpose isn't to solely create content on an internet platform. I want to start seeing youtube as a hobby again rather than a job, because that is when it was actually fun.
Most good RUclipsrs are highly knowledgeable in a couple in couple of fields. But also generalists. It helps them get the point across by using analogies rooted in other fields, so that the common man can understand it too.
This is rather eye opening... i didn't pay it much mind before but yeah most of the youtubers i like bring experiences from other parts of their lives to make a video about.
I agree with most of what you said and this video is absolutly brilliant. But let me add something: A specialization can be a good thing as it may serve as something to return to something to focus yourself on when you want, a way to give some what of purpose to your life something to be proud of. But as you said it can't be the only thing in your life.
I'm a generalist and it has always been both my best and my worst quality. It has allowed me to be a person who is very multifaceted and able to take on a lot of different or complex projects and responsibilities, usually better than my more specialized peers, but it also has worsened my time inefficiencies because I'm very passionate about many different things and always pulled in different directions. Also props for using the persona 4 sound track and clips from Osu! in the vid.
@@relariis_the_paradox Hehe..has anything helped? I've thought of using to do lists and even things like Trello but instead the breakdown of tasks being easy, seeing it overwhelms me.
@@danlightened Idk what Trello is but I use to-do lists where my first task is always to make the list, sort tasks by priority and impact on my life, and I break big tasks down into smaller tasks so I can visibly see progress I'm making as I make it. I also use Google Calendar, and I sync it with my Samsung phone calendar, which gives me an alarm-style notification any time I have a reminder for an event. Other than that, get meds for any mental illnesses that cause/exacerbate executive dysfunction (I can't get ADHD stimulant meds though cause of medical complications, though that works wonders for some people I know), make sure to take them as consistently as possible, and hope for the best.
All myife I've always been told that i need to specialise in something, but I've always felt like that wasn't for me. This video was very helpful to me, it gave me a new perspective, you could say.
i also realised 2 days ago i think that i'd much rather be a generalist. one of my problems was literally: "oh i don't want to be labeled as this, but i also don't want to be labeled as this" and this solves that problem perfectly by just being both so you're not particularly either one also, i realised that probably a bunch of interesting but seemingly difficult skillsets you can just acquire by using cheap and sometimes even free resources like the internet and your local library. And the funny thing is, when you do it right you're way more engaged with the work that you're doing because u don't have "ugh i wanna go home" in the back of your mind and because you actively choose to practice or to do the skill, it means you're more motivated to do it because it's what you chose instead of someone else telling you that you need to do it, it also makes it more rewarding because you set out do learn something and you did it which builds confidence self studying also avoids bad things like unnecessary/outdated things to learn, and comparing yourself to other students/colleagues's skill level also imagine 2 people person person A (specialist) does programming and person B (generalist) does programming and art. A thinks of themself as a hard-working person B thinks of themself as a lazy person so A gets burnt out after intensely working 2 hours straight and takes a 20 minute break only to think to themselves in that break "i don't want to do it again today, it's too much" and then proceed to throw away their "productive" day that they had planned because B is a lazy person he decides to just do 1 hour of programming and after that he decides to draw for 2 hours because it was so enjoyable he lost track of time, he continues to do some programming of 1 hour after browsing the internet for a bit and decides to make himself a fancy lunch because starting today he's gonna use the cooking techniques and knowledge mentioned in a few of the videos he watched while browsing the internet. person A makes 2 hours worth of progress and goes to bed with a bitter aftertaste which might make him forget it more easily. person B makes 2 hours worth of progress on programming, 2 hours worth of progress making art and is practicing his cooking skills for fun, and he has the rest of the day to do whatever he feels like. now you might say: "huh? you're telling me person A is the hard-working one and B is the lazy one?" my answer remains yes person A views it as work and tries to force his mind to learn stuff while dreading it person B views it as hobbies which are fun, interesting and useful and thinks to himself right after he wakes up "oh boy i wonder what i should do first :D"
Super relatable! Whenever I do something to be "productive" and not because I want to do it, that ironically makes me less productive and wanting to quit doing it because I can't bear it anymore. And that leaves me feeling useless, unproductive and such, because of the mentality that I need to be "productive", "eficient" and those kind of captalist mindset. Now, whenever I do something I want, I find myself spending hours nonstop on something (or multiple things) and, without noticing, made one 200+ page long RPG System, and is in the middle of rewriting it from scratch (now sitting at 100+ pages), while enjoying writing every word of it. For some, that would be a chore, but because I enjoy it and is something I want to do, I do it for hours without noticing.
@@ferlittenI found a 1980's film themed advertisement video recently that portrayed a VR gaming addicted dissatisfied man, envying his neighbor who's productive and very multi-faceted in life. The narrator of the video explains how much people hate when someone tells them what they should do, therefore it's the last thing you'd wanna do to yourself. What you should do instead is conceptualize what you REALLY want to do, TRULY, for the ideal and frankly attractive future of your life. And that's it. You just need that CLARITY. Your body and mind will do the rest. Also to reply to madness_bomb, I also hate it when I get called an "editor" or even "he does editing" lol
My advice would be to skip labels entirely and strive for being skilled at learning and observing specualized things. Mastering learning masters everything that comes to you
This video rocks. I am a huge generalist, and I am working very hard on all my different crafts right now. Learning about writing and philosophy definitely put me on this path, hope to release tons of things in all mediums some day and change the world. Godspeed generalists!
Big generalist here too and proponent of it. Philosophy is becoming my favourite subject now. You can check my playlist titled Philosophy. It has over 120 videos by amazing creators here on RUclips. I am not a great writer but I hope to create some blog talking and mentioning resources (such as these videos) on economics, philosophy, psychology, sociology etc. and their interconnectedness. Godspeed brother. I hope to see your works someday.
Specialists don't exist. Generalists also don't exist. We are all T-shaped people, and the debate sparks entirely from Résumé culture. Also every role in every profession that requires a team (which is all of them) can be boiled down into Tankers, Healers and DPS.
There are people who prefer being generalists and others specialist. But yeah, understanding the T shape of skills and knowledge acquisition is important. And it's a continuous process of improving your main skills and then others or the other way around, depending on how people prefer gain their knowledge.
Specialists tend to be people that learned one thing, then stopped. Making "generalists" superior, simply for the fact that they are more skilled at more things. All in all the terms don't really carry much meaning in themselves. But "specialist" and "expert" tend to describe amateurs and overhyped mediocre people.
@@NukeCloudstalker Not really true. If you truly go balls deep you cant really finish learning a topic. It would be insane level of hubris to think otherwise. Tell me, when exactly have you "finished" music. For instance. Is it when you are a konnakol master? When you surpass Charlie parker improvisation wise? Or when your fugues are at bach level? Or when your songs have the impact bob Dylan had in his generation? Now expand that to all the possible topics. No generalists have their own benefits attached to their inclinations but unless the specialist is truly a lazy fuck or the generalist is some god emperor of man kind level of genius, by necessity the generalist knowledge is always more than a few levels shallower.
This was great! As someone who has a ton of hobbies this made me feel justified. Not that I needed it to keep having fun but it felt good. I hope more people get inspired to start enjoying life actively as opposed to passively.
I don't mind being a Specialist at all. To me, being a Specialist gives me something simple and focused to strive being the best that I can be in a particular field. Being a Generalist is valuable, but to me, I always knew what I wanted to do very early in my life, so it never really made me look outside of my own viewpoint. This video is an interesting watch!
Yes, we totally need both kinds. The issue is, there's no great way to quantify the degrees and contributions of the generalist. And neither are there many jobs that appreciate them and pay them accordingly. Like let's say you're in field X where you started learning from 1 and the best can be 10 on that scale. As you do your degree, masters, job, 5 years experience, 15 years experience, on that scale, you keep going up from 5, 6, 7, 8 and so on. But if I know somewhat about a 100 topics (but more than most), I don't think a company fully understands how to quantify the skill levels on that same scale or if it's even a requirement for them.
Thank you. this, sorta unrelated to the direct contents of the video itself, helped me realize something. i draw as a hobby, i occasionally game, i occasionally write but overwhelmingly my hobby is drawing i like to use spreadsheets and roll charts to help with ideas and such too but recently ive felt burnt out and weird and... this made me truly sit and think to myself, think about my projects and my goals and my spreadsheets and such and go "... is this why we started?" is this why i started drawing? to sit and slam my head against spreadsheet formulas and goals of grandiose writing and trying to express some burning core of me? is that why it was fun? and well... no. i started drawing since before i can remember and it was... because i was bored. it was for fun- no spreadsheets, no roll charts, no projects, no goals id doodle away on my paper for hours and have a blast- and this helped me remember that- i think im gonna go draw something now. and probably put another one of these videos on in the background. Thank you.
A wizard. Wizards are scholars of systems of power. Could be chemistry. Could be martial combat. Could be botany. Could be sociopolitics/social engineering. And is often as many as the wizard can assimilate. Are you a wizard, Harry? Learn some systems of power. Be a wizard.
I'm only 12 minutes into this video and it's honestly very captivating and inspiring. I never considered myself a generalist because since childhood I have spent so much time on game development as a skill, but as I watch this I'm realizing I have this ability to learn new things fast. I remember trying many new things and quickly becoming better then others, but never becoming the best at anything and looked at it as a failure. Thanks for changing my views on that.
Yeah mate, it's difficult getting a job with our limited knowledge on 100 topics, since the world is getting more and more specialised. That makes us feel like a failure. And trust me, a lot of people will tell you. Because people don't like when you are not walking the same trodden path as them. But trust me, if you can find the right kind of business/job, all those things we know are gonna come in real handy. You can be a one man show. I mean, everyone can benefit by understanding their own and other's psychology and personal finance and marketing themselves or their products. Like in your case, your game.
I want to expand on your point about specialization vs generalization. I agree with your point but usually those people that make a living doing many things... Usually those people started by getting renown by doing one thing. There's a balance to things. Specialize forever on one thing only and you'll lock yourself forever. Try to learn and do everything and you'll be less likely to grasp the amount of things you'll likely want to learn. I think is best to have 1 or 2 things that you're known for, but also always look to learn new things. Using myself as an example. I'm an architect by profession. That's what I graduated, that's what I (for now) pay the bills with. But I'm also a concept artist. I like to design environments I'd love to see in a videogame one day. But I also know about 3D modelling for 3D printing and done a few designs myself. I've also dabbled into game dev and game art and have done stylized game ready assets and I once programmed a prototype on Godot just to experiment. I also make characters sometimes. But my main focus is architecture and concept art. So yeah, don't get stuck into doing one thing and only one thing. Yet don't try to do eeeeeeverything right out of the gate.
Architect here as well. The design fields are wild. Anyone from any arts and design field, can go into another. At least, that's what I've witnessed. I think only 1/4th of batchmates are practicing architecture. Some are UI/UX, some in experiential design such as that of mall/retail or expos. Some are in different types of product design. And some do interior design or construction management or photography or digital art or graphic design or 3D rendering.
Thank you for this video. I really needed someone to remind me of the conclusions, you also reached. It seems that as people, we tend to forget our old life lessons due to the constant need for change and 'optimization.' This, at least for me, often leads to a point where I end up making the same mistakes for which I had already found solutions. Thank you once again. EDIT: Remainded and clarify. A lot of new for me, great points.
While its true being a generalist is generally good, the idea of limiting scope to one a few things at any guven time is still valid. Getting very good at one thing like the fantasy writers with history then opened up doors for them that likely wouldnt be available had they spread their focus between many different skills at once. You become a good generalist by being a specialist in a few things over a long time, and specialisation allows that to happen.
