Range - Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
David Epstein

Summary

Using countless examples, David Epstein makes the case that learning about a lot of different things helps you triumph in a hyper-specialized world. Bill Gates even recommended it as one of his best books of 2020 (here)

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Notes

Brilliance relies on repetitive structures like chunking for memory

Our greatest strength as humans is the exact opposite of narrow specialization

3 IQ points gained on average every 10 years in 30 countries

Strong evidence that too many lessons at a young age is not beneficial but that the most successful people were the ones who tried many instruments

Tolerating big mistakes can create the best learning opportunities

Training with hints does not produce any lasting learning

Ease is a sign you are not learning, unlike frustration

Studying problems jumbled together improves performance more than block studying

In a wicked world, use analogies from completely outside the box to solve your problem

Narrowly focusing on specific details to a problem is the exact wrong thing to do. Take a wide angle view

Explanation is not just a whimsical luxury of education; it’s a central benefit

Those who switch careers are winners

All the dark horses (most successful people) had short term planning goals. Just do whatever you can now to learn as much as possible

The precise person you are now is fleeting, just like all the other people you’ve been

We learn who we are only by living, not before

You don’t know what’s good and bad when things happen. You do not know. You have to wait to find out.

Magnesium has as much evidence as working for migraines than ibuprofen because someone was able to collect and aggregate common knowledge amongst many different domains

Broad experience makes creatives better on average and more likely to innovate

The best forecasters are open minded, extremely curious and constantly looking for contrary ideas in other disciplines to challenge their thinking

Consider completely unrelated events with structural commonalities rather than relying on intituition based on personal experience

If you’re analyzing a problem, make sure you understand if you have all the data points and the data you’re looking at is complete

Don’t feel behind. Compare yourself to yourself from yesterday, not anyone else. Start planning experiments and innovate

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