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.
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.
Related to Range
Related audiobooks
Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Work: How to Root Out Bias, Prejudice, and Bullying to Build a Kick-Ass Culture of Inclusivity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When to Jump: If the Job You Have Isn't the Life You Want Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reboot: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down: The Ups, Downs, and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Undaunted: Overcoming Doubts and Doubters Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dear Founder: Letters of Advice for Anyone Who Leads, Manages, or Wants to Start a Business Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing It: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Keeping Your Head Without Losing Your Heart Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5That's What She Said: What Men Need To Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars: The Snapchat Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Double X Economy: The Epic Potential of Women's Empowerment Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Change or Die Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Powers of Two: How Relationships Drive Creativity Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Winning Now, Winning Later: How Companies Can Succeed in the Short Term While Investing for the Long Term Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Transform: How Leading Companies are Winning with Disruptive Social Technology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGo Where There Is No Path: Stories of Hustle, Grit, Scholarship, and Faith Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flex: Reinventing Work for a Smarter, Happier Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Extreme You: Step Up. Stand Out. Kick Ass. Repeat. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Skip the Line: The 10,000 Experiments Rule and Other Surprising Advice for Reaching Your Goals Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Human Element: Overcoming the Resistance That Awaits New Ideas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Rules of Thumb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Dozen Lessons for Entrepreneurs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Click Moment: Seizing Opportunity in an Unpredictable World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Sports & Recreation For You
The Confident Mind: A Battle-Tested Guide to Unshakable Performance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mental Toughness Training For Young Athletes - Parent's Guide Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of Resilience: Strategies for an Unbreakable Mind and Body Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mind Gym: An Athlete's Guide to Inner Excellence Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Lost in the Wild: Danger and Survival in the North Woods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Peak: The New Science of Athletic Performance That is Revolutionizing Sports Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Advanced Bushcraft: An Expert Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How Am I Doing?: 40 Conversations to Have with Yourself Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It Takes What It Takes: How to Think Neutrally and Gain Control of Your Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Golf Is Not A Game Of Perfect Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Right Call: What Sports Teach Us About Leadership, Excellence, and Decision-Making Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/580/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Faster by Training Slower Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cactus Jack: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Path Lit By Lightning Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Read Nature: An Expert's Guide to Discovering the Outdoors You've Never Noticed Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike's Elite Running Team Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Depression Hates a Moving Target: How Running With My Dog Brought Me Back From the Brink Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Straight Shooter: A Memoir of Second Chances and First Takes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bounce: Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the Science of Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sixty-One: Life Lessons from Papa, On and Off the Court Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What Winners Won't Tell You: Lessons from a Legendary Defender Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Getting to Neutral: How to Conquer Negativity and Thrive in a Chaotic World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Range
288 ratings19 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cultivate inefficiency. Deepen your knowledge in more than one area. Expand your interests.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5We 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. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lifechanging, 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!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5It’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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This 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!
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Excellent. 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fascinating 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5“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. - Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Awesome book! We need more like this one!! The author and material was inspirational.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book opened my eyes about the importance of experimenting
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Main 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.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Great 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
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A 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
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The best book that gives me very deep insights into the development of skills and knowledge.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5“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
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A 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
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everyone, 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
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I 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..