Contrived premise; specialist are not who _"focus their whole life on drawing, and nothing else."_ It's silly. Specialist is not a dichotomy. Not a binary.
@@CFlandre If we talking realistically then yes. If we're talking about situations stripped of context nuance and details to the state at which they cater to your points then sure pop off my g.
That first segment really hit me. I’ll get a massive wave of motivation anytime I start a new job or project, or start a new skill. I feel that I can learn the basics of a new skillset much faster than the average person even; unfortunately, I also begin to plateau and lose interest much faster than the average person would. Idk what type of job field involves doing a huge variety of slightly challenging tasks, but I think it’d be the perfect one for me.
In my experience, many specialists don't know shit of what they are doing, because they don't see how their work impacts other aspects. It is true for doctora that specialize too much and then never study again. I can't wait until AI assisted medicine helps them with their current knowledge. Study for specialization=/= knowing how things work. For example, many economists don't know shit about how economy actually works, they have never had a successful company and just repeat ideologies that have 0 evidence...
Legendary video! I can totally relate to doing 50 hours a week of office work. I left there and now have more time to spend on learning new skills and investing in better things. Instead of working 50 hours a week and earning the minimum wage, I was the person everyone dumped their work on because I know too much and am much faster and more skilled than all of them.
God, there are SO many issues of the whole idea of specialists being the best for ANY job really. I mean let's assume for fun, there was an actual specialist tennis players, who specialises in serving. Now have him play a match against Rafael Nadal, just for fun. Maybe Specials serves are so good, Nadal only manages to receive 10% of them, cool. But if Special really is a true specialist, he's pretty bad at any other part of the game. Meaning every serve he makes that Nadal receives properly is automatically a point for Nadal. Every serve Nadal does also is automatically a point for Nadal. Does anyone really believe, there is any chance Special is EVER gonna be higher ranked as a player than Nadal at all, assuming Nadal was still actively playing? The reason why companies want specialists is pretty simple. Well, actually it's two-fold. First of all, they don't, they want what in German is called "Eierlegende Wollmilchsau" - they want a generelist who is also a specialist in EVERYTHING at the same time, preferably for free. Second, a specialist is way easier to control than a generalist. A specialist might come up with an idea that branches out of his area of super-expertise, you tell him that part out of his super-expertise wouldn't work, and that's that - and companies love to pull the "but we've always done it that way"-card. Try doing that with a generalist, that's even the START of that conversation. You better be prepared to actually EXPLAIN with actual ARGUMENTS/PROOF why that wouldn't work, because the generalist knows enough about that other thing to doubt that claim until you provide arguments why that would be. And even if you manage to do that, he may already have a plan B or C in mind, or come up with a solution on the fly to your pointed out flaw in his idea. And let's be honest, at a certain level, management is full of people who "specialise" in corporate bullshit bingo speedrunning and quoting their business-whatever-professor while believing they actually know jack about anythign that happens below management level - when actually every 2 month intern knows more about 90% of the process than the management level combined. So people who actually KNOW they are talking crap are pretty uncomfortable for them, obviously.
Haha, this is exactly what was happening at the construction company I was working at. As a generalists and disruptor, I questioned all their methods and told them I have a better and more efficient way. And I, a near fresher was telling this to all HODs. Many were quite sceptical and reluctant. But they saw the results and from then on, I was only working with the HODs. And they were coming with their problems to me. I created a few systems on Excel and some combinations and they were still in use long after I left.
As a management / entrepreneurship undergrad major, I think you are totally right! The currrent model of economic society has helped through specialization to advance human technology. And nowadays it does only thing: Underlining more and morre how important the newer models of emotional intellience leading and individual work place environment creation
Hello, Scrit! I still remember your first video. I was so glad that RUclips recommended it to me. Been watching you quietly, ever since. But, this video really affected me, so I wanted to say something. Thanks for making this. I know it probably wasn't intended to make my thoughts go in this direction, however, as a fellow content creator, I keep being told to 'niche down' and I didn't want to paint myself into a corner by getting bored or running out of things to say. I didn't have the vocabulary to express how I was feeling. Now, I understand that what I've been trying to say is that I don't want to be a specialist. I want to be a generalist and be allowed to explore all corners of my chosen world. Getting to where I want to go may take longer. We know how the algorithm is. But, people are still finding, watching and subscribing to me, so it shows me that there isn't just one right way to do things; not just one way to live. So, thanks for inspiring me, Scrit, as one writer to another! Hope you have a great day! ((o(^^)o))
So, I do agree with you to an extent, most people will naturally drift to the "generalist" direction because in general a lot of people get bored very easily doing the same thing over and over. I will say though, that many artists fall into the opposite category though. I know writers who would could write all day every day, I know musicians who could practice and play music all day everyday, or painters who if given the chance would happily just spend all day painting. The people who made Samurai swords honed that craft their entire lives, and were often very fulfilled in doing so. If you are one of these people, then trying to take the generalist path will often prevent you from ever realizing your true potential in that art. And, the caveat to that is when it comes to getting hired, people don't want to hire someone who is generally good at most things. If I'm working on a game and I need an animator for a project. I'm it makes no sense to hire someone who "can" animate over someone who "only" animates. The master animator will also deliver better results faster most of the time, while also doing something they find fulfilling. I think being a generalist is fine if you want to make casual content at your own leisure at your own comfort. However when it comes to solving anything serious, that's when the specialist becomes invaluable every-time. If your car breaks down, or your online multiplayer servers go down, or the plumbing fails. You want the specialist mechanic, or Server Maintenance guy, or Plumber guy for these things, and that has nothing to do with economics or human behavior, simply a matter of wanting the best person for the job when it matters most - But, again, I like the points you make, and I think you have many good ones, keep it up bro -
I fully agree! THIS is the most balanced and accurate perspective one can have imo. I am trying to get in a purely mathematics and statistics based university next year. I am planning on becoming a mathematician so I guess I'll be a specialist. But here's the kicker tho. Im VERY good at LEARNING physics. Im very good at LEARNING computer science. Same for art, instruments, and for public speaking and general knowledge Im already fairly confident in those. I am a total beginner in programming languages. But if Id wanted to Id have made my career in that instead because, well, I couldve. All my teachers throughout High school recommended me different paths, from chemistry teacher suggesting chem engineering to physics teacher recommending astrophysics to english teacher recommending I start writing youtubing public speaking anything. So am I REALLY a specialist if the learning curve for any skill is never too steep for me? I'd guess not. But my core love is and always will be mathematics. I will always be a specialist in maths no matter what. But in case I need another side hustle, I know I'll be able to learn a few programming languages in a few months each and find a small placement. Stuff like that. I think Im a learning specialist. Because mind you. My coding rn is DOGWATER. Same with my economics, psychology is decent, but physics and astronomy and all are really weak. Thats where I fail as a generalist. But if I'd ever need to know those fields, I will. And thats all I need realistically speaking. So yeah I take pride in being a proud specialist!!! I'll end my yap session here. I tried my absolute best to be as boastful and pretentious as possible I hope I did well in that department.
@TheRoyalSkies I can definitely understand some of your points. There are indeed artists who are comfortable with just the one medium they specialized in and would do just that all day if they could. And when the chips are down when it does come to something serious to things like you said it would probably be better to bring in the certified, experienced specialist than not. However I would disagree, when it comes to art at least, that choosing the generalist path would prevent you from realizing your potential in a specific art. For all the artists that love to do just their one chosen art and do great at just that, there has been plenty throughout history that have excelled in multiple arts. There have been novelists who were not only great at novels but also paintings, and painters who were not only great at painting but also poetry, and poets who were also really good at music (i.e. Rabinadrath Tagore, Goethe, Michaelangelo, etc). So with the arts anyway, you can seriously master more than one.
Being good at something doesn't mean you are a specialist. This is probably mostly bc of the examples used but if my car breaks down I would just need someone who knows how to fix it (plus most problems do not require very specialized people to solve) same stuff for the other examples and that's really usually the case, doubt many people with phd's work at a car shop or maintain game servers. With your point about hiring an animator Simone Giertz had a good quote in this vain "It's a lot better to hire smart people to learn than to hire stupid people to do something they already know how to do" plus you are kinda under the assumption that one, that person does find it fulfilling which they might not and second that they are a specialist. I highly doubt you need actual specialists unless you are planning on making the next biggest particle accelarator or something in those lines. I am not good at writing and I imagine I was just arguing semantics so apologies for that.
"Generalist" doesn't mean "every task in the world". A specialist is still a generalist in adjacent fields. You need a good foundation in order to become good at a specific thing. The illustrator who works on creating medical textbooks needs to have a similar competency in anatomy as a generalized doctor. The painter painting landscapes needs to know perspective and lighting just as well as the 3d modeler doing renders for a movie studio. The musician knows how to play on more instruments than just a 1987 Stratocaster. Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings (and the Silmarillion) as an excuse to make up fantasy languages because his obsession was the history of languages and how they develop. In order to realistically animate a car, you need a general knowledge of how a car works. An animator who only knows how to animate but doesn't understand how a car works likely won't give you good results compared to the one who also works on their own car - even if they aren't as good an animator. I have a saying that I've developed over the years: "Scratch an artist and you'll find a student of many subjects." Many (most) artists would absolutely spend every day doing their chosen field, but I bet they enjoy working on a variety of subject matters in their art rather than, say, drawing daisies for 10 years straight. And that's what they really mean by "generalist" - a person who has interests in different subjects and has combined those experiences to result in something else. The painter who likes to travel, the musician who plays a 250 year-old pipe organ just as well as a synthesizer, the former game dev who makes V-Tuber rigs. All masters in their own specific niche, but whose lives are richer from the breadth of their experiences.
I love to learn new things. I always have. So I've filled my brain with so much knowledge on all these subjects I'll never use, and not nearly enough to actually apply that knowledge in the specific field. I've been trying to reel this in, and focus it more onto things I need, but I don't stop learning other things just because I won't use them. They're still fun and interesting things, and the process of researching something to find out what's true is honestly really fun to me. This video is incredible, and I'm always glad to find someone who sees things in either the same way or a better way than I do.
It's both a bane and boon. I feel your enthusiasm. Learning/trying new things is incredibly fun and satisfies some primal need within me. I live for it. Issue is, most of us might know more than the average person but not so much to get a job. In fact, we might not even want a job in many of those fields. Like, I'm good with tech and computers. Do a lot of troubleshooting and you know, downloading pirated stuff back in the days. Cracking etc. But I've always thought that it was a means to an end; the end being able to play a game or use a software. But when I was offered an IT admin job, I didn't want to do that full time. Stuff like installing softwares etc on hundred laptops. I don't care for that.
I am in a similar boat but there have been quite a few times these random bits of information have found proper use, perhaps just trying to be in more environments where there isn't an already established person to do a specific task could make your general knowledge shine.
As an Economics/Quantitative Data Analytics major I love how you hit the nail on the head about the flaw in the economic models most people use for optimization. Shit is efficient but also mind numbingly terrible, you captured the vibe that comes when labors connection to their creations are fragmented for the sake of efficiency. I don't know if you were a economics major or something adjacent but it brings me a bit of joy that the field is finally starting to move towards questioning the consequences of these models.
