I was born 'out of time'; that's to say, thirty years too early.
When growing up, I had an eclectic mind. I was interested in a lot of subjects and was fascinated by finding how lessons in one subject could be applied to a completely different subject. I loved exploring the connections. This meant that I pursued many subjects and didn't really concentrate on one to the exclusion to all else. I continued that throughout my higher education and try to do as much of this as I can in my working life.
My biggest successes at work have been when I can combine knowledge across sometimes disparate subjects to design innovative solutions and it's the part of work I enjoy most: It really doesn't feel like work. At least two of my bosses have commented that my chief skill is "...seeing connections that other people don't see..." (I paraphrase). The problem for me, is that I get to do so little of this kind of 'work'. Modern IT is still very silo-oriented. It seems that experts in a single subject are still most valued and there is little room for the generalist.
I hold that this attitude needs to change, for very sound reasons.
Humankind has largely solved simple problems. The remaining problems that are troubling us are complex and sometimes complicated; even 'messy'. The hip kids refer to these problems as 'wicked' problems: not easily solved by simple, single discipline, solutions that worked previously. A complex, multi-disciplinary approach is required to avoid all of those 'unintended consequences' that we hear about in the popular media.
This is where "generalists" come in. They're able to 'see' across disciplines to combine solutions from two or more areas that have been developed by specialists in silos. The combined, complex solution offers the reduction or avoidance of some of those 'unintended consequences' that plague us all.
That's not to say that we don't need specialists: we do. It is to say that in order to find the best solutions to the 'wicked', complex problems that our species seem to be left with, we need generalists too. The problem is that since the renaissance, work in our society has been organised into silos and increasing importance and focus has been placed upon more specialism.
In order to get the best solutions to the problems we now face, I opine that this has to change and we need to redress the balance between generalists and specialists in order to thrive. This is not happening though due to ossified thinking by those that control our working lives and this needs to change: fast.
Children need to be encouraged to develop generalist tendencies, if they have them, and to be regarded equally as are specialists. In order to succeed at this, our education systems need to change fundamentally. With the proposed increase in the number of Grammar Schools in the UK, I perceive the drive to specialism to be stronger. I think that this is a retrograde step that will disadvantage our children.
To my mind, the much prophesied automation of human employment will affect specialised occupations the greatest. Our species is beginning to develop machine learning that can perform better than all but the most skilled expert specialists. It's here that the job losses will occur first and greatest and this will leave many out of work and there are no mechanisms in place to provide those people with alternative income. This is not a good situation to find ourselves in!
Machines are now good at performing in a single subject area and are improving all of the time. Much weaker, is their ability to apply that learning between or across subject areas and I expect this technology to progress very slowly. Thus, there will be a requirement for human workers to perform this function for a long time to come. A generalist education therefore will become increasingly valuable in the near to medium term and that this is what we should be educating our children to do, now, in order that they can occupy those functions when they reach working age. If we don't; someone else will.
Critics often quote the Elizabethan couplet "Jack of all trades, master of none...". However they often ignore the second couplet of this epithet; "...Oft' times better, than master of one".
In the current Elizabethan age, it's time we changed our societal structures to value generalist and specialist skills equally. It's too late for this generalist; having to operate in a world where everything is in silos.
But then, I was born out of time.
When growing up, I had an eclectic mind. I was interested in a lot of subjects and was fascinated by finding how lessons in one subject could be applied to a completely different subject. I loved exploring the connections. This meant that I pursued many subjects and didn't really concentrate on one to the exclusion to all else. I continued that throughout my higher education and try to do as much of this as I can in my working life.
My biggest successes at work have been when I can combine knowledge across sometimes disparate subjects to design innovative solutions and it's the part of work I enjoy most: It really doesn't feel like work. At least two of my bosses have commented that my chief skill is "...seeing connections that other people don't see..." (I paraphrase). The problem for me, is that I get to do so little of this kind of 'work'. Modern IT is still very silo-oriented. It seems that experts in a single subject are still most valued and there is little room for the generalist.
The Need For Change
I hold that this attitude needs to change, for very sound reasons.
Humankind has largely solved simple problems. The remaining problems that are troubling us are complex and sometimes complicated; even 'messy'. The hip kids refer to these problems as 'wicked' problems: not easily solved by simple, single discipline, solutions that worked previously. A complex, multi-disciplinary approach is required to avoid all of those 'unintended consequences' that we hear about in the popular media.
This is where "generalists" come in. They're able to 'see' across disciplines to combine solutions from two or more areas that have been developed by specialists in silos. The combined, complex solution offers the reduction or avoidance of some of those 'unintended consequences' that plague us all.
That's not to say that we don't need specialists: we do. It is to say that in order to find the best solutions to the 'wicked', complex problems that our species seem to be left with, we need generalists too. The problem is that since the renaissance, work in our society has been organised into silos and increasing importance and focus has been placed upon more specialism.
In order to get the best solutions to the problems we now face, I opine that this has to change and we need to redress the balance between generalists and specialists in order to thrive. This is not happening though due to ossified thinking by those that control our working lives and this needs to change: fast.
Children need to be encouraged to develop generalist tendencies, if they have them, and to be regarded equally as are specialists. In order to succeed at this, our education systems need to change fundamentally. With the proposed increase in the number of Grammar Schools in the UK, I perceive the drive to specialism to be stronger. I think that this is a retrograde step that will disadvantage our children.
A Possible Future
To my mind, the much prophesied automation of human employment will affect specialised occupations the greatest. Our species is beginning to develop machine learning that can perform better than all but the most skilled expert specialists. It's here that the job losses will occur first and greatest and this will leave many out of work and there are no mechanisms in place to provide those people with alternative income. This is not a good situation to find ourselves in!
Machines are now good at performing in a single subject area and are improving all of the time. Much weaker, is their ability to apply that learning between or across subject areas and I expect this technology to progress very slowly. Thus, there will be a requirement for human workers to perform this function for a long time to come. A generalist education therefore will become increasingly valuable in the near to medium term and that this is what we should be educating our children to do, now, in order that they can occupy those functions when they reach working age. If we don't; someone else will.
Critics often quote the Elizabethan couplet "Jack of all trades, master of none...". However they often ignore the second couplet of this epithet; "...Oft' times better, than master of one".
In the current Elizabethan age, it's time we changed our societal structures to value generalist and specialist skills equally. It's too late for this generalist; having to operate in a world where everything is in silos.
But then, I was born out of time.
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