[aakimura]

The main assumption of this post is that humans have limited resources to store and compute knowledge. This is shortsighted. Polymaths, though rare, are an example that excellence can be achieved in many domains. Even in the “normal” range of human capability, there are many roles that are designed for a generalist. Healthcare is the prime example. You can’t have specialists handling primary care because they can’t see the human body holistically, but as an instance of what they have specialized into. Product management is also a domain you can’t put specialists in charge. You need people who can translate user / customer needs into technical specifications and even between specialists so they can understand the tasks to be done (think health analytics or other interdisciplinary activities). You also need to be able to understand all faces of a problem to provide an efficient solution. Sometimes you need someone sufficiently unattached to kill features and products that are no longer financially viable. Startup founders, although technical, end up doing everything because of financial constraints. In this case the “regression” towards generalism is a survival skill. IMO, generalists are skilled people who have the ability to learn and adapt faster than the average people and are able to provide reasonable solutions.