I'm surprised nobody else said this yet but the use of the Danganronpa soundtrack when talking about specialists is actually so well thought out. I appreciate the symbolism. Loved the video, can't wait to see more! :)
Thankyou to everyone bringing an highlighting these beautifully articulated points, enjoyed the comment section too, good community here you've built up love to be apart of it.
2:45 No, people did not feel like you building cars. They saw what they were building, they saw people driving those cars. Cars were new, they saw themselves building the future of mankind. They were proud, enthusiast and had a visual impact on the world.
Sure, the workers on a cellphone assembly line feel exactly how you say. They are on the razors edge of technology, building the future of mankind, surely that trumps any wish of gouging their eyes out with a spoon after hours of monotonous work.
@@germanulrich Nah, phones are already old now. And they are Chinese slaves. Workers in the old USA got to be in town and jazz with the ladies after work. They had homes cheaper than we'd ever dream of. Those were different times. Nowadays, we work like mules for a half the prize. Shit job workers had home, homie. We engineers and high productivity powertool experts will never be able to afford a home of our own until we're too old to benefit from it.
@tsunamio7750 you really think that all factory workers were just living it up back then? Labor laws were also different back then, as were safety regulations. Not to mention the fact that anything gets old I'd you do it enough, even if you really do just love cars, you could only do the same assembly line job for so long without getting at least a bit bored of the monotony
I always considered myself a generalist. I like to do a lot of things and I kinda lack focus. The constant rotation of interests keep them fresh and exciting to work on everytime. For a lot of time i envied my specialist friends. They are good, like really good, at what they focus on. On the flip side I can have a conversation with them all and understand everything they talk about. And this is great! I acquire new information everytime and I know a lot more everytime. I also think that the sum of our skill is the most important day to day. Also skills scale logarithmically, is easier to gain proficiency in one skill at the begginer stage than in the expert stage.
That's why knowing the basics or being at an intermediate level is awesome. You get what the experts say. And what an expert says is 10-20-30 years of experience and knowledge culminating into a few minutes of conversation. It's like gold.
As a programmer, an artist and a musician, I felt happy to hear you say "could also be an amazing game dev" as I started working on my indie game a few month ago. By the way "game dev" is a very "generalist" skill, since, for a solo dev, you need to be able to : - code - make music - make 3D assets - make materials/2D art - animate - actualy create interesting gameplay (game design) - write (for story) And I'm sure I'm missing some
there are people who just do not want to speciallice in anything, unmotivated people caring for nothing but their own hedonism unwilling to put the extra effort into anything, people who see any kind of work as a chore regardless of the task, people who enjoy the comfort and security of predictable monotony. people who can shut down their mind while their muscle memory works like automatons dumbasses complaining that all they do is tigthen screws for 8 hours straight don't know how good they have it
Lovely video and take on the topic! This is one of the main things I liked about Aristotle's philosophy (that fulfillment comes from doing things for their own sake) over Plato (who heavily believed in specialization and thought the best citizen is one that masters their craft and does nothing but their craft) Though I like Plato's perspective on a bunch of things, this is one I always had a gut feeling opposing it
Wow another video about generalist having both inferiority and superiority complex I’m not a specialist by any means but I feel like there’s just this trend going around of demoralizing a group of people for no reason Tell me do you even know the stat of how much specialist and generalist there are in society? Cause if we go by your definition that a generalist only master one thing and have absolutely no skill or no joy in THOUSANDS of other fields, then that would take up like less than 10% of the population. You are the 90% that constantly demoralizing the 10%, and tell me when was the last time you see any specialist making all these stupid quotes about generalists? All I’m seeing is generalist crying wolf about a problem that don’t exist to make themselves look better Most of the time people will always be generalist that is specialist in one field or maybe more. There is rarely a 100% generalist or specialist aka your so called "master of one" and "master of none"
I don’t believe the goal of the video was to demoralize anyone. Nobody said anything bad about specialists. I feel you’re taking the title to an extreme and disturbing the contents of the video in bad faith.
My main point is that there are no true specialists and that the concept of specialization is an unachievable ideal which does not account for human emotion and thought. We are all generalists even if we might exceed at one or two tasks. The closer I've seen someone become to a specialist, the more miserable they seem to be in my eyes. I doubt me 'demoralizing' the specialists is the reason they are not happy with their lives.
@@ScritRighterhonestly I did enjoy the video, but I did have a couple things I'd disagree with. First that having less free time was caused by more specialized economic models, which I'd say is just a correlation not a causation, since the economic changes have caused both but there could potentially also be a specialist society with more free time (especially considering improvements in automation and machine learning). The other thing is that the terms specialist/generalist and the discourse around them get quite polarizing without enough nuance, as humans are quite complex. From my pov it is a great idea to be curious and branch out, though the original comment does bring up a valid criticism of people deluding themselves they're a generalist as an excuse to not commit to anything in particular. The point of breadth of knowledge is indeed a great one tho and even in scientific research very often is a key factor for new discoveries, as well as considering the human life only getting longer it helps to have more things to learn so I'd also agree there that branching out is great for that too. For me I would say that everything has an exciting story behind it, if only we are able to look past the surface.
remembering the 20-80 rule is actually really encouraging as someone who has a lot of project ideas but needs to learn a lot of things to even try making some of them... I particularly want to learn 3D modeling and animation.
In order to be a true master at something, you have to be good at one thing and know the basics of everything around it. The most important part is the surrounding supporting information because it is the key to problem solving and creativity.
Agree with most of what your saying. Perhaps the best generalist though are those who temporarily become specialists or chose a specialty that broadens them into many things more efficiently. As a smart dead samurai once said, "From one thing, know ten thousand things". But maybe this was the point you were making. Either way, I had a good time.
Nice video, makes a lot of sense and I have similar views. That said, I think specialization is a way to generalization. Get good at sth but look at the bigger picture, see all the puzzle pieces and how they connect. Also, being the go to guy/gal for some type of work can make you more appreciated with your peers. Then again, lack of generality can bottleneck/limit your speciality.
Im a generalist, I have been called encyclopedia or Wiki before... cuz just about any subject, I have at least a basic knowledge on it. And I tell ya, yeah individually that's great, but we do need specialists too. Both are important in the great scheme of things.
we find ourselves in front of tasks requiring specialized skills very few times in our lives. we can fix so many things with just basic/intermediate knowledge
A kind of mantra I like to repeat to myself when starting a new thing is "Let yourself be a beginner" To remind myself that I have to take the steps to learn and have fun before I can judge myself for being bad at an obviously new skill.
When I started working delivery, I made a choice which changed my life. Instead of listening to music as I drove, I decided I was going to listen to an educational podcast and finally learn how to invest. Learning about investing wasn’t life changing, but the habit of learning while I worked was. 5 years later and I have become someone who learns for fun. To the point where I get bored with standard entertainment. I’m an addictive learner. This has manifested in a sort of self cross-training in every job I’ve worked. I ask, I investigate, I try things out and I’m good at it. Give yourself a learning habit, make it fun. It will change your life. Become a jack of all trades, master of many.
Really nicely done. A good thought exercise. Would have liked to see hpw you make that framework fit for fundamental science/medical research and development. The same arguments could be used, but the level of specialisation and time required becomes a lot higher than for many of the examples used
I work in animation, film, game design, etc... Despite multiple strikes and crises the last few years I've been able to jump between industries with relative ease and stay employed with a decent salary. I call my specialization Technical Animation or Technical Art on my resume but in reality I do whatever I need to do. No need to put myself in a little box and wait until I die for a perfect job to come along. I'll fit whatever is available with a weekend of work and a new resume.
It is funny how most companies require you to categorize yourself with a specialization, only to cross train and make sure you know how to do other people's jobs too.
Generalist, here! It is so true that generalists use prior knowledge to help them learn new things! My mom always reminded me that “a jack of all trades is a master of none,” but I always realized she was wrong. I became a musician & music teacher, but I did not remain with a particular specialization. By the time I graduated high school, I played violin, double bass, recorder, and bassoon, and I learned all the instrument transpositions. Went to college on scholarships in band & orchestra, and I doubled on instruments in the pit during operas & musicals. I took lessons on all my instruments, and they made me learn piano. After college, I took up the viola & cello, and I later became an orchestra director, so I had to get familiar with trumpet, French horn, trombone, tuba, percussion, flute, and clarinet. Soon, I’ll learn the oboe. While it’s true I did not “master” most of those instruments, at 63 years old, I’m a pretty good player & I know how to teach them. In particular, I use math, science, language, and music to understand everything better, and it helps me teach them better!
17:15 As for the David Goggins example, he's not a specialist either, he doesn't solely focus on running. He always searches for new challenges i.e. smoke jumping, EMT,...
I tend to get burnt out on individual tasks quicker than most. My soul is filled with an ever present wanderlust that calls on me to keep moving. Dont like staying in one place for too long, dont like doing the same thing for too long. I MUST be breaking up the monotony of my life else my depression claws at my mind and fills me with this feeling of being stuck and wasting time. Thus I am a generalist of sorts. Im an artist but Im an artist in many ways. The degree im working towards is called Collaborative Media so i've taken classes on commercial design, typography, photography, videography, photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, layout, 3D modeling, web design, previsualization, and many more. I draw, write, and also know a bit of metal and wood working. If its an art or craft, i take interest. Granted i havent retained everything I've learned but this degree has been wildly helpful in letting me know what kinds of things i actually want to do with my life for a career. Photography is fun and depending on the kind, can keep me moving. Concept Illustration is something i do for myself for fun anyway, it pays well, and that money would give me the opportunity to do other things i find joy in. Travel, hobbies, etc.
12:43 hit man, I'm an artist, programmer and musician hoping to make their first full indie game. I actually teach game development and worked a few jobs in the industry but still owe it to myself to build something of my own.
Oh my god i've 1000% thought about this. Anyone doing 1 tiny specific task over and over will become more efficient at it, but it will get so boring, but if you're doing everything you can't get efficient at anything and the task doesn't get done. one is more enjoyable, the other is more useful. no way around it seemingly :/
Very interesting video. At first I thought about video games, especially class based video games, but even then I feel like this tend to apply when I think about it. Let's say someone is playing a Rogue in World of Warcraft. Assassin or something, IDK. You'd think that they only need to know how the Rogue works in whatever content they're running, and you can get decently far wtih just that. But if you apply that thinking to everyone in the raid, you get a bunch of people incapable of adjusting to make everyone else's jobs easier as well. If the Rogue player also knows the basics of how tanking and healing works in said content, they can adjust their choices to also help them be more effective or efficient. My impression is that a lot of mid level raiders (in lots of MMOs really, not just WoW) don't really have this broad understanding and rely on a few people directing the whole show. So you end up with people specialized in making everyone play more like generalists.
10:25 this teaching method of learning is very effective. I use it all the time with martial arts and it has made me significantly better at both martial arts, and teaching them. It's also part of the reason some schools require their higher ranking students to assist in classes, or teach forms and techniques. Also, it helps the main instructors with the workload XD
I'm a programmer, and I've straight up told my boss that I don't want to do 100% programming, but would rather take care of IT tasks as they come; mostly programming, sometimes data entry, sometimes whatever else needs done on a computer. My personal goal, and my recommendation for everyone else, at least in any subject I can speak on with some degree of experience behind it: Jack of all trades, master of one.
I haven't done a lot of office jobs. I hate specialized repetitive, menial work. But the only times I've done great is when I had to the freedom to work like you mentioned. Working with different departments, contributing my expertise. Furthering my knowledge about those departments, which helped me working with even more departments.
