Why Generalists Beat Specialists | Jack of All Trades

you're a jack of all trades jack of all trades bit of a jack of all trades aren't you Harold here's a question I want to ask to all of you guys would you rather be a soldier in the garden or a gardana in the battlefield this is a highly debatable topic and I want to go over this from as much of a non-biased perspective as possible the fight on who is better specialist versus generalists before we take on this though we need to understand what both these terms actually mean and represent Specialists are defined as

a person who concentrates primarily on a particular subject or activity a person highly skilled in a specific field in other words a person who has a lot of training knowledge or skill in a specific area they are regarded as either experts or connoisseurs in their field a generalist on the other hand is defined as a person who has a wide range of knowledge in various subjects and holds many skill sets a person whose Knowledge aptitudes and Skills are applied to a field as a whole or to a variety of different fields now we got that

out of the way who's better um it's not that simple even though the title explicitly says the answer you have to first hear me out on a couple of key points as to not get a false impression or idea we are living in what some people call a digital Renaissance because technology has introduced many Untold possibilities many opportunities have risen but they've also introduced a lot of destructive Innovation this spoted the need for people more specifically leaders who can competently manage and handle multiple specialists in different Industries throughout the history of mankind Specialists have always

existed and have been carried with us even through Evolution I mean even Specialists don't just exist in humans other animals like ants that operate in the colony have Specialists as well some of them are responsible for fighing food others are responsible for digging and some lucky ones guarding the Queen the same applies to us humans we need a specialist who can gather or haunt food farm crops and build houses all the way to the modern society where there are a gazillion unique jobs each serving a role and function in society but we're forgetting one thing

who manages the them who's leading these Specialists who's pulling the strings in the back and making Society run with order this role gives the birth and need of generalists and they are far more valuable than any of the Specialists let me [Music] explain you need to be decently adequate in a specific field to manage people in it let alone multiple Fields there's a common misconception that generalists are another way of saying someone who is not good at anything and this is simply not true a real generalist will have competent at least above average skills in

their fields you can't just have a basic grasp of understanding in the field and added to your generalist Arsenal here's an example how does the nuclear reactor work what it's a simple question it's hardly a simple answer of course you presume I'm too stupid to understand good I know how a nuclear reactor works no I don't need you so how would a politician know how to run a nuclear plant and how would a nuclear engineer know how to run a country journalists have what is called Crossfield knowledge they are multi-dimensional able to flexibly think from

different perspectives and apply totally different field insights take a notable figure that I covered in my previous video Jim Simons he was an expert in mathematics and because of his natural entrepreneurship inclination he sought other ways to earn money using his expertise and that's when he came up with a way to trade financial markets using complex quantitative methods after starting a good bit of Finance famous music artists believe it or not are a form of great generalists they have a special voice that resonates with the audience but they still hire producers record labels managers maras

and so on ultimately making them a generalist there are solar music artists but they are quite the Rarity this leads me to point number two the Craftsman versus the Cog you need to understand the concepts of value and outcome based thinking the output you make does not necessarily reflect the input you could input one and have an outcome of 10 and you could also input 10 to have an outcome of one Leverage is key and you need to utilize it correctly for example well take any business say you started the haircut business you're doing everything

all on your own you cut the hair you do the cleaning you do the accounting you market and research competitors you represent legal you create your own graphic design and you do everything all by yourself how much output can you realistically get from this approach now if you have a dedicated person I.E a specialist performing in each of these roles well I'll let you do the math yourself but I'll give you a hint the math does not mean that more employees means more output the analogy here means that a generalist will leverage Specialists who perform

excellently in each of these roles which will give far superior output outcome based thinking focuses on how to get more output while having less input the generalists are the crafts while the Specialists are the cogs in the machine another good example of outcome based thinking is Mr Beast during his early content creation days he was staring hot about content creation on YouTube since he understood the concept of Leverage and OBT he had a friend group that also focused on content creation and listen to what he says in this clip here I did was I somehow

found these other like four lunatics we were three of us were College dropouts one was a high school dropout and we basically talked every day for a thousand days in a row and did nothing but just like hyper study you Vision a world where you're trying to be great at something and it's just like you met mess up you learn from your mistake you in 2 years you know might have learned from 20 mistakes or if you have like four other people who are also messing up and when they learn from the mistake they teach

