Life is an experiment anyway

I just finished (finally) a book that I read since October last year. Range by David Epstein. After reading the first two chapters, I was intrigued by the story in the content as it was related to my work right now, so then our team conducted a small research based on this. And then I never finish the book.

Until yesterday.

Overall, it gives a lots (tons) of stories to support the argument that being a generalist is also important despite the society’s worship for over specialization. 

We as a society is used to the story of young prodigies, and how the one who learn and specialize in one thing earliest is the champion. And we, people who are not specialized since kids, often feel ‘too late’ to be good at something, let’s say in martial art, or music. So, reading a long argument and stories about the importance of being a generalist and how being a generalist can give advances in many fields was comforting. The fact that trying different thing and not sticking to one thing and not knowing too deep about it, or change lane suddenly is not a disadvantage, but actually an advantage because it can help us to be able to think about a problem from various perspective and not just a narrow deep view. 

Anyway you can read the book to get more stories about this. I recommend it.

And at the final chapter, there were messages that I think is very important to be reminded of.

1. Don’t feel behind. Don’t compare yourself to other people, because everyone progresses at a different pace and rate. Compare yourself to your yesterday’s self.
2. Learn as you go. “Approach your own personal voyage and projects like Michelangelo approached a block of marble, willing to learn and adjust as you go, and even to abandon a previous goal and change directions entirely  should the need arise.....Even when you move on from an area of work or an entire domain, that experience is not wasted”
3. Life is an experiment.

Anyway