Very interesting topic that I hadn't particularly considered before. Of course, I've heard the saying about jack of all trades, but I hadn't given it much thought. Also, loved the anime scenes you've included. I recognized most of them, but there were a few that looked familiar but I couldn't place. Personally, I would find it useful if you could list all the anime that appear in the video(in the description) so I can look them up. I know that the video wasn't exclusively anime but I said 'personally' which means those are the only scenes I'd particularly care to look into further and potentially watch. If it would be too much extra trouble, I completely understand. It's just a selfish suggestion. Thanks for the interesting perspective on Generalists vs Specialists!
As someone who is decent in a large number of things, one key that not many people know is that knowing other things is useful to understand some things. As an example, I'm not a specialist on any of these but being good at math helped me become good at physics which helped me greatly in understanding chemistry which in turn helped me understand biology. Thanks to this I got "great results" (according to my GF, although I see my grades as not that awesome but that's besides). Then my background in maths and logic and I kid you not, philosophy helped me be better at programming. Programming is literally just maths! I swear! If you know your math everything suddenly makes sense. I got a couple of awards during my first year of college (Computer Science) even though I was stunted by very deep depression. Some people may tell you what you're doing is useless but you never know what use that knowledge may provide you with. This is exactly the reason why multi-specialty science teams are getting increasingly more common. Biologists working with coders, phycisists and economists, etc. Because having them on the team can provide you with new perspectives that may help you solve problems in ways you would've never imagined. So in conclusion, just do shit and you'll see how it opens doors for you in unexpected places.
Your entire maths -> physics -> chemistry -> biology trajectory pretty much sums up the last decade of my life. Also, being good at maths, physics and chemistry shares one thing: you need to be good at being VERY clear about specifics you make, and especially maths also has you think of and consider thei weirdest, dumbest, most random fringe cases possible - and both things are REALLY helpful if you are trying to get into programming.
if i had been RPG specialist, i would neverhave got a 100% completion on The Messenger, or Super Blood Hockey, but i am a retro-gamer generalist, with specilized passions for styles. Likewise,having got my 1st degree as an analyst programmer, then one in litterature, and learning music all my life on the side, drawing all my life, i amassed the skills to build a small indie game for a personal project. I'll be working on this this year
![Eminem - Fuel (feat. JID) [Official Lyric Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/t5H_CewqpKA/mqdefault.jpg)
Hello, I'm the original creator 👋hehehe
It's so nice to see I've sparked more interest in this topic and seeing other creators' perspectives. I've watched the video and here are my thoughts:
- Taking this on from an economist's perspective is really interesting. Trying to make sense of human emotions in their scale of work in economics is an abstract that I really hope we can build upon.
- You've clarified OBT which I've covered in my video in a more concise manner with the 80/20 rule 👍
- You've made great examples of generalists with writers & artists, something that I may have missed out on my video 👏
- The sense of accomplishment and purpose as an incentive for people to work so that they can enjoy what they're doing, instead of working because they only want the outcome (i.e. monetary value, prestige, etc). Very good.
Overall a breath of fresh air in perspective. Really solid video, 10/10.
This is against the rules. You two made a video on the same topic. You need to argue like elementary school children in 2 hour long video essays. Fulfill your youtube terms and start the war.
In medieval era Catholic Church had a Holiday every 3rd day and that day was off, plus Sundays where always off, plus Eastern and Christmas.
I LOVE seeing small creators working off each other mutually🎉
🤜🤛
if i had been RPG specialist, i would neverhave got a 100% completion on The Messenger, or Super Blood Hockey, but i am a retro-ghamer generalist, with specilized passions for styles. Likewise,having got my 1st degree as an analyst programmer, then one in litterature, and learning music all my life on the side, drawing all my life, i amassed the skills to build a small indie game for a personal project. I'll be working on this this year
the first 7 minutes about specialisation absolute snore didnt need to be in there
Don’t be a generalist or a specialist. Be terrible at everything and rely on everyone else to do work for you.
Stop giving away Billionaire secrets.
Lazy smartasses basically
Wahhh😮 a politician...
Though, you are slightly wrong. They are master bullshitters!
real
You don't need to learn anything, just to manipulate people to do things for you lol
Specialize in learning, generalize in subject selection.
Great advice! Learn efficiently is the best skill in modern era.
This. One of the greatest advantages i had against my peers in any situation was my ability to adapt and learn quicker than them.
Adapt or die, learn or die
what if you end up knowing a lot but not being able to do jackshit
@@Anomalocringe You can still be a teacher, consultant or coach.
Instructions unclear: I am now good at conjuration and manipulation
Shit, not another one.
WITCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
were learning nen with this one 🗣🔥
gotta take advantage of this
Funnily enough that would make your category specialist.
"No one is a true specialist."
Counter argument: No one is a true generalist.
True. What I understand is that a specialist would be hyper-skilled in 1 task and completely unskilled in others as if he'd never done them or trained on them.
A generalist would be equally good at every single task he's ever come across.
We don't give all our time to the same task, nor do we give all our tasks the same time. Over the course of life, we happen to lean into 1 task more than others due to having to choose at least SOMETHING, since "life is short", but we also don't only choose that 1 thing because "life is too long" (or rather the perception of time gets too long due to mundanity).
One could say that the realistic definition of a Specialist is one who efficienty utilises all sub-experiences for enhancing his Primary experience/task, which is what the video also describes when mentioning "the best professionals".
Sort of just thinking out loud lol.
*Flip the table:* using the extreme end of a word is unproductive. *Meta:* You can't be a generalist because you'll specialize in being a generalist."
This is the only truth I believe in. People like to believe their lives are monotonous and classified. I Master in some aspects, but I also know other aspects that I'm bad or average, that's no JOAT
We can’t help but to be generalists bc that’s the only way we master tasks, and things.
Yes, it is a scale. You can't either specialise in absolutely one thing or be okay at everything, but you can be somewhere closer to one or another
People usually forget the last part of the saying. It's "A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one" and the last part is often so damn true
As it was put to me by my foreman:
"How often do we need a master? How often do we need a floater?"
indeed
almost as if people know sth they can do it
"Jack of all trades master of none, still better then a fool who only knows one"
Was the version I had heard
@@trolorgames best version of the quote i have heard.
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
― Robert A. Heinlein
Yes yes. That was beautiful!
that last part is what makes this makes sense
One of my favorite quotes! Thank you for this!
I find the idea of “generalist RUclipsrs” very interesting. I would say a good example of this would be vsauce. He covers a wide range of interesting topics about science, math, psychology, and basically anything. He’s been on RUclips for many years and he’ll never run out of ideas because of the broad area of topics he covers in his channel.
Yeah Vsauce is pretty much a 'did you know' or 'learning' type of channel.
Vsauce is awesome
a Legend !!!
Austin McConnell is another great example too.
That's how I aspire to be but I don't want to create videos. Blogposts maybe, but I don't know how many people are reading blogs these days. About macroeconomics, the stock market, psychology, philosophy, tech etc.
i think creative people have a lot of trouble being "specialists" anyway. inevitably, my mind will drift off to all the other things i could or wanna do.
Well im a veterinarian i work with small animals (dogs and cats) ive 2 specializations anesthesia and image (Ultrassound, radiology, endoscospy etc), yet im a generalist, i know and have experience in every aspect. Clinic, surgery, intensivism, management and administration, wild animals and soo on.
My job now its kinda teach ppl how to work haha, and be paid to close the diagnostic.
FR
@@ArantyrDarkhand mad respect but i was talking abt more creative fields haha, sorry for not being more clear about it
I dont know what to do for years and that s my curse
i honestly find the idea dread inducing. but that means i have no place in society. when i went to college i was immediately bored since i learnt all the curriculum by accident in hs through youtube. i'd spend 2 or 3 hours on an essay an get a c or b grade while others in my class had to spend a week on the assignments. since i branched out an self taught a wide array of subject i just seemed to get things more an i hated how slow pace everything was, at the height we had an assignment a week when i knew i could do two...
On an individual basis, it is better to be a generalist.
On a societal basis, you want to have specialists.
I like where you're going here. After all, one of the big deals about the agricultural revolution (back in the Stone Age) was that food surpluses gave people the opportunity to develop specialists. This trend is still going strong.
@@hoi-polloi1863 Ants are fascinating colony organisms with morphological specialization, and humans have behaviour specialization.
Unless you're in a leadership position. If you're good at leading, you don't need to know everything, just enough to understand the feedback and issues your specialized team is facing, since most of the time you're dealing with people with different specializations .
@@ambrosiogiovanni6952 A leader is of no use without followers.
As a jack of all trades, I never burn out... nor sleep💀
But boy is it worth it...cuz I'm a student who can't hire/ commission other people.💀
You should at least sleep.
@@ScritRighter
Oh, I was just joking but thanks, stay healthy.👍
@@RunaCluster you’re a 14 year old that thinks this is funny. You should have the same thing happen to you but I don’t want you to blow ur noodles out
@@ScritRighterNEVER SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK
@@PennyEvolus Nah, I'd sleep
“The Jack of all trades is master of none, but oftentimes better than the master of one”
The original saying actually understood this concept but we just decided to chop off the last half
We do that with a lot of idioms
"Curiosity killed the cat-
-but satisfaction brought it back"
"Blood-" of the covenant "-is thicker than water "of the womb"
And it's strange that these chopping of idioms creates the exact opposite of their intended meaning.
This guy is so wrong about, at least, half of the nonsense he's spewing
It's not the original saying. This is Shakespeare's twist on the original saying
Same as "The customer is always right in matters of taste."
Inconveniently intelligent.
Jack of all trades main weakness is multitasking. Kinda like in video games logic where jack of all trades' power scale were pretty much half-assed than the specialists.
Example:
A. Jack of all trades:
Attack: 50
Strength: 50
Intelligence: 50
B. Specialist:
Attack: Either 100/anything
Strength: Either 100/anything
Intelligence: Either 100/anything
Me dealing more damage because of soft caps at level 50 and my weapon scaling with Strength and Intelligence.
I think the generalist is the guy that will surpass the XP limit and be 100/100 on every stat. The develop of the character will be slower, but the result will be much stronger.
@@nasfoda_gamerbrbigproducti5375Well most generalists in real life don't even hit the level cap.
@@justanub4697 Some generalists that hit the level cap, somehow:
Attack: 90
Strength: 90
Intelligence: 90
If we were to translate this analogy into a MOBA or Party RPG, the Jack of all Trades would be the Support/Roamer role or the Warlock class from DnD/WoW games. Jack of all trades have the unique ability to explore, experiment, and pioneer to make better versions of themselves aka 'specialists'. Generalists are supposed to lead, manage, control specialists. 1v1 a specialist can beat a generalist any day. But a Generalist beats all specialists on a strategic level in the long run. Problem is that the global order incentivises specialists obviously because of the meta, specialists suck as leaders.
"We will never find one singular thing that we will enjoy day in and day out"
- Hold my autism
Autism helps with focus? 😮
@@danlightened Well, yes. But you aren't the one in charge. The thing that you hyperfixate on is chosen for you. You will not look away. It's 3 am. Nothing else matters.
wait that's autism? maybe I am. I need to check
@@aiacfrosti1772 Isn't that like ADHD? I have ADHD and I totally hyper fixate on random stuff, even though my life maybe dumpser fire. Maybe I have AuDHD.
This just makes me reflect: I’m on my first job rn, KFC cook, and these lazy-ass people on customer service do nothing. They don’t clean dishes, they don’t change bins and they don’t do maintenance despite having ample free time (between serving customers). And then you have me, who is constantly cooking chicken then rotating it and cleaning the kitchen:
“Hey, manager, I finished all my jobs.”
