Kind of a speculative entry today, I don’t have a complete answer. I’ve been trying to crack this nut for a while -
What’s the difference between a generalist and a dabbler?
Rather, what separates a generalist from a dabbler?
They’re very similar. Both dive into a wide variety of things and affairs. Both pick up new skills regularly, sometimes at the expense of the highest level of mastery in a specialized field.
But we all know people who dabble in this, do a little of that, and never make any contributions. And then, on the other hand, you’ve got people like Thomas Jefferson and Leonardo da Vinci, who did excellent work in a variety of fields.
Or take Steve Jobs – it’s not clear that he’s the best person at Apple at anything in particular, aside from maybe his presenting ability. There’s probably more talented people at hiring, managing, design, marketing, operations, cashflow/numbers, negotiation, etc, etc. But one that seems remarkable about Jobs is that he’s really, really good at a great majority of important things. He might not be the best at any one skill he has, but he’s among the best in a huge variety of skills.
… I think I’ve got it.
I love thinking on paper. In this case, I’m not going to go back and edit this entry so it looks like I had it all along. No, I’d rather show you my thought process.
I started thinking about the difference between a generalist and a dabbler. I’m something of a generalist – I’m studied and trained and I’ve worked and played in a lot of different fields.
I think anyone aspiring to a generalist role (in my case, as a strategist) really ought to be concerned that they’re not just dabbling away. I figure, a good generalist type is incredibly valuable to have around, naturally filling many blanks on any team and doing lots of interesting work.
But I think a would-be generalist has to be concerned that they’re not just dabbling. So, what separates a skilled generalist from a mere dabbler, who screws around in this and that but never accomplishes anything? That wouldn’t be a good place to wind up.
My first guess is that the difference would be some overarching purpose. In Jobs’ case, it’s clear he really likes making beautiful things. Everywhere he’s gone, he made incredibly beautiful things. Beauty runs throughout his career – both Apple stints, Next Computer, and Pixar. Beautiful products, beautiful advertising, beautiful packaging, beautiful everything.
But I started thinking more about da Vinci and Jefferson. While da Vinci was clearly a preeminent artist and inventor, he also did a host of pragmatic scientific discoveries, and even worked in warfare. I can’t find a unifying theme throughout his life without forcing it.
Jefferson even less so. Jefferson worked on such a wide range of unrelated things… it’s clear he believed in knowledge, learning, life, liberty, and philosophy… but again, no overarching theme.
No, I don’t think it’s an overarching theme. That was my first guess – my first guess was that the difference between a generalist and a dabbler was that the generalist had some overarching theme or purpose, while the dabbler did not.
I don’t think that’s the answer.
So I asked, then, what do Jobs and Jefferson and da Vinci have in common?
And then one of my favorite quotes hits me.
“Real artists ship.” – Steve Jobs
Could it be that the difference between a generalist and a dabbler is just saying “this is as done as it’s going to be” and shipping the work?
I think maybe yes. If you look at a Jefferson, da Vinci, Jobs – they shipped. A lot. I think the dabbler moves on when he’s 95% complete, so he never gets the completion, satisfaction, and feedback from completing a work.
Also, by completing a work in a field, you gain some renown and prestige, which makes it easier to get in touch with other successful people, which speeds your learning curve.
The dabbler moves on when things get tough. The generalist keeps going until he puts enough work out that he feels complete in a particular field, and then and only then is he on to the next thing.
And that’s perhaps the difference. I’m still regularly surprised by which of my projects are winners and which are not. It’s never the ones I guess or anticipate. By shipping, you have a chance to win. If you don’t ship, you don’t win. You don’t even lose. You don’t get the lessons, the feedback, or connect with other people in the field. You don’t get the satisfaction and boost that comes from shipping.
Is the difference between a generalist and dabbler that the generalist buckles down and ships? I think… I think maybe that’s the difference, yeah. In order to avoid dabbling, ship work in the fields you care about before moving on.
Seems correct. Your thoughts?
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve always thought dabbler=hobby and generalist=work. I think that’s somewhat consistent with your article.
Pretty thoughtful post, thanks.
I’m thinking that once someone moves on from a field (with or without shipping), and does not come back to it or keep in touch with it, s/he gets outdated from that field. And once you are outdated, I am not sure you can be called a generalist or even a dabbler.
In my mind, one common trait for both, is that at any given time you would expect them to remain reasonably competent (at least 80%, because getting to 80% competence in a field only takes 20% of time) in a broad array of fields.
And as time goes, some people prefer to stay with their shortlist of fields and eventually contribute to them and some other people keep changing fields and remain at 80% in all new and old ones they choose to take up.
