The Three Paths
An Exploration of Career Options
Deep
Become an expert in a given topic. Push the boundaries of that topic, and/or apply cutting edge understanding to the rest of the world. Build a brand around your expertise in that area, and become known as a (or the) leading expert in the world on that topic.
The advantage lies in knowing more about a given topic than the average person, and in being able to apply that in a way that another person in your role could not. Scarcity breeds wealth, as the rarer your skill set (and hopefully more valuable the skills), the more you can charge. If you’re an expert in machine intelligence, you’re hired to build better machine intelligence or to find ways to apply the technology to a given discipline, such as finance, mining, economics or public policy.
The disadvantage is what happens when you become an expert in a field that is no longer needed, or not as widely accessible as it appeared to be when you studied it? Nuclear engineering seemed like a hot field to get into in the 60s, 70s, 80s, and even 90s. It seemed there was a strong demand for nuclear energy, and a willingness to pay top dollar for experts in the field. Then the tragedies of nuclear energy in the public sphere came to light, and experts weren’t valued as highly as they had previously been. The same might be said for world-class horse breeders, oil pipeline engineers, or dressmakers. Of course, these fields still exist, and the top performers are still likely relevant and highly valued, but the long tail drops off very quickly. It’s difficult to argue that right now, you’d rather be an expert in blockchain or artificial intelligence than custom stitching or animal husbandry.
Depth requires patience, hard work over extended periods of time, and a huge amount of luck. You’re hoping that the area you dedicate your entire life to (maybe not, but a huge amount of time nonetheless) is going to become critically relevant. Very few AI researchers were taken seriously in the 80s, but they work at Google or Tesla or Apple or Facebook now, so they’ll wipe their tears with silk handkerchiefs and get back to work. Before you go deep into any topic, a quick litmus test: Are you willing to spend the next 10 years of your life thinking about this?
Broad
But then again, who says you have to specialize?
Dan Debow talks about the GPS (General Purpose Smart) Person, and how they are a critical cog in the machine of an early stage enterprise. Further, Project Managers often bring a wide breadth of unassociated talents to the role that allow them to exceed expectations. It’s not just organization, or communication, or technical understand, or project foresight — it’s the magical mix of all of these and more that make them invaluable.
The advantage of a broad understanding of the world, of disparate disciplines, and of how the links fit together, is that you are malleable. You don’t fit into a defined geometry, and often the job description of the role you occupy fails to explain all you do to make an organization successful. But that makes your value all the more important. If your boss can’t explain exactly what you do, but they know you’re critical to the success of the operation, they’re far more likely to keep you around (until, of course, your valuable isn’t so evident). But then you’ll just move on to another equally ambiguous role, and find other way to fill in the gaps that exist, becoming the glue that holds it all together.
The disadvantage, of course, is that you have nothing specifically to point to when your back is up against the wall. If you’re a coder, you point to your code. If you’re a marketer, you point to your marketing. If you’re in sales, you point to your sales record. But what do you point to when you do a bit of everything? The success of the organization? But what happens when you stop trending upwards? The glue is the most important hire when things are going well, but they are often the first thing to get trimmed when things turn downwards. Who needs a Project Manager when you don’t know if there will be projects to manage? Inevitably when things turn downward (because they always will) and you move on to your next role, you’re going to have to fight to prove that you have what it takes, that you belong, and that you provide that critical X factor that is impossible to explain.
Breadth requires hustle. It requires constantly demanding you belong, and letting your work speak for itself. Because you’re not an expert in anything, it also demands a high level of conscientiousness and empathy for those around you. If you’re the glue holding it all together, you need a healthy respect and understanding of each of the pieces and why it’s important. Your success, involuntarily, is tied to the success of the projects, people, and organizations you hold together, and you will be forever evaluated based on their track records (upwards and downwards, whether you contributed or not).
Agile
A new world demands a new kind of thinking: what if you could do both?
The ability to mold from one area to another in response to the changing gravitational poles of the economy, combined with the value and confidence of truly understanding a discipline from a core level — the best of both worlds. Often referred to as a T-Shaped Person, this rare individual combines the perspective and worldliness of a breadth of understanding, with a deep fortitude of knowledge in a given topic. Perhaps, if they’re lucky, there area of expertise is transferable.
What if you were an expert in public speaking? If you dedicate 10 years learning and teaching the best techniques to communicate, verbally, to a group of people, there’s an obvious arena in which you could operate: coaching for politicians and Fortune 500 CEOs, or teaching at universities with (potential) future presidents. But perhaps you could also focus your attention on wedding MCs. Or television personalities. Or startups giving pitches. Or even VCs receiving pitches, teaching them to better see through the facade of coaching when making deals in order to get to the objective truth. It seems that the deep knowledge of communication in front of groups of people is transferable. Going deep, with all the benefits, and few of the drawbacks.
An agile learner is one who thinks critically not just about what they study, but where it can be applied. Rather than learning the art of welding, they learn the art of designing pressure vessels — an equally deep topic with far more applications. Rather than learning animal husbandry, they learn the art of practical animal genetics, in order to better aid with the future of food production.
But they also go broad.
No one in the 1980s expected that obscure statistical models and backpropagation through neural networks would become the underlying infrastructure of AI, and central to the development of all software in the 21st century. But many researchers started to notice that the way plants, animals, and natural organisms develop and “learn” is far more advanced than we originally gave them credit for. If nature can arrive at optimal conclusions through a sophisticated, disconnected algorithm, maybe our computers could do the same.
It took visionaries to recognize that the fields of biological development and ecology apply just as much to computer science and the future of human-machine interaction.
It’s tough to make that connection without being open to the possibility.
Most of the great ideas in your field of interest have already been discovered, flushed out, and optimized.
So the only way you’re going to break through with the next big thing is to look elsewhere, and cross-pollinate.
Agile learners jump around. They focus attention in a specific discipline for a solid period of time (until they become experts) and then they move their new-found expertise to other fields. They learn, they master, they develop; and then they move on to forge new ground and continue improving.
The world is accelerating, and over the course of a 4-year degree, there is very seldom the possibility that what is learned will still be relevant after you’re done learning it. That’s not to push you away from dedicating yourself to a new field for 4 years — all truly great performers have gone through that process — but it is to encourage you to think about what comes after.
Go deep. Go broad. Then move on. Rinse and repeat.
A castle is not agile. A highway is not agile.
But a forest is.
When a hurricane or earthquake or alien invasion happens, castles, interstates, and big fancy jobs with big fancy paychecks are the first to go. But the forest is more than just a group of trees. It’s adaptable, transferable, and movable. It will regrow, blossom, and expand. But it needs to stay alive, and it works on large time scales. If it stagnates, it dies.
Agility offers the promise of control — or at least the opportunity to take changes in stride. What you do with that control is up to you. You’re no longer a victim of external circumstance, but you also waive your right to blame it on anything except yourself.
Taking control isn’t for everyone. But for those who take the leap, it’s worth it.