The manager: “Ok, cool. Clean the dishes, change the bins, do maintenance.” That’s why I don’t tell the managers I finished my jobs anymore. 😅
Oh damn, have you considered switching jobs , or this is just a part time unsure because you said its your first job but idk how long you worked
@@Deleted-User12535 It’s a casual-job and, yeah, my very first. I’d actually consider it a good first job because it’s made me much more resilient and patient, plus I’ve learnt how to socialise better (there are lots of people I like there, despite how angry my comment is). I’ll be finding a new job soon though, for sure.
It's great how menager wanting to make work more effective (by giving extra tasks for the same salary) is making it less effective because no one ever wants to finish anything before the day is over
Yeah, most jobs are like this. Unless it's physical labor, there's a lot of periods of downtime where you basically do nothing. Office work is extremely easy and there's almost never enough of it to keep you busy the full day. The only people who are busy are the managers and that one guy who knows a little about everyone's job and gets pulled for help (or just to do the job for them) all hours of the day.
The key is looking busy at all times and stretching out your tasks to fill the time you've been given. Only go above and beyond when its going to make your own life easier or you are directly asked to do so. Especially in minimum wage jobs. Otherwise you'll get saddled with busy work and your coworkers who aren't working hard may resent you for showing them up.
I've always loved learning and trying new things back then and even now. But now that I'm an adult suddenly i felt inadequate that i never got any remarkable results from the things I've done over the years. Played alot of video games but never got really good at any of them, learned how to play instruments but only ever learned to play a few songs, learned how to draw but felt like I've already hit the wall of how good I'll ever get.
But this video reminded me of why I do these things, I do them because they're fun. Creating, learning, and experimenting are the stuffs i live for. It reminds me that there is so much to do in life, so many things you could experience and discover for yourself in a single lifetime. It doesn't matter how inadequate my results are compared to others or what is expected of me, what matters is that I've learned something new, and it's this feeling that I accomplished something important for myself that no one can take away from me.
The experience and knowledge of certain things however random can come to be of use in the most farther fields from it. It's hard to know when, but it does.
And even if it doesn't, to be human and alive, is to experience life. So, it's okay to keep experiencing.
Attempting to specialize in something you enjoy can suck the fun out of it. I've heard to never make your hobby into your career because a painters walls always need painted but he's just got home from painting all day, the last thing he wants to do is paint his own house.
have you heard the concept that some people learn in reverse? they need to be taught the complicated topics first an work backwards to simple stuff, as the work back the complex topics make more sense
17:39 I can't tell how much I needed to hear this back in high school man: I would practice playing cello EVERY DAY for at least an hour and I would feel like I wasn't improving and i was just miserable watching my peers surpass me... It literally made me a worse person for that time in my life
Generalisation is good but too broad a spectrum is bad. Too much choice will kill action especially for overthinkers like myself. I guess like in everything in life you need a good mixture of components.
Yeah, I mean one mostly doesn't need to know a whole lot of random facts as mentioned in Random facts #637 etc. Or did you know. Like such and such planet has alcohol in it and such and such fish has this kinda exoskeleton and so on. Unless you're in a related field.
I personally love the bigger picture, that's why I keep reading up on philosophy, psychology, sociology, macroeconomics etc. or watching videos about them on RUclips.
The irony with Pirate Software is that often times the fact that he is making a game is secondary to his personality and how he engages with his audience. There is almost no actual hype for HeartBound itself, only for Thor and PirateSoftware.
Calling him a game dev is... generous. Not entirely inaccurate, true. But Thor is to game devs, what Pluto is to planets. 😉 Doesn't quite meet a reasonable standard, but certainly plays in the same sandbox.
Im very confused about PirateSoftware, his advice seems very valuable on a myriad of topics but whenever i see anything technical related to HeartBound it makes me question if he's a fraud, no offense to him.
@@zeez7777 Also his attitude towards Stop Killing Games is, to be blunt, utterly moronic.
Yeah his take was straight up bad lmao @DreamyAileen
@@zeez7777 I follow the "take what's useful and leave the rest" type approach, so it doesn't matter if heartbound is good or not
Thanks for this video! I was feeling down for being burnt out from working, creating content, hobbies and believe it or not, even gaming. I feel like I’m doing so many things and I’m not allowed to enjoy that because I’m not hyper-focusing on one thing to push me forward.
I had specialist come in and said our modifications on the machine made it “unsafe” so he brought it back to stock and the modified part that was reverted back nearly caused our operator hands getting crushed by the 400 pound guard. So we removed his dumb check valve and the guard does not drop at all while setting up machine. Just having the “specialist” does not make you better than the generalist. I can machine parts weld rebuild/repair machines, and do a bit of engineering. Generalists don’t get the credit they deserve. Its not hard working on one machine everyday and understanding how it works in every action. Its harder to do that on every machine in the plant
Specialists will often format things so that it works for their purposes and their knowledge. Generalists will format things so that it works for everyone.
Isn't he generalist in this case? He used general knowledge on how things should work, while you used your very specific knowledge from the experience working with the machine to modify it
I appreciate this video, very motivational, made me consider only occasionally playing video games and only occasionally not showering.
great video and very well doe how you describe the circumstances of both sides.
I agree with you on your words, believing too to do things because you see fun and joy in them.
I read, I draw, I make videos, I play games - All that when I know, it helps to change the mundane day of my life to a more focused calm.
So I clicked on this video thinking it was about Specialization vs Generalist in TTRPG given the thumbnail.
Instead I’m watching a video that seems to be about the Human condition in regards to work vs fulfillment.
You're changing my whole perspective on making youtube video's. I want to make a career out of you tube, but honestly I'm starting to think my purpose isn't to solely create content on an internet platform. I want to start seeing youtube as a hobby again rather than a job, because that is when it was actually fun.
Most good RUclipsrs are highly knowledgeable in a couple in couple of fields. But also generalists. It helps them get the point across by using analogies rooted in other fields, so that the common man can understand it too.
Learning new things just satisfies me how nothing else can, but I also picked a few things to stick with forever and constantly improve on
This is rather eye opening... i didn't pay it much mind before but yeah most of the youtubers i like bring experiences from other parts of their lives to make a video about.
I agree with most of what you said and this video is absolutly brilliant. But let me add something:
A specialization can be a good thing as it may serve as something to return to something to focus yourself on when you want, a way to give some what of purpose to your life something to be proud of. But as you said it can't be the only thing in your life.
I'm a generalist and it has always been both my best and my worst quality. It has allowed me to be a person who is very multifaceted and able to take on a lot of different or complex projects and responsibilities, usually better than my more specialized peers, but it also has worsened my time inefficiencies because I'm very passionate about many different things and always pulled in different directions.
Also props for using the persona 4 sound track and clips from Osu! in the vid.
I think a lot of us generalists have ADHD, maybe you don't, but it really messes with our time management.
@@danlightened Nah guilty as charged with the ADHD time blindness fr
@@relariis_the_paradox Hehe..has anything helped? I've thought of using to do lists and even things like Trello but instead the breakdown of tasks being easy, seeing it overwhelms me.
@@danlightened Idk what Trello is but I use to-do lists where my first task is always to make the list, sort tasks by priority and impact on my life, and I break big tasks down into smaller tasks so I can visibly see progress I'm making as I make it.
I also use Google Calendar, and I sync it with my Samsung phone calendar, which gives me an alarm-style notification any time I have a reminder for an event.
Other than that, get meds for any mental illnesses that cause/exacerbate executive dysfunction (I can't get ADHD stimulant meds though cause of medical complications, though that works wonders for some people I know), make sure to take them as consistently as possible, and hope for the best.
All myife I've always been told that i need to specialise in something, but I've always felt like that wasn't for me. This video was very helpful to me, it gave me a new perspective, you could say.
i also realised 2 days ago i think that i'd much rather be a generalist.
one of my problems was literally: "oh i don't want to be labeled as this, but i also don't want to be labeled as this" and this solves that problem perfectly by just being both so you're not particularly either one
also, i realised that probably a bunch of interesting but seemingly difficult skillsets you can just acquire by using cheap and sometimes even free resources like the internet and your local library. And the funny thing is, when you do it right you're way more engaged with the work that you're doing because u don't have "ugh i wanna go home" in the back of your mind and because you actively choose to practice or to do the skill, it means you're more motivated to do it because it's what you chose instead of someone else telling you that you need to do it, it also makes it more rewarding because you set out do learn something and you did it which builds confidence
self studying also avoids bad things like unnecessary/outdated things to learn, and comparing yourself to other students/colleagues's skill level
also imagine 2 people person
person A (specialist) does programming and person B (generalist) does programming and art.
A thinks of themself as a hard-working person
B thinks of themself as a lazy person
so A gets burnt out after intensely working 2 hours straight and takes a 20 minute break only to think to themselves in that break "i don't want to do it again today, it's too much" and then proceed to throw away their "productive" day that they had planned
because B is a lazy person he decides to just do 1 hour of programming and after that he decides to draw for 2 hours because it was so enjoyable he lost track of time, he continues to do some programming of 1 hour after browsing the internet for a bit and decides to make himself a fancy lunch because starting today he's gonna use the cooking techniques and knowledge mentioned in a few of the videos he watched while browsing the internet.
person A makes 2 hours worth of progress and goes to bed with a bitter aftertaste which might make him forget it more easily.
person B makes 2 hours worth of progress on programming, 2 hours worth of progress making art and is practicing his cooking skills for fun, and he has the rest of the day to do whatever he feels like.
now you might say: "huh? you're telling me person A is the hard-working one and B is the lazy one?"
my answer remains yes
person A views it as work and tries to force his mind to learn stuff while dreading it
person B views it as hobbies which are fun, interesting and useful and thinks to himself right after he wakes up "oh boy i wonder what i should do first :D"
Super relatable! Whenever I do something to be "productive" and not because I want to do it, that ironically makes me less productive and wanting to quit doing it because I can't bear it anymore. And that leaves me feeling useless, unproductive and such, because of the mentality that I need to be "productive", "eficient" and those kind of captalist mindset.
Now, whenever I do something I want, I find myself spending hours nonstop on something (or multiple things) and, without noticing, made one 200+ page long RPG System, and is in the middle of rewriting it from scratch (now sitting at 100+ pages), while enjoying writing every word of it. For some, that would be a chore, but because I enjoy it and is something I want to do, I do it for hours without noticing.
@@ferlitten yeah good to hear :D
@@ferlittenI found a 1980's film themed advertisement video recently that portrayed a VR gaming addicted dissatisfied man, envying his neighbor who's productive and very multi-faceted in life.
The narrator of the video explains how much people hate when someone tells them what they should do, therefore it's the last thing you'd wanna do to yourself. What you should do instead is conceptualize what you REALLY want to do, TRULY, for the ideal and frankly attractive future of your life. And that's it. You just need that CLARITY. Your body and mind will do the rest.
Also to reply to madness_bomb, I also hate it when I get called an "editor" or even "he does editing" lol
My advice would be to skip labels entirely and strive for being skilled at learning and observing specualized things. Mastering learning masters everything that comes to you
@@ferlittenTrue true. You're in that flow state.
This video rocks. I am a huge generalist, and I am working very hard on all my different crafts right now. Learning about writing and philosophy definitely put me on this path, hope to release tons of things in all mediums some day and change the world. Godspeed generalists!
