Comments on: Rethinking the ‘Specialist Generalist’ approach http://josephlindsay.com/archives/2005/06/09/rethinking-the-specialist-generalist-approach/ Joseph Lindsay - Specialist generalist, Web Craftsman Wed, 02 Nov 2011 21:58:01 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Chris Hobcroft http://josephlindsay.com/archives/2005/06/09/rethinking-the-specialist-generalist-approach/comment-page-1/#comment-8158 Chris Hobcroft Mon, 02 Oct 2006 17:01:07 +0000 http://josephlindsay.com/?p=242#comment-8158 Apologies for the long delay in writing a response to this - I've only just found these pearls of wisdom. The specialist v generalist trade off is a difficult one - with risks on both sides. I'm at the "3 year into my career" stage where I need to start making some decisions. Generalism is definitely my "comfort zone" at the moment - but I'm thinking of going more specialised - but not too far. My suggested approach is to gradually cut down the number of "things" which I know about - i.e. to go from "knowing 10% about 10 things" to "knowing 20% about 5 things" to "knowing 33% about 3 things" - and stopping this reduction when I don't feel like pushing the comfort zone out any more... However what this requires, as you quite rightly point out, is a *plan* - where do *I* want to be in 5 years time, and how do *I* get there. I try to make my own personal mantra "Today is going to be a good day, because I'm going to *make* it a good day" - why don't I extend that to my career / life... Apologies for the long delay in writing a response to this – I’ve only just found these pearls of wisdom.

The specialist v generalist trade off is a difficult one – with risks on both sides. I’m at the “3 year into my career” stage where I need to start making some decisions.

Generalism is definitely my “comfort zone” at the moment – but I’m thinking of going more specialised – but not too far.

My suggested approach is to gradually cut down the number of “things” which I know about – i.e. to go from “knowing 10% about 10 things” to “knowing 20% about 5 things” to “knowing 33% about 3 things” – and stopping this reduction when I don’t feel like pushing the comfort zone out any more…

However what this requires, as you quite rightly point out, is a *plan* – where do *I* want to be in 5 years time, and how do *I* get there.

I try to make my own personal mantra “Today is going to be a good day, because I’m going to *make* it a good day” – why don’t I extend that to my career / life…

]]> By: Richard http://josephlindsay.com/archives/2005/06/09/rethinking-the-specialist-generalist-approach/comment-page-1/#comment-1646 Richard Thu, 09 Jun 2005 09:10:41 +0000 http://josephlindsay.com/?p=242#comment-1646 Yes I can sympathise! (surprise surprise :-) One approach that helped me become more of a specialist - and I do think I am more of one than when I wrote the above quote - was to pick a couple of specialist topics for my blog and really focus on them. Of course for me it's Web 2.0 and Social Media, but the thing is it's actually helped me focus my skillset too - analysis and writing have become my 'trade'. What a pity nobody in New Zealand has any jobs in that trade! :-0 But I'm starting to make progress, slowly, with jobs in the US and abroad - where my specialisation is becoming recognized. So my humble advice - focus your blog on 1-2 topics and really hone your skills by writing about them. Yes I can sympathise! (surprise surprise :-) One approach that helped me become more of a specialist – and I do think I am more of one than when I wrote the above quote – was to pick a couple of specialist topics for my blog and really focus on them. Of course for me it’s Web 2.0 and Social Media, but the thing is it’s actually helped me focus my skillset too – analysis and writing have become my ‘trade’. What a pity nobody in New Zealand has any jobs in that trade! :-0 But I’m starting to make progress, slowly, with jobs in the US and abroad – where my specialisation is becoming recognized.

So my humble advice – focus your blog on 1-2 topics and really hone your skills by writing about them.

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