by David Epstein
No tool is omnicompetent. There is no such thing as a master key that will unlock all doors
Tiger woods won an under 10 tournament at age 2. He shot 48 at age 3.
Early sampling is a greater predictor of success in sports than is intense specialization from an early age (Federer is more common than Tiger)
Individuals who generalize and find their role later in life end up doing better because their job better fits their personality — the don't succeed in spite of waiting to specialize, they succeed because of it
Highly credentialed experts become narrow-minded which makes them worse at what they do, while they also become more confident — a dangerous combination
The most efficient learning looks inefficient, it looks like falling behind — gathering knowledge is a slow process
People are digging parallel trenches, failing to look up and see the solution is next to them, not below them
The challenge we all face is how to maintain the benefits of breadth, diverse experience, interdisciplinary thinking and delayed concentration in a world that increasingly incentivizes, even demands, hyper-specialization
Grandmasters can memorize chess boards in 3 seconds but only when they represent realistic scenarios. They don’t have photographic memories, they use “chunking”. They can group lots of small pieces of info into a few larger groups of info.
Music savants showed the same pattern, unable to memorize atonal pieces
The narrower a task, the more easily a computer can become prolific at it. The more complex the game, the harder time computers have. This is an argument against being a specialist
Cognitive entrenchment, the argument against the 10,000 hour rule. Master accountants performed worse when given a new tax rules compared to novices
Historically, Nobel prize winning scientists are much more likely to have had a hobby outside of science than non Nobel scientists (22x)
“To him who observes from afar it appears as though they are scattering and dissipating their energies, while in reality they are channeling and strengthening them”
In the wicked world, with ill defined challenges and few rigid rules, range can be a life hack
The Flynn effect: the increase in IQ across generations, observed in many countries