Big generalist here too and proponent of it. Philosophy is becoming my favourite subject now. You can check my playlist titled Philosophy. It has over 120 videos by amazing creators here on RUclips. I am not a great writer but I hope to create some blog talking and mentioning resources (such as these videos) on economics, philosophy, psychology, sociology etc. and their interconnectedness. Godspeed brother. I hope to see your works someday.
Specialists don't exist. Generalists also don't exist. We are all T-shaped people, and the debate sparks entirely from Résumé culture. Also every role in every profession that requires a team (which is all of them) can be boiled down into Tankers, Healers and DPS.
It goes in the square hole.
There are people who prefer being generalists and others specialist. But yeah, understanding the T shape of skills and knowledge acquisition is important. And it's a continuous process of improving your main skills and then others or the other way around, depending on how people prefer gain their knowledge.
Endurance, utility,and high efficiency/productivity workers.
Specialists tend to be people that learned one thing, then stopped. Making "generalists" superior, simply for the fact that they are more skilled at more things.
All in all the terms don't really carry much meaning in themselves. But "specialist" and "expert" tend to describe amateurs and overhyped mediocre people.
@@NukeCloudstalker
Not really true. If you truly go balls deep you cant really finish learning a topic. It would be insane level of hubris to think otherwise. Tell me, when exactly have you "finished" music. For instance. Is it when you are a konnakol master? When you surpass Charlie parker improvisation wise? Or when your fugues are at bach level?
Or when your songs have the impact bob Dylan had in his generation?
Now expand that to all the possible topics. No generalists have their own benefits attached to their inclinations but unless the specialist is truly a lazy fuck or the generalist is some god emperor of man kind level of genius, by necessity the generalist knowledge is always more than a few levels shallower.
This was great! As someone who has a ton of hobbies this made me feel justified. Not that I needed it to keep having fun but it felt good. I hope more people get inspired to start enjoying life actively as opposed to passively.
I don't mind being a Specialist at all. To me, being a Specialist gives me something simple and focused to strive being the best that I can be in a particular field. Being a Generalist is valuable, but to me, I always knew what I wanted to do very early in my life, so it never really made me look outside of my own viewpoint. This video is an interesting watch!
Yes, we totally need both kinds. The issue is, there's no great way to quantify the degrees and contributions of the generalist. And neither are there many jobs that appreciate them and pay them accordingly.
Like let's say you're in field X where you started learning from 1 and the best can be 10 on that scale. As you do your degree, masters, job, 5 years experience, 15 years experience, on that scale, you keep going up from 5, 6, 7, 8 and so on. But if I know somewhat about a 100 topics (but more than most), I don't think a company fully understands how to quantify the skill levels on that same scale or if it's even a requirement for them.
Thank you.
this, sorta unrelated to the direct contents of the video itself, helped me realize something.
i draw as a hobby, i occasionally game, i occasionally write
but overwhelmingly my hobby is drawing
i like to use spreadsheets and roll charts to help with ideas and such too
but recently ive felt burnt out and weird
and... this made me truly sit and think to myself, think about my projects and my goals and my spreadsheets and such and go
"... is this why we started?"
is this why i started drawing? to sit and slam my head against spreadsheet formulas and goals of grandiose writing and trying to express some burning core of me? is that why it was fun?
and well... no.
i started drawing since before i can remember and it was... because i was bored.
it was for fun-
no spreadsheets, no roll charts, no projects, no goals
id doodle away on my paper for hours
and have a blast-
and this helped me remember that-
i think im gonna go draw something now.
and probably put another one of these videos on in the background.
Thank you.
A wizard.
Wizards are scholars of systems of power.
Could be chemistry.
Could be martial combat.
Could be botany.
Could be sociopolitics/social engineering.
And is often as many as the wizard can assimilate.
Are you a wizard, Harry?
Learn some systems of power.
Be a wizard.
I'm only 12 minutes into this video and it's honestly very captivating and inspiring. I never considered myself a generalist because since childhood I have spent so much time on game development as a skill, but as I watch this I'm realizing I have this ability to learn new things fast. I remember trying many new things and quickly becoming better then others, but never becoming the best at anything and looked at it as a failure. Thanks for changing my views on that.
Yeah mate, it's difficult getting a job with our limited knowledge on 100 topics, since the world is getting more and more specialised. That makes us feel like a failure. And trust me, a lot of people will tell you. Because people don't like when you are not walking the same trodden path as them.
But trust me, if you can find the right kind of business/job, all those things we know are gonna come in real handy. You can be a one man show. I mean, everyone can benefit by understanding their own and other's psychology and personal finance and marketing themselves or their products. Like in your case, your game.
I want to expand on your point about specialization vs generalization. I agree with your point but usually those people that make a living doing many things... Usually those people started by getting renown by doing one thing. There's a balance to things. Specialize forever on one thing only and you'll lock yourself forever. Try to learn and do everything and you'll be less likely to grasp the amount of things you'll likely want to learn. I think is best to have 1 or 2 things that you're known for, but also always look to learn new things.
Using myself as an example. I'm an architect by profession. That's what I graduated, that's what I (for now) pay the bills with. But I'm also a concept artist. I like to design environments I'd love to see in a videogame one day. But I also know about 3D modelling for 3D printing and done a few designs myself. I've also dabbled into game dev and game art and have done stylized game ready assets and I once programmed a prototype on Godot just to experiment. I also make characters sometimes. But my main focus is architecture and concept art. So yeah, don't get stuck into doing one thing and only one thing. Yet don't try to do eeeeeeverything right out of the gate.
Architect here as well. The design fields are wild. Anyone from any arts and design field, can go into another. At least, that's what I've witnessed. I think only 1/4th of batchmates are practicing architecture. Some are UI/UX, some in experiential design such as that of mall/retail or expos. Some are in different types of product design. And some do interior design or construction management or photography or digital art or graphic design or 3D rendering.
Thank you for this video. I really needed someone to remind me of the conclusions, you also reached. It seems that as people, we tend to forget our old life lessons due to the constant need for change and 'optimization.' This, at least for me, often leads to a point where I end up making the same mistakes for which I had already found solutions. Thank you once again.
EDIT: Remainded and clarify. A lot of new for me, great points.
While its true being a generalist is generally good, the idea of limiting scope to one a few things at any guven time is still valid. Getting very good at one thing like the fantasy writers with history then opened up doors for them that likely wouldnt be available had they spread their focus between many different skills at once. You become a good generalist by being a specialist in a few things over a long time, and specialisation allows that to happen.
Contrived premise; specialist are not who _"focus their whole life on drawing, and nothing else."_ It's silly. Specialist is not a dichotomy. Not a binary.
@@ultimaxkom8728That's exactly what a specialist is: one who focuses on perfecting a single skill or "genre" of skills, over another.
@@CFlandreDawg thats the most nuanceless perspective Ive ever seen or heard holy
@@alexicon2006 But am I wrong?
@@CFlandre If we talking realistically then yes. If we're talking about situations stripped of context nuance and details to the state at which they cater to your points then sure pop off my g.
That first segment really hit me. I’ll get a massive wave of motivation anytime I start a new job or project, or start a new skill. I feel that I can learn the basics of a new skillset much faster than the average person even; unfortunately, I also begin to plateau and lose interest much faster than the average person would. Idk what type of job field involves doing a huge variety of slightly challenging tasks, but I think it’d be the perfect one for me.
We like to be generalist, however whenever we have cancer we tend to find specialist rather then general doctors
In my experience, many specialists don't know shit of what they are doing, because they don't see how their work impacts other aspects. It is true for doctora that specialize too much and then never study again. I can't wait until AI assisted medicine helps them with their current knowledge.
Study for specialization=/= knowing how things work. For example, many economists don't know shit about how economy actually works, they have never had a successful company and just repeat ideologies that have 0 evidence...
Patients tend to be refered to a specialist oncolologist by a generalist general practitioner (gp).
@@Kargbo-Reffell_Music Exactly. Both are vital
Specialists in the medical field are just further trained and educated GPs
@@kronos5437 That is incorrect. It takes years post med school to become a GP.
Legendary video! I can totally relate to doing 50 hours a week of office work. I left there and now have more time to spend on learning new skills and investing in better things. Instead of working 50 hours a week and earning the minimum wage, I was the person everyone dumped their work on because I know too much and am much faster and more skilled than all of them.
God, there are SO many issues of the whole idea of specialists being the best for ANY job really. I mean let's assume for fun, there was an actual specialist tennis players, who specialises in serving. Now have him play a match against Rafael Nadal, just for fun. Maybe Specials serves are so good, Nadal only manages to receive 10% of them, cool. But if Special really is a true specialist, he's pretty bad at any other part of the game. Meaning every serve he makes that Nadal receives properly is automatically a point for Nadal. Every serve Nadal does also is automatically a point for Nadal. Does anyone really believe, there is any chance Special is EVER gonna be higher ranked as a player than Nadal at all, assuming Nadal was still actively playing?
The reason why companies want specialists is pretty simple. Well, actually it's two-fold. First of all, they don't, they want what in German is called "Eierlegende Wollmilchsau" - they want a generelist who is also a specialist in EVERYTHING at the same time, preferably for free. Second, a specialist is way easier to control than a generalist. A specialist might come up with an idea that branches out of his area of super-expertise, you tell him that part out of his super-expertise wouldn't work, and that's that - and companies love to pull the "but we've always done it that way"-card.
Try doing that with a generalist, that's even the START of that conversation. You better be prepared to actually EXPLAIN with actual ARGUMENTS/PROOF why that wouldn't work, because the generalist knows enough about that other thing to doubt that claim until you provide arguments why that would be. And even if you manage to do that, he may already have a plan B or C in mind, or come up with a solution on the fly to your pointed out flaw in his idea. And let's be honest, at a certain level, management is full of people who "specialise" in corporate bullshit bingo speedrunning and quoting their business-whatever-professor while believing they actually know jack about anythign that happens below management level - when actually every 2 month intern knows more about 90% of the process than the management level combined. So people who actually KNOW they are talking crap are pretty uncomfortable for them, obviously.
Haha, this is exactly what was happening at the construction company I was working at. As a generalists and disruptor, I questioned all their methods and told them I have a better and more efficient way. And I, a near fresher was telling this to all HODs. Many were quite sceptical and reluctant. But they saw the results and from then on, I was only working with the HODs. And they were coming with their problems to me. I created a few systems on Excel and some combinations and they were still in use long after I left.
As a management / entrepreneurship undergrad major, I think you are totally right!
The currrent model of economic society has helped through specialization to advance human technology. And nowadays it does only thing: Underlining more and morre how important the newer models of emotional intellience leading and individual work place environment creation
Hello, Scrit! I still remember your first video. I was so glad that RUclips recommended it to me. Been watching you quietly, ever since. But, this video really affected me, so I wanted to say something. Thanks for making this. I know it probably wasn't intended to make my thoughts go in this direction, however, as a fellow content creator, I keep being told to 'niche down' and I didn't want to paint myself into a corner by getting bored or running out of things to say.
I didn't have the vocabulary to express how I was feeling. Now, I understand that what I've been trying to say is that I don't want to be a specialist. I want to be a generalist and be allowed to explore all corners of my chosen world. Getting to where I want to go may take longer. We know how the algorithm is. But, people are still finding, watching and subscribing to me, so it shows me that there isn't just one right way to do things; not just one way to live.
So, thanks for inspiring me, Scrit, as one writer to another! Hope you have a great day! ((o(^^)o))
First time seeing you, and now I have subscribed. I like your stuff. Will see more.