you what they learn stuff like that hypothetically you two years down the road have learned like five times more of the amount of stuff so it just like helps you grow exponentially way quicker if that makes any sense revisiting back to when I mentioned the digital Renaissance we now live in a world technologically evolving so fast that soon specialization alone won't suffice if you don't want to be susceptible to being replaced by Automation and disruptive innovation then the generalist path truly AWA you if you bring up the argument for Irreplaceable specialization roles that doesn't really

exist I'll do you one better though specialization roles or jobs evolve through technological development if you were an architect in the 20th century who could only specialize in using traditional drawing boards you would have been easily replaced by AutoCAD and now there's that hot debate going on from the r of AI generated art if you want to be Invincible to disruptive innovation and automation you simply have no choice but being able to learn and adapt other skills that you were comfortable or familiar with making you a generalist being a talented artist is impressive but if

you want to take yourself to the next level learn how to Market and brand yourself being a prodigal software developer is nice but there's still room for you to grow if you can't communicate effectively and if you want to build a de Facebook or Tik Tok good luck simply relying on your technical skills without having any fundamental soft skills like communication management leadership business and so on while there is nothing wrong with being a specialist as the world is evolving more and more we humans have to evolve too and will still bigger roles in just

one job with the current explosive growth of Technology there is no doubt we are entering into another type of Renaissance where we're finding out new things but this time at a rate of tens or even hundreds of times faster I even hate saying this overused word but AIS are thinking machines that allow us to process input data and generate output far more efficiently and faster than ever making it a feedback loop with exponential growth a lot of Industries are lagging behind and it's only a matter of time before we find even ourselves being replaced or

automated and even after everything that I've said in this video I still encourage you to have some sort of specialization only that you will build and learn even more skills at top of your specialization making you a great and competent generalist you should become a jack of all trade master of at least one and here's how you can become an expert generalist number one learn soft skills soft skills are the key to unlocking your ability and leveraging it across Industries making you stand out from the rest of your competition they can help you communicate effectively

and demonstrate your expertise where you can gain recognition more easily there is very little room for growth if you work in isolation you need friends team members and allies who can support you in achieving greater goals you'll have better scale and more power with just average skills with a good Network than an expert skills all by yourself number two learn just enough of a specific skill or field you only need to be an intermediate chest player to understand how Grand Masters think and strategize you only need to beat the Ender Dragon once in Minecraft to

understand how speedrunners beat the game quickly you only need to know roughly how full stack development Works to create a team of front-end uiux designers and backend developers to form your own it team the point is you only need to know just enough to be able to converse with the experts in the field because you're not the one working or doing the task you just need to be able to lead and direct them with a goal number three have a sense of true curiosity passion passion and dedication with a vision nothing and I mean nothing

repels Specialists more than people who have no natural inclination or curiosity to their field no experts will align with you if you don't possess this mindset they want they need a purpose and a reliable competent generalist for example take Elon Musk and how he is able to manage multiple billion dollar companies in different Industries he has a Clear Vision and aess of true curiosity to the point of learning rocket science to work with aerospace engineers and passion number four adaptability you need to adapt or die there are so many cases of incompetent generalists that cannot

realize the true potential of their team because they fail to adapt with the current times managers for example that don't want to use or even Lear new technology that enables their competitors to outperform them tenfold leaving them behind in the dust or Executives who are too scared to evolve through company ideologies or business models to fit with a changing environment and community in conclusion the debate between being a specialist and a generalist is not about determining which is inherently better but rather understanding the value it brings to the table Specialists provide deep focused expertise and

are crucial for monstering specific tasks and advancing particular Fields however as we live in a society that progresses exponentially the role of the generalist is becoming increasingly vital generalists are the ones who can Bridge gaps between diverse Fields manage and coordinate Specialists and adapt to new challenges and opportunities they possess the ability to learn and integrate Knowledge from various domains making them indispensable in leadership roles and in navigating the complexities of modern life so you should strive to be a jack of all trades and a master of at least one Embrace curiosity instead of ignoring

it thanks for watching everyone I hope you enjoyed this video if you want to support me as a Creator then leave a thumbs up and subscribe if you're looking forward to more of my content also I will be releasing my own Discord server and if you want Early Access just DM me on Discord or Instagram at my official Accounts at Zen see you guys later peace