Is it better to be a Jack-of-All-Trades or a Master-of-One?

[Music] hey you look familiar who are you hi i'm jack of all trades just call me jack and you are i'm [Music] who am i i'm oh right i must have won i just got my master's degree in specialising of specialists and presenting to you the age old dilemma to be a specialist or a generalist look being a specialist is great i just dedicated many years of my life into mastering one thing and i have a nice certificate to show for it and companies are all vying to pay top dollar for my specialized why because

true experts are much harder to find simple supply and demand jack [Music] yeah sure i'm not gonna argue with that but you might want to consider the pros of being a generalist too [Music] first generalists are hirable across multiple industries your specialized skills pay well but it also makes you vulnerable to rapid industry changes like so [Music] second being knowledgeable in various fields means that generalists are better at making connections across disciplines and philosophies huh any examples to back up your little claim sure a german airplane manufacturer conducting tests on hypersonic flights noticed that raindrops

would erode the plane externally and internally through shock waves further studies led the company to eventually be able to use shock waves to break kidney stones without invasive surgery so an observation in seaplanes goes on to change the course of urology both vastly different fields but come on a specialist was probably the one who created the machine or technology to make that a reality true again but if you don't expand your field of knowledge as a specialist you'll forever be the one doing the task but imagine if you had picked up additional soft skills such

as management or leadership skills and led a team you'll essentially multiply your expertise and contribute at a much higher scale you'd probably be paid more too but how can you be effective if you touch and go on a thousand topics as a generalist you have to know just enough for it to count so what then is just enough ah that's why i brought this often reading the quintessential book on a subject will teach you just enough this seems too specific no why not just go to wikipedia or read articles online to be efficient with your

time you want to consume the good stuff when you pick up a book chances are it's been through many rounds of revisions to make it a lean mean machine of pure efficient information see so i've wasted all these years studying one thing just to get this useless piece of paper no don't honestly i'm a bit jealous of you imagine being a specialist that learns to become a generalist you'll be future proof versatile diversified connected and still a master [Music] a jack of all traits and a muscle [Music] so are we fused together now yep can

can we reverse this cannot seriously yeah cannot no [Music] you