We live in an age of specialization. In a specialized world, the dominant narrative is that we need to find our area of focus early and stick with it. Think Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers book about putting in 10,000 hours of practice to achieve proficiency. What Epstein reveals is that the “specialize early” approach only works to a certain degree in some fields and to lesser degrees in others.
An example: learning to play chess. Chess, as Epstein describes it, is a “kind world” type of problem to solve. Through repetition and practice, players can garner near-immediate feedback on their decisions and strategy, allowing them to re-evaluate and reflect. Most of life, however, isn’t a “kind world” problem. In Epstein’s vernacular, most of life falls into a “wicked” world scenario. Not “wicked” in an evil way, just one that is more complicated and often lacks the immediate feedback of hitting a golf ball and knowing to adjust a swing.
In a “wicked” world of situations, being a generalist and having a broad background of knowledge to draw upon is not a drawback or a liability, it’s an essential ingredient in being able to solve problems that are ill-defined in their scope.
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