So, I do agree with you to an extent, most people will naturally drift to the "generalist" direction because in general a lot of people get bored very easily doing the same thing over and over. I will say though, that many artists fall into the opposite category though. I know writers who would could write all day every day, I know musicians who could practice and play music all day everyday, or painters who if given the chance would happily just spend all day painting. The people who made Samurai swords honed that craft their entire lives, and were often very fulfilled in doing so. If you are one of these people, then trying to take the generalist path will often prevent you from ever realizing your true potential in that art. And, the caveat to that is when it comes to getting hired, people don't want to hire someone who is generally good at most things. If I'm working on a game and I need an animator for a project. I'm it makes no sense to hire someone who "can" animate over someone who "only" animates. The master animator will also deliver better results faster most of the time, while also doing something they find fulfilling.
I think being a generalist is fine if you want to make casual content at your own leisure at your own comfort. However when it comes to solving anything serious, that's when the specialist becomes invaluable every-time. If your car breaks down, or your online multiplayer servers go down, or the plumbing fails. You want the specialist mechanic, or Server Maintenance guy, or Plumber guy for these things, and that has nothing to do with economics or human behavior, simply a matter of wanting the best person for the job when it matters most -
But, again, I like the points you make, and I think you have many good ones, keep it up bro -
I fully agree! THIS is the most balanced and accurate perspective one can have imo. I am trying to get in a purely mathematics and statistics based university next year. I am planning on becoming a mathematician so I guess I'll be a specialist.
But here's the kicker tho. Im VERY good at LEARNING physics. Im very good at LEARNING computer science. Same for art, instruments, and for public speaking and general knowledge Im already fairly confident in those.
I am a total beginner in programming languages. But if Id wanted to Id have made my career in that instead because, well, I couldve.
All my teachers throughout High school recommended me different paths, from chemistry teacher suggesting chem engineering to physics teacher recommending astrophysics to english teacher recommending I start writing youtubing public speaking anything.
So am I REALLY a specialist if the learning curve for any skill is never too steep for me? I'd guess not.
But my core love is and always will be mathematics. I will always be a specialist in maths no matter what. But in case I need another side hustle, I know I'll be able to learn a few programming languages in a few months each and find a small placement. Stuff like that.
I think Im a learning specialist. Because mind you. My coding rn is DOGWATER. Same with my economics, psychology is decent, but physics and astronomy and all are really weak. Thats where I fail as a generalist. But if I'd ever need to know those fields, I will. And thats all I need realistically speaking.
So yeah I take pride in being a proud specialist!!!
I'll end my yap session here. I tried my absolute best to be as boastful and pretentious as possible I hope I did well in that department.
@TheRoyalSkies I can definitely understand some of your points. There are indeed artists who are comfortable with just the one medium they specialized in and would do just that all day if they could. And when the chips are down when it does come to something serious to things like you said it would probably be better to bring in the certified, experienced specialist than not. However I would disagree, when it comes to art at least, that choosing the generalist path would prevent you from realizing your potential in a specific art. For all the artists that love to do just their one chosen art and do great at just that, there has been plenty throughout history that have excelled in multiple arts. There have been novelists who were not only great at novels but also paintings, and painters who were not only great at painting but also poetry, and poets who were also really good at music (i.e. Rabinadrath Tagore, Goethe, Michaelangelo, etc). So with the arts anyway, you can seriously master more than one.
Being good at something doesn't mean you are a specialist. This is probably mostly bc of the examples used but if my car breaks down I would just need someone who knows how to fix it (plus most problems do not require very specialized people to solve) same stuff for the other examples and that's really usually the case, doubt many people with phd's work at a car shop or maintain game servers. With your point about hiring an animator Simone Giertz had a good quote in this vain "It's a lot better to hire smart people to learn than to hire stupid people to do something they already know how to do" plus you are kinda under the assumption that one, that person does find it fulfilling which they might not and second that they are a specialist. I highly doubt you need actual specialists unless you are planning on making the next biggest particle accelarator or something in those lines.
I am not good at writing and I imagine I was just arguing semantics so apologies for that.
"Generalist" doesn't mean "every task in the world". A specialist is still a generalist in adjacent fields. You need a good foundation in order to become good at a specific thing. The illustrator who works on creating medical textbooks needs to have a similar competency in anatomy as a generalized doctor. The painter painting landscapes needs to know perspective and lighting just as well as the 3d modeler doing renders for a movie studio. The musician knows how to play on more instruments than just a 1987 Stratocaster. Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings (and the Silmarillion) as an excuse to make up fantasy languages because his obsession was the history of languages and how they develop. In order to realistically animate a car, you need a general knowledge of how a car works. An animator who only knows how to animate but doesn't understand how a car works likely won't give you good results compared to the one who also works on their own car - even if they aren't as good an animator.
I have a saying that I've developed over the years: "Scratch an artist and you'll find a student of many subjects." Many (most) artists would absolutely spend every day doing their chosen field, but I bet they enjoy working on a variety of subject matters in their art rather than, say, drawing daisies for 10 years straight. And that's what they really mean by "generalist" - a person who has interests in different subjects and has combined those experiences to result in something else. The painter who likes to travel, the musician who plays a 250 year-old pipe organ just as well as a synthesizer, the former game dev who makes V-Tuber rigs. All masters in their own specific niche, but whose lives are richer from the breadth of their experiences.
I love to learn new things. I always have. So I've filled my brain with so much knowledge on all these subjects I'll never use, and not nearly enough to actually apply that knowledge in the specific field. I've been trying to reel this in, and focus it more onto things I need, but I don't stop learning other things just because I won't use them. They're still fun and interesting things, and the process of researching something to find out what's true is honestly really fun to me. This video is incredible, and I'm always glad to find someone who sees things in either the same way or a better way than I do.
It's both a bane and boon. I feel your enthusiasm. Learning/trying new things is incredibly fun and satisfies some primal need within me. I live for it. Issue is, most of us might know more than the average person but not so much to get a job. In fact, we might not even want a job in many of those fields.
Like, I'm good with tech and computers. Do a lot of troubleshooting and you know, downloading pirated stuff back in the days. Cracking etc. But I've always thought that it was a means to an end; the end being able to play a game or use a software. But when I was offered an IT admin job, I didn't want to do that full time. Stuff like installing softwares etc on hundred laptops. I don't care for that.
I am in a similar boat but there have been quite a few times these random bits of information have found proper use, perhaps just trying to be in more environments where there isn't an already established person to do a specific task could make your general knowledge shine.
nah the bigger youtuber is always right so your wrong
Bigger number better person.
1984.
@@ScritRightermore known, more trust 💪
As an Economics/Quantitative Data Analytics major I love how you hit the nail on the head about the flaw in the economic models most people use for optimization. Shit is efficient but also mind numbingly terrible, you captured the vibe that comes when labors connection to their creations are fragmented for the sake of efficiency. I don't know if you were a economics major or something adjacent but it brings me a bit of joy that the field is finally starting to move towards questioning the consequences of these models.
Data analytics and marketing, mainly.
7:09 Based channel with goated content
I'm surprised nobody else said this yet but the use of the Danganronpa soundtrack when talking about specialists is actually so well thought out.
I appreciate the symbolism.
Loved the video, can't wait to see more! :)
Isnt there Tekken ost in there aswell?
16:45 No one is a true generalist either because there's always a whole world of stuff you never realized there was to be skilled at.
Thankyou to everyone bringing an highlighting these beautifully articulated points, enjoyed the comment section too, good community here you've built up love to be apart of it.
2:45 No, people did not feel like you building cars. They saw what they were building, they saw people driving those cars. Cars were new, they saw themselves building the future of mankind. They were proud, enthusiast and had a visual impact on the world.
Ford doesn't know you, dude.
@@ScritRighter ... U sure? ...
Sure, the workers on a cellphone assembly line feel exactly how you say. They are on the razors edge of technology, building the future of mankind, surely that trumps any wish of gouging their eyes out with a spoon after hours of monotonous work.
@@germanulrich Nah, phones are already old now. And they are Chinese slaves. Workers in the old USA got to be in town and jazz with the ladies after work. They had homes cheaper than we'd ever dream of. Those were different times. Nowadays, we work like mules for a half the prize.
Shit job workers had home, homie. We engineers and high productivity powertool experts will never be able to afford a home of our own until we're too old to benefit from it.
@tsunamio7750 you really think that all factory workers were just living it up back then? Labor laws were also different back then, as were safety regulations. Not to mention the fact that anything gets old I'd you do it enough, even if you really do just love cars, you could only do the same assembly line job for so long without getting at least a bit bored of the monotony
I always considered myself a generalist. I like to do a lot of things and I kinda lack focus. The constant rotation of interests keep them fresh and exciting to work on everytime. For a lot of time i envied my specialist friends. They are good, like really good, at what they focus on. On the flip side I can have a conversation with them all and understand everything they talk about. And this is great! I acquire new information everytime and I know a lot more everytime.
I also think that the sum of our skill is the most important day to day.
Also skills scale logarithmically, is easier to gain proficiency in one skill at the begginer stage than in the expert stage.
That's why knowing the basics or being at an intermediate level is awesome. You get what the experts say. And what an expert says is 10-20-30 years of experience and knowledge culminating into a few minutes of conversation. It's like gold.
How did i thought it would be about animals
aint that a hoot?
@@ScritRighter no. It’s cruel and unnecessary
That's interesting to say the least
TierZoo brainrot is real
@@IisLasagna just like you. It’s stalkable
As a programmer, an artist and a musician, I felt happy to hear you say "could also be an amazing game dev" as I started working on my indie game a few month ago.
By the way "game dev" is a very "generalist" skill, since, for a solo dev, you need to be able to :
- code
- make music
- make 3D assets
- make materials/2D art
- animate
- actualy create interesting gameplay (game design)
- write (for story)
And I'm sure I'm missing some
bro i did not know there was a microsoft excel championship💀
just wait till you hear about "Sleep Championship"
Jesus man its like you spoke how ive been feeling for years. Thank you for clarity
there are people who just do not want to speciallice in anything, unmotivated people caring for nothing but their own hedonism unwilling to put the extra effort into anything, people who see any kind of work as a chore regardless of the task, people who enjoy the comfort and security of predictable monotony. people who can shut down their mind while their muscle memory works like automatons
dumbasses complaining that all they do is tigthen screws for 8 hours straight don't know how good they have it
- Evil Corporate CEO
@@leandrobenitez292 It's that people like this exist
Lovely video and take on the topic!
This is one of the main things I liked about Aristotle's philosophy (that fulfillment comes from doing things for their own sake) over Plato (who heavily believed in specialization and thought the best citizen is one that masters their craft and does nothing but their craft)
Though I like Plato's perspective on a bunch of things, this is one I always had a gut feeling opposing it
Wow another video about generalist having both inferiority and superiority complex
I’m not a specialist by any means but I feel like there’s just this trend going around of demoralizing a group of people for no reason
Tell me do you even know the stat of how much specialist and generalist there are in society? Cause if we go by your definition that a generalist only master one thing and have absolutely no skill or no joy in THOUSANDS of other fields, then that would take up like less than 10% of the population. You are the 90% that constantly demoralizing the 10%, and tell me when was the last time you see any specialist making all these stupid quotes about generalists?
All I’m seeing is generalist crying wolf about a problem that don’t exist to make themselves look better
Most of the time people will always be generalist that is specialist in one field or maybe more. There is rarely a 100% generalist or specialist aka your so called "master of one" and "master of none"
Nah, bruh.
