Generalizing about Generalists
Generalizing in a specialist’s world
As a self-professed jack-of-all-trades (and master of none), I have found most of my success in the job market by finding employment with start-ups. It’s no secret that a company trying to build the first vertical slice of their product with a skeleton crew values people who can do a little bit of everything.
I certainly fit this description when I started my career at Granify. On one hand, I had a major in Psychology which gave me some insight into consumer psychology and introduced me to AI via Connectionism and the Parallel Distributed Processing model. I also possessed a scholarly understanding of UX through my minor in Anthropology where I took a number of courses on Human User Interfaces.
On the other hand, 8 years as a Senior Graphics Artist at a game development studio provided me with practical experience in the application of UX/UI as well as some introductory programming knowledge. Finding a position at a company that built and designed interactive snippets of web code run by an AI on e-commerce sites proved to be a case of a square peg finally finding a square hole.
But as with any startup business, change is a given. And those changes can be incredibly volatile as you move from a proof-of-concept business model towards a more matured product. As the team grows, the company will get to a point where it can start to rely on the proficiency of specialists instead of the more nebulous skill sets of generalists.
So where does that leave a generalist such as myself (or perhaps, dear reader, yourself)? You may be surprised to learn that as long as you have the right attitude and temperament, a generalist can not only remain relevant, but actually thrive while the company grows from a startup into an established presence in its field.
As a generalist in such a tumultuous environment, your position is likely to fluctuate dramatically as things change. It can be difficult not knowing what’s coming around each corner, but riding out the waves can prove extremely worthwhile. I believe there are a number of key attitudes and attributes you can adopt that will help you navigate as a generalist in an increasingly specialized world.
Of these attitudes, the two I would like to focus on today are humility and optimism. Don’t be fooled by the simplicity of this advice. These attitudes are simple to define conceptually, but practical applications of these qualities can be extrapolated into a complex array of situations.
Humility
Humility is the number one attribute you need to survive in this transitory environment. It is probably the single most important quality that will be the determining factor for your continued success.
Humility is what enables you to adapt and grow.
Humility allows us to see the truth of our existence in the grand scheme of things. Listening to Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot speech is always a great exercise in humility. Our own insignificance can be a frightening revelation for those of us who have built a universe that revolves around us. But it is imperative we do not close our minds to this awareness. Overcoming that fear of the void is the first step to having any real power over the truth.
Humility allows us to accept our own humanity. Being human goes hand in hand with making mistakes. Recognizing ourselves as fallible means being cognizant of our weaknesses and having the self-awareness to fix and learn and grow from them. Humility is also incredibly empowering in that it allows us to see that everyone is just as small and human as we are.
This is a profound realization that can give you the courage you need to assert yourself or try something new. After all, you are no less insignificant and no less likely to succeed than anyone else on this speck of dust in space. Conversely, if you are too attached to who you are today and too proud to leave your present self behind, then you’ll never allow yourself the ability to discover the true potential of your future self.
Rather than dwell on your past accomplishments, take pride in your ongoing quest for self-improvement. Remember that it’s okay to not always have all the answers and that it takes courage to admit what you don’t know. Realize that this is the same for specialists and generalists alike. The old adage (courtesy of Einstein by way of Aristotle) will always hold true: “The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know.”
This mindset also allows you to ask stupid questions often and unabashedly. When your company starts hiring people who have a wealth of knowledge in a particular field, they are your best resource for learning and keeping your own skill sets sharp and relevant.
While at Granify, I’ve had a crash course in statistics, an introduction to managing teams, an overview of neural networks (you can get surprisingly far with an understanding of back propagation), and exposure to various methods of team structures and work processes (agile, waterfall and everything in between). I have also absorbed some of the instincts of our designers and experienced a great deal of improvement in my progress as a developer.
All of this came from simply having the humility to say, “Hey, I don’t know how to do this thing… can you show me?” It’s astounding how much you can learn on the job from the right people. There’s nothing better than getting paid to learn about things you’d never imagine having the chance to learn. It’s basically free tuition. Taking advantage of that improves your skill set as an individual and increases your value to the company. If you’re not soaking up all of this free-floating knowledge like a sponge then you’re doing it wrong.
Humility also helps you gain the respect and trust of your peers. Let’s face it: nobody likes a know-it-all. And you can’t fake it in front of people more capable than you. But when you have proven to your peers that you aren’t afraid to admit your limitations and put in the extra work to cut it in roles that are less familiar to you, you are providing a different sort of value than hard proficiency. Instead, you are giving your superiors peace of mind by knowing that whatever they throw at you is going to be handled competently, even if it takes you a little longer than a specialist on the task. That quality alone will take you a long way professionally.
Humility is also the only thing that’s going to save your fragile ego when you get moved from one position to another (and you’re going to get bumped around a lot). Sometimes it may seem like you’re getting demoted as the company hires specialists to fulfill important roles that you were previously covering for. But humility allows you to recognize that your value to the company is by no means decreased as you get bounced around. Every time you get moved, you have another chance to become familiar with a different facet of the business. That’s an opportunity that a specialist is much less likely to have. Recognize that and take advantage of it. Having a big-picture view of the company has distinct advantages.
