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Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein (Summary)
2 min readNov 21, 2021
The book in 50 words:
Cultivating range may give you an edge in an increasingly complex, conceptual yet specialised world.
My collection of nuggets:
- Sampling many instruments can help boost performance in each instrument.
- The myth of an early, specialized head start: There is a myth that starting learning and practising skills from an early age will have lasting impact on our mastery and achievement of the skill (think “10,000 hours” popularised by Tiger Woods/Malcolm Gladwell). This may be effective for certain “closed skills” with predictable patterns (e.g. golf) or in “kind environments” but less relevant in complex, unpredictable skills (such as tennis).
- Research shows that frustration in learning helps boost long term understanding and retention. We need time to understand concepts (including the frustration of figuring it out), not just following procedures.
- The value of analogical thinking (making connections) VS. basing narrowly on an inside view — Unlike kind environment problems where we can infer by pattern, wicked problems require us to reference a broader set of analogies to predict the uncertain outcome. Use analogies from a more distant…