I don’t believe the goal of the video was to demoralize anyone. Nobody said anything bad about specialists. I feel you’re taking the title to an extreme and disturbing the contents of the video in bad faith.
@@kionyfey7740 *Coughs at the changed title for clickbait reasons*
Y-Yeah!
My main point is that there are no true specialists and that the concept of specialization is an unachievable ideal which does not account for human emotion and thought. We are all generalists even if we might exceed at one or two tasks. The closer I've seen someone become to a specialist, the more miserable they seem to be in my eyes. I doubt me 'demoralizing' the specialists is the reason they are not happy with their lives.
@@ScritRighterhonestly I did enjoy the video, but I did have a couple things I'd disagree with. First that having less free time was caused by more specialized economic models, which I'd say is just a correlation not a causation, since the economic changes have caused both but there could potentially also be a specialist society with more free time (especially considering improvements in automation and machine learning). The other thing is that the terms specialist/generalist and the discourse around them get quite polarizing without enough nuance, as humans are quite complex. From my pov it is a great idea to be curious and branch out, though the original comment does bring up a valid criticism of people deluding themselves they're a generalist as an excuse to not commit to anything in particular. The point of breadth of knowledge is indeed a great one tho and even in scientific research very often is a key factor for new discoveries, as well as considering the human life only getting longer it helps to have more things to learn so I'd also agree there that branching out is great for that too. For me I would say that everything has an exciting story behind it, if only we are able to look past the surface.
remembering the 20-80 rule is actually really encouraging as someone who has a lot of project ideas but needs to learn a lot of things to even try making some of them... I particularly want to learn 3D modeling and animation.
In order to be a true master at something, you have to be good at one thing and know the basics of everything around it. The most important part is the surrounding supporting information because it is the key to problem solving and creativity.
I resonate with the video. It's okay not be the best at everything, but always do ur best and be proud of it.
Agree with most of what your saying. Perhaps the best generalist though are those who temporarily become specialists or chose a specialty that broadens them into many things more efficiently. As a smart dead samurai once said, "From one thing, know ten thousand things". But maybe this was the point you were making. Either way, I had a good time.
AYY THOR CALLOUT
I knew him 10 years ago before he started working on the game. Dude's awesome.
Also the process is ruthless, i needed to hear this big thanks
Nice video, makes a lot of sense and I have similar views.
That said, I think specialization is a way to generalization.
Get good at sth but look at the bigger picture, see all the puzzle pieces and how they connect.
Also, being the go to guy/gal for some type of work can make you more appreciated with your peers.
Then again, lack of generality can bottleneck/limit your speciality.
Im a generalist, I have been called encyclopedia or Wiki before... cuz just about any subject, I have at least a basic knowledge on it.
And I tell ya, yeah individually that's great, but we do need specialists too. Both are important in the great scheme of things.
we find ourselves in front of tasks requiring specialized skills very few times in our lives. we can fix so many things with just basic/intermediate knowledge
A kind of mantra I like to repeat to myself when starting a new thing is "Let yourself be a beginner" To remind myself that I have to take the steps to learn and have fun before I can judge myself for being bad at an obviously new skill.
When I started working delivery, I made a choice which changed my life. Instead of listening to music as I drove, I decided I was going to listen to an educational podcast and finally learn how to invest.
Learning about investing wasn’t life changing, but the habit of learning while I worked was. 5 years later and I have become someone who learns for fun. To the point where I get bored with standard entertainment. I’m an addictive learner.
This has manifested in a sort of self cross-training in every job I’ve worked. I ask, I investigate, I try things out and I’m good at it.
Give yourself a learning habit, make it fun. It will change your life. Become a jack of all trades, master of many.
as someone who when asked "Whats your hobby?" responds "Gathering hobbies" this video is amazing.
With the presentation, and voice, I was already seated, but the dangan music? I'm hooked.
Not every difficult and dangerous thing is suitable for training, but only that which is conducive to success in achieving the object of our effort.
It depends on your personality, i love doing the same over and over, knowing what will come, having control over the process because i know what to do
Thats kinda friky my guy. xD
Really nicely done. A good thought exercise. Would have liked to see hpw you make that framework fit for fundamental science/medical research and development. The same arguments could be used, but the level of specialisation and time required becomes a lot higher than for many of the examples used
I work in animation, film, game design, etc... Despite multiple strikes and crises the last few years I've been able to jump between industries with relative ease and stay employed with a decent salary. I call my specialization Technical Animation or Technical Art on my resume but in reality I do whatever I need to do. No need to put myself in a little box and wait until I die for a perfect job to come along. I'll fit whatever is available with a weekend of work and a new resume.
It is funny how most companies require you to categorize yourself with a specialization, only to cross train and make sure you know how to do other people's jobs too.
Generalist, here! It is so true that generalists use prior knowledge to help them learn new things! My mom always reminded me that “a jack of all trades is a master of none,” but I always realized she was wrong. I became a musician & music teacher, but I did not remain with a particular specialization. By the time I graduated high school, I played violin, double bass, recorder, and bassoon, and I learned all the instrument transpositions. Went to college on scholarships in band & orchestra, and I doubled on instruments in the pit during operas & musicals. I took lessons on all my instruments, and they made me learn piano. After college, I took up the viola & cello, and I later became an orchestra director, so I had to get familiar with trumpet, French horn, trombone, tuba, percussion, flute, and clarinet. Soon, I’ll learn the oboe. While it’s true I did not “master” most of those instruments, at 63 years old, I’m a pretty good player & I know how to teach them. In particular, I use math, science, language, and music to understand everything better, and it helps me teach them better!
LOVE the tekken 6 watery forest ost! Keep up the good work :>
Solid take, and thank you for sharing
17:15 As for the David Goggins example, he's not a specialist either, he doesn't solely focus on running. He always searches for new challenges i.e. smoke jumping, EMT,...
I tend to get burnt out on individual tasks quicker than most. My soul is filled with an ever present wanderlust that calls on me to keep moving. Dont like staying in one place for too long, dont like doing the same thing for too long. I MUST be breaking up the monotony of my life else my depression claws at my mind and fills me with this feeling of being stuck and wasting time.
Thus I am a generalist of sorts. Im an artist but Im an artist in many ways. The degree im working towards is called Collaborative Media so i've taken classes on commercial design, typography, photography, videography, photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, layout, 3D modeling, web design, previsualization, and many more. I draw, write, and also know a bit of metal and wood working. If its an art or craft, i take interest. Granted i havent retained everything I've learned but this degree has been wildly helpful in letting me know what kinds of things i actually want to do with my life for a career. Photography is fun and depending on the kind, can keep me moving. Concept Illustration is something i do for myself for fun anyway, it pays well, and that money would give me the opportunity to do other things i find joy in. Travel, hobbies, etc.
12:43 hit man, I'm an artist, programmer and musician hoping to make their first full indie game. I actually teach game development and worked a few jobs in the industry but still owe it to myself to build something of my own.
Oh my god i've 1000% thought about this. Anyone doing 1 tiny specific task over and over will become more efficient at it, but it will get so boring, but if you're doing everything you can't get efficient at anything and the task doesn't get done. one is more enjoyable, the other is more useful. no way around it seemingly :/
Very interesting video.
At first I thought about video games, especially class based video games, but even then I feel like this tend to apply when I think about it.
Let's say someone is playing a Rogue in World of Warcraft. Assassin or something, IDK. You'd think that they only need to know how the Rogue works in whatever content they're running, and you can get decently far wtih just that. But if you apply that thinking to everyone in the raid, you get a bunch of people incapable of adjusting to make everyone else's jobs easier as well. If the Rogue player also knows the basics of how tanking and healing works in said content, they can adjust their choices to also help them be more effective or efficient.
My impression is that a lot of mid level raiders (in lots of MMOs really, not just WoW) don't really have this broad understanding and rely on a few people directing the whole show. So you end up with people specialized in making everyone play more like generalists.
Thoroughly enjoyed this, earned a like and all, and I'll check out the other fellows take on this as well soon.
I thank you for the teaching and wish you fulfillment.
Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love, to work, to play, and to look up at the stars.
7:25 my entire generation runs on Pokemon BW background music i swear 😂
One of the best lines I've ever heard in the movie and see if you can figure out which movie it is when you over specialized you breed in weakness
10:25 this teaching method of learning is very effective. I use it all the time with martial arts and it has made me significantly better at both martial arts, and teaching them. It's also part of the reason some schools require their higher ranking students to assist in classes, or teach forms and techniques. Also, it helps the main instructors with the workload XD
yeah teaching stuff reinforces the information in your mind.
I'm a programmer, and I've straight up told my boss that I don't want to do 100% programming, but would rather take care of IT tasks as they come; mostly programming, sometimes data entry, sometimes whatever else needs done on a computer. My personal goal, and my recommendation for everyone else, at least in any subject I can speak on with some degree of experience behind it:
Jack of all trades, master of one.
I haven't done a lot of office jobs. I hate specialized repetitive, menial work. But the only times I've done great is when I had to the freedom to work like you mentioned. Working with different departments, contributing my expertise. Furthering my knowledge about those departments, which helped me working with even more departments.
Very interesting topic that I hadn't particularly considered before. Of course, I've heard the saying about jack of all trades, but I hadn't given it much thought. Also, loved the anime scenes you've included. I recognized most of them, but there were a few that looked familiar but I couldn't place. Personally, I would find it useful if you could list all the anime that appear in the video(in the description) so I can look them up. I know that the video wasn't exclusively anime but I said 'personally' which means those are the only scenes I'd particularly care to look into further and potentially watch. If it would be too much extra trouble, I completely understand. It's just a selfish suggestion. Thanks for the interesting perspective on Generalists vs Specialists!
As someone who is decent in a large number of things, one key that not many people know is that knowing other things is useful to understand some things.
As an example, I'm not a specialist on any of these but being good at math helped me become good at physics which helped me greatly in understanding chemistry which in turn helped me understand biology.
Thanks to this I got "great results" (according to my GF, although I see my grades as not that awesome but that's besides).
Then my background in maths and logic and I kid you not, philosophy helped me be better at programming. Programming is literally just maths! I swear! If you know your math everything suddenly makes sense.
I got a couple of awards during my first year of college (Computer Science) even though I was stunted by very deep depression.
Some people may tell you what you're doing is useless but you never know what use that knowledge may provide you with. This is exactly the reason why multi-specialty science teams are getting increasingly more common. Biologists working with coders, phycisists and economists, etc.
Because having them on the team can provide you with new perspectives that may help you solve problems in ways you would've never imagined.
So in conclusion, just do shit and you'll see how it opens doors for you in unexpected places.
Your entire maths -> physics -> chemistry -> biology trajectory pretty much sums up the last decade of my life. Also, being good at maths, physics and chemistry shares one thing: you need to be good at being VERY clear about specifics you make, and especially maths also has you think of and consider thei weirdest, dumbest, most random fringe cases possible - and both things are REALLY helpful if you are trying to get into programming.
I get what you mean. Very well said. You could be a prodigal youth dude. I hope you do something awesome in life.
if i had been RPG specialist, i would neverhave got a 100% completion on The Messenger, or Super Blood Hockey, but i am a retro-gamer generalist, with specilized passions for styles. Likewise,having got my 1st degree as an analyst programmer, then one in litterature, and learning music all my life on the side, drawing all my life, i amassed the skills to build a small indie game for a personal project. I'll be working on this this year