Maybe I didn't understand the article correctly, but are there any people, especially on HN, that identify as specialists? By that I mean, they only know one skill, and that's it, they don't consider themselves T shaped.
I’ve hired plenty. They were sometimes the best engineers at my company, specifically at executing tasks that were very difficult but they were experts at, and others would have had to take time to spin up and learn the art.
The drawback was that they were pretty much only interested in that specialty. They might be curious about other things, but they were genuinely happiest doing what they loved.
Reminds me of that joke story about a needle-point sharpener guy who's better than anyone else in the world at it, but then surprised when he accidentally learns about the needle eyes. After all, the needle eyes are not his specialty, he's not required to know about them!
I've seen a good amount people that identify themselves as DB people or QA people or sysadmins and wanted to know nothing outside their corner of the woods. As in "don't even explain that to me, just do your part" that was often a source of problems.
Once a client demanded that we worked with some encryption framework that required open ports. A delegation of the crypto company had to come to spend the day and hold some meetings because the networks people couldn't take my word for it.
Maybe the militant single domain focus posture is not driven only by personal values but has something to do with how organization pressures and rewards people? Chastising people for doing things out of the scope of their responsibility is a thing I hear.
That's me most of the time. I used to describe my position as troublemaker. Of course I also used to do things to compensate that perception.
Anyway, whatever the reason, for the company it's interesting to have both the right people and the right policies.
I'm not sure what made that people not even wanting to take a look at firewall permissions. It was obvious that the ports were closed. Actually I learned that my workstation had a public IP address, totally useless anyway because all ports were closed from the outside.
If you don't forage/cultivate your own food, weave your own clothes, and build your own shelter, you're a specialist. All humans are specialists and this is probably our single biggest evolutionary advantage. The trend toward increased specialization is obvious to me so this and the previous discussion about being a generalist vs. specialist are strange.
All I can do at decent level is computer related stuff, call me one trick pony.
Meanwhile I know people who are perfectly capable making money of truck driving, drilling, a lot of construction related work, simple mechanics, and a lot of more.
This comment reminds me of a great article I read ages ago and had to track down. When you're deeply focused in one area, you're most keenly aware of all the aspects of that area that you aren't an expert in. For example, I consider myself to be a complete novice at relational DBs, but from the perspective of your example truck driving, drilling, construction working, mechanic, I might as well be an expert. I guess it's important to keep in mind the scope domains that you're considering for any given situation.
hmm, I didn't meant expert level, just proficient enough to be able to make money off it, so not very low bar, but as you pointed - probably not expert.
I think yes. I have colleagues that are in certain fields because those things really are their passion, and they want to get as good as possible at them. For instance a mechanical or electrical engineer who really doesn't care what the GUI for using the product is going to look like.
Sometimes it's a true passion for a field, other times it's because there would be so much friction switching tools or learning the internal standards and tools of a business. For instance programming means not only coding, but also familiarity with the tools, libraries, and coding standards of a coding shop, which take time to learn.
Sometimes it's just due to human nature, that larger organizations become silo'd, and practicing two skills means navigating the politics of two silo's, twice the number of meetings, etc. Also, if you belong to silo A, and help out with B, then the manager of A gets annoyed with you. So in a sense specialization is a way to find a comfort zone in a typical human organization, even in what are considered to be good workplaces.
> are there any people, especially on HN, that identify as specialists?
I specialize in solving problems.
I've never found anyone with my capacity for researching, understanding and quickly putting together a plan to address some exigency.
Whether that be triaging an issue in an opaque production environment or crafting a marketing plan to help tell the story of what my local community does well, that's what I specialize in.
Recently I went through a phase where I volunteered extensively with the expressed goal of teaching others something to which I'm privy from which they should benefit. I learned more my students, specifically that the exercise was largely wasted time. The uptake by the recipients just wasn't there.
I don't write for the benefit of others, but I do write for the benefit of me, to keep that skill sharp.
I'll tell you my secret sauce, which is being gifted with some intelligence and applying oneself relentlessly. It's a straightforward recipe for success and it's only remarkable in an ocean of mediocrity.
The drawback was that they were pretty much only interested in that specialty. They might be curious about other things, but they were genuinely happiest doing what they loved.