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    Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
    Unavailable
    Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
    Unavailable
    Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
    Audiobook10 hours

    Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

    Written by David Epstein

    Narrated by Will Damron

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    What's the most effective path to success in any domain? It's not what you think.

    Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you’ll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research on the world’s top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule.

    David Epstein examined the world’s most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, forecasters, and scientists. He discovered that in most fields — especially those that are complex and unpredictable — generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. Generalists often find their path late, and they juggle many interests rather than focusing on one. They’re also more creative, more agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can’t see.

    Provocative, rigorous, and engrossing, Range makes a compelling case for actively cultivating inefficiency. Failing a test is the best way to learn. Frequent quitters end up with the most fulfilling careers. The most impactful inventors cross domains rather than deepening their knowledge in a single area. As experts silo themselves further while computers master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive.

    Editor's Note

    How to thrive…

    A must-read for the majority of us who didn’t practice our guitars enough to be a rockstar, didn’t study enough to become a rocket scientist, or couldn’t choose between any myriad of hobbies or professional interests to specialize in. David Epstein shows how being a jack of all trades is crucial to thriving in the modern workforce, where the only constant is rapid change.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 28, 2019
    ISBN9781984888433
    Unavailable
    Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
    Author

    David Epstein

    David Epstein is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Sports Gene. He has master's degrees in environmental science and journalism and has worked as an investigative reporter for ProPublica and a senior writer for Sports Illustrated. He lives in Washington, D.C.

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    Reviews for Range

    4.5/5

    288 ratings19 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Cultivate inefficiency. Deepen your knowledge in more than one area. Expand your interests.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      We hear a great deal, over the course of our educations and careers, about the importance of specialization, concentration, focus, and drill, drill, drill.

      And specialization is not a bad thing. In many areas it's not just valuable, but essential. If you need surgery, you want not just a doctor, but a surgeon, and really, not just a surgeon but one who has done that particular procedure many times before. It's your best guarantee of a safe and successful outcome.

      But not every field is surgery. Not even any medical field; a doctor with a more varied background and a CV that shows some flitting among different medical areas is a lot more likely to be a good diagnostician. Why? Because that doctor with the varied background has a much broader background to draw on when considering the patient's symptoms and comments. David Epstein looks at why this is so, in areas as different as athletes, musicians, inventors, and scientists.

      Generalists see connections specialists can't, because the specialists have never encountered the information from fields outside their own--even, sometimes, when the fields are seemingly very close and both could benefit from more interaction. Epstein gives us interesting and absorbing stories of Nintendo growing from a playing card company to a major videogame company due to the playing around in his spare time of an electrical engineer years out of date on his skills and with no computer programming background at all. Also all the things Vincent van Gogh failed at before more or less stumbling into the painting, and the style, that made him one of the greatest of artists.

      Or, contrariwise, the top-down, procedure-oriented, data above all culture at NASA that made it impossible for the engineers to who saw a serious problem with launching the Challenger on the cold day in January, but who couldn't quantify the risk, to be heard by the decision-makers they were talking to.

      Some of our most cherished, or at least most drilled into us, ideas about how to succeed are not so much wrong, as inadequate and incomplete. We need specialists. We also need generalists and polymaths. Specialists alone, without generalists, are more likely to result in stagnation.

      This book is both enjoyable, and enlightening. Recommended.

      I listened to this audiobook via Scribd, and am reviewing it voluntarily.
    • 5/5
      Lifechanging, or rather: life-approving, for people who don't see themselves specializing in a certain field or way their whole lives. Rethink jacks-of-all-trades, because boy, can they become masters!
    • 5/5
      It’s worth reading this book, if you are a curious soul who is interested in a wide range of topics. Starting late and having a broad interest, makes you suited to find solutions specialist can’t find. Read this book and get motivated to pick up your highschool chemistry book.
    • 5/5
      This book really does great at changing your perspective on some of the greatest success stories you've definitely heard of! Not only that it helps you see how a broad sense of skills, knowledge, interests and curiosity helps the everyday person excel and succeed in whatever field you're in. It's an incredible listen, super easy to follow along and understand, and very enjoyable. I highly recommend it!
    • 5/5
      Excellent. To the point yet succinctly detailed. Approached things in a different perspective to the norm and encourages others to do just that. Will come back to read this book again at some point and refer it to others.
    • 5/5
      Fascinating read. So many examples of why creativity is always about the intersection of new things. A recommended read if you are not sure if you should make a change.
    • 5/5
      “In God we trust but rest should bring data”
      In this book David makes many points and also brought plenty of data. The data is the numerous stories he discusses throughout.
      Do not set goals on what you want before knowing who you are. This sums up I guess.
    • 5/5
      Awesome book! We need more like this one!! The author and material was inspirational.
    • 5/5
      This book is one the best books I have read the last few years. Extremely thought provoking and has me looking at things just a little different at work and at home. Would highly recommend for so many different audiences.
    • 5/5
      This book opened my eyes about the importance of experimenting
    • 3/5
      Main message is that you should experiment and fail more in your formative and younger years. The book misses some tactical ways to address how society values specialisation and over looks generalists.
    • 5/5
      Great read. No specific action points in the book but the conclusion offers great advice for the person who finds joy in the exploration of multiple fields. Not a here’s what to do book but a perspective changing book and so I highly recommend it.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      A consolation to feeling behind (in comparison to my peers). This book offered such new perspective in a world of hyperspecialization.

      2 people found this helpful

    • 5/5
      The best book that gives me very deep insights into the development of skills and knowledge.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      “Don’t feel behind.”
      As a young person who has felt for quite some time that my friends chasing doctorate degrees and playing D1 collegiate sports were eons ahead of my own development, Epstein’s perspective was a welcome relief from the feeling that my disparate experience has no value.

      Great read!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      A great book - whether fiction or nonfiction - can be judged by how much it changes your paradigm. I see the world - and my diverse 4+ decades in it - quite differently after reading this book. It is truly a crucial read for anyone, young or old.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Everyone, PLEASE listen / read this book! I am already looking forward to listening to it next month (spaced learning -- you'll learn why!). Absolutely practical, validating, encouraging, meaningful --- all backed by science --- plenty of excellent anecdotes and methods to be applied right now! Highly recommend!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      I can’t rate it as I’m unable to read it. Why is this book not available in South Africa. Pls can a publisher in SA get this book distributed..