Hacker News
points by incognito124 7 hours ago | 0 comments
+1. There's a good book "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" that lays out how it's better to be an all arounder than min-max skills and life areas. The advice actually predates LLMs!

I always felt repulsed by specialization due to diminishing returns and the fact im curious about everything. But I though about it and picking up various experiences to avoid a specialization is, in a sense, itself a specialization: it's unlikely there's another person with a similar set of experiences!

Reminds me of how Python is termed "2nd best pick for every task". It's rarely the best but it covers a lot of ground, so by starting with it, you can uncover what would be a better language. So a generalist can also be a first pick for something, at least until it's more clear about what's a better pick.

Anyways sorry for rambling, I agree with you. If a young person is reading this, the worst thing you can do is specialize too early (read the book I mentioned!); go explore the world first before settling and picking a direction

[–] fyredge 5 hours ago
There's nothing about specialization to be repulsed by. Specialization is what gave us our the society and economy. That's not to say generalists are not important, I simply view them as the southpaw of abilities. There exists some healthy ratio of generalists in a specialist world to bridge knowledge domains. Too many generalists will not be able to push progress in a specific domain, just like too many southpaws will reduce their advantage in competitive sports.
Hacker News