Range : how generalists triumph in a specialized world /
David Epstein.
- 339 pages ; 24 cm.
First published in 2019 by Riverhead Books.
Includes bibliographical reference and index.
What if everything you have been taught about how to succeed in life was wrong? From the 10,000 hours rule to the power of Tiger parenting, we have been taught that success in any field requires early specialization and many hours of deliberate practice. And, worse, that if you dabble or delay, you'll never catch up with those who got a head start. This is completely wrong. In this landmark book, David Epstein shows that the way to excel is by sampling widely, gaining a breadth of experiences, taking detours, experimenting relentlessly, juggling many interests in other words, by developing range. Studying the worlds most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, and scientists Epstein discovered that in most fields especially those that are complex and unpredictable generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. They are also more creative, more agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can't see. Range proves that by spreading your knowledge across multiple domains is the key to success rather than deepening their knowledge in a single area. Provocative, rigorous, and engrossing, Range explains how to maintain the benefits of breadth, diverse experience and interdisciplinary thinking in a world that increasingly demands, hyper-specialization.