Optimism
Optimism is arguably the second most powerful weapon in your arsenal. It may sound like a cliché that your mother repeated to you as a child, but have faith in the notion that “you can do anything you put your mind to.” Even if it’s not always true in every circumstance, the inverse is CERTAINLY true: “You will succeed at nothing by doing nothing.”
Malcolm Gladwell’s famous “10,000 Hour Rule” states that you can attain world-class proficiency in any complex field by applying 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to it. The theory seems to be a contentious claim these days, but I think there’s something to it.
Pessimists will say, “Well, I’ve seen some studies that show the 10,000 rule is bunk, so there’s no point in wasting all that time.” But as an optimist, you look at it a little differently. You think to yourself, “Hey, here’s this thing I want to accomplish, and all I have to do is put 10,000 hours of concerted effort into it to achieve it.” As an optimist, you realize that there’s really only two possible outcomes to that scenario:
- You achieve your goal in 10,000 hours or less.
- You fail to achieve your goal, but accomplish a great deal regardless (certainly more than your peers who wasted the same 10,000 hours).
Not only that, but as an optimist you look at that overwhelming number and say, “Hey, that’s actually not that bad.” If you live to be 70 years old, that’s 613,200 hours worth of lifespan. Subtract 16 years (140,160 hours) of your childhood to get 473,040 hours of adult lifespan. Remove 1/3rd of that for sleep (8 out of 24 hours) and you end up with 315,360 total hours of adult waking lifetime. So conceivably, given a 70-year lifespan you have the opportunity to gain world-class proficiency in no less than 31 different fields.
When you look at it that way, you realize that you’ve got plenty of time to pick up world-class proficiency in one or two skill sets. There’s really no excuse. And even if the 10,000 hour rule only holds true half the time, you have plenty of buffer to give it a shot a couple more times if you prove to be exceptionally unlucky.
When you’re both a generalist and an optimist, the outlook doesn’t appear so dire when you suddenly get assigned to a role that you aren’t familiar with while surrounded by a group of competent peers. In my case, I went from doing product ideation, to managing a team, to pure development. I had no schooling or formal experience in my latest role as a programmer, but I took it in stride.
If I worked 40 hours a week as a developer, it would only take 250 weeks to hit my 10,000-hour mark. That’s only a little more than 4.5 years. And since I wasn’t starting as a complete novice the total is probably closer to 3 or 4. That’s nothing in the grand scheme of things. That’s less time than it would take for me to go back to school and get a degree in computer science. This is all just gravy!
It’s this same kind of optimism that’s going to get you through the roller-coaster ride inherent to startups. Being part of a startup means you’re going to experience a lot of early successes and even more failures. Things start to flatten out as the company gets a bit more established, but if every emergency problem feels like the end of the world for you, you’re not going to last long.
A sense of optimism helps put things in perspective.
You’ve got to be strapped in for the long haul. Smart investors know that seeing significant returns is all about playing the long-term game, and it’s no different here. Ride out the ups and downs. If you can’t see the ocean for the waves, you’re going to drown. Don’t focus on the peaks or the valleys of individual waves; find the overall trend. Look past the waves towards the destination to determine if you’re still on course.
Those that jump ship at the first sign of a storm aren’t going to be around to reap the reward once your ship comes in to shore. As a generalist you should be well accustomed to things not always going according to plan anyway. Sometimes you go where the wind takes you (or where you’re needed). Work that experience to your advantage.
Finally, I should quickly address the common misconception that optimists are delusional dreamers. While that may be true for many, don’t let that be the case for you. If the ship is clearly headed for rocks, it’s just as useful to know when to jump. In my experience however, jumping too late rarely seems to be a problem (people know a looming disaster when they see one), but many people jump prematurely.
Conclusion
It’s easy to ignore this advice. People want concrete steps to get them from A to B. And I don’t blame them for wanting that kind of information. When all the steps are laid out for you, accomplishing a task is relatively easy. The hard work in planning has already been done; you just have to follow the instructions to get there. But any idiot can do that. On the other hand, changing your attitudes and outlook is difficult. It also means giving up who you used to be and how you do things now. That’s a much more involved process that requires a lot of hard honesty and self-reflection… but nothing worthwhile is ever easy.
Consider those people you aspire to be like. Do they inspire you because they followed some “10 easy steps to success” book? Or do they inspire you because of something less tangible? I would suspect that in most cases it is a more effervescent quality about the person that inspires you. Most likely it is something about their personality, philosophy, outlook or even work-ethic that resonates deeply with you. We recognize that the attitudes and qualities these people embody not only align them with success, but allow them to see it through.
Whether or not you stop to consider and adopt your own personal set of behaviors for success is your own choice. Neglecting the self-reflection required to determine your attitudes is the same as choosing to live your life in a purely random and reactionary manner. If you decide to go that route, you may as well flip a coin for every important decision in your life. But aligning your behaviors for success is something only you have the power to do. As Gandhi famously did not say: “Be the change you want to see.”