I think both are valuable kind of people to have in a company/society – not sure if I can bucketize them to generalists or dabblers.
Interesting perspective here Soham… I’m not entirely sure. If someone plays a lot of Chess, wins a few major tournaments, and makes a small contribution to Chess strategy, but then moves on – well, his Chess skills will fade, but he’ll have always made that contribution. I think by doing that, he’s more likely to “lock in” some of the lessons, so to speak – to generalize the Chess lessons to other areas.
I think shipping/competing/delivering something makes you more likely to lock in and generalize lessons than just move on. What do you think?
That could be the real difference: generalists apply the lessons they learn to other fields.
I think you’re on to something. I wouldn’t dismiss the notion of a common theme, though it might be more characterized as the thread that connects the pearls rather than an ever-present leitmotif. The generalist’s ability to pivot success in one endeavor into another seems a common characteristic.
> I wouldn’t dismiss the notion of a common theme, though it might be more characterized as the thread that connects the pearls rather than an ever-present leitmotif.
Ah, yes, this is a good point Ron. From the outside it might not look like a common theme, but there’s very likely some thread that the person can see from the inside.
> The generalist’s ability to pivot success in one endeavor into another seems a common characteristic.
Good insight. I wonder if there’s anywhere to specifically improve at that skill? I can’t recall seeing any work on how to generalize/synergize from one discipline to another. Maybe Waitzkin’s Art of Learning covered it some, but I can’t think of much else. It does seem like a valuable skill…
From Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s latest book, ‘The Bed of Procrustes’:
In any case, I like your definition. I also think that a generalist pursues breadth to expand the void (creating more opportunities to pursue knowledge), while a dabbler pursues breadth to fill it.
> I also think that a generalist pursues breadth to expand the void (creating more opportunities to pursue knowledge), while a dabbler pursues breadth to fill it.
Ah, I like that phrasing a lot. Filling vs. expanding… yes, generalist types seem more expansive, more about pushing limits, doing interesting themes, where the dabbler kills time in a field until it gets too hard, then they move on.
Good insight here. Good quote from Taleb too, cheers.
Mmmm excellent post! A very good question, and an intriguing style too.
I think Soham hit on an excellent point, which you touched on as well. A generalist may not have a theme for all of his generalities, but he usually does have a purpose for them. The end result of this purpose manifests in shipping, yes. But it also manifests in a consistency of various actions over time.
I’m going to pick two examples from my own life that straddle the line…
I dabble in music. I studied piano for several years as a child, and several times since then I’ve spent several months on end playing consistently, even teaching myself basic guitar. But I’ve also spent YEARS playing no music at all, nor do I have any real goals to progress further.
But I would say I’m a generalist in web technology. I’m not too skilled in any part of the stack, but I can speak intelligently top to bottom, and have been active on some part of this goal or another constantly for many years. It’s not something I do with all or even most of my time. But it’s a consistent theme, with goals that support my life.
I think I’ve talked myself into saying the same thing you did. It’s all about results. A dabbler starts things, maybe shows some promise, maybe gets frustrated, and moves on, and the result is wasted time. A generalist has MUCH to learn, and probably abhors wasted time, and also needs to learn how to ship imperfect products. But over time, I think the wide array of skillsets will actually lead to higher quality than a specialist. It just takes longer, but ultimately the ceiling is much higher.
Good stuff. Thanks for the high quality post!
I made this one into a top level post, Phaed, good stuff here and thanks for taking the time to write it up. The point about generalists outperforming specialists particularly made me think.
Very original posting. Keep up the good work.
I think generalist is missing the point, somewhat. Generalists (to me) are but visionaries, to which the term seems more apt.
What you are attempting to get at, IMHO, is what I’ve termed the Tier2 or holistic thinker (not holism in the new age sense, though).
I consider myself a polymath. I’m also a life long autodidact and have often toyed with this thought of classifying what I am. The conclusion I’ve come to is not so singular as one may think it would be. Typical (mainstream) thinkers tend to aggregate into classifiable valuing systems – it’s a natural result of a species’ evolution, that “grouping” should occur.
Graduating from the limited scope of single stream thinking (to concurrent thinking), one will no longer “fit” into any single classifying group. The best attempt I’ve made with any such classifier has been “Tier2 Thinker” or “Holistic Thinker” in that each stream of interest, focus, or thought is a holon or autonomous entity of its own – a synergistic (rather than sum total) unit of the greater stream that is “I”.
Is that a generalist? That one has the ability, capacity, and skill to concurrently be many different “things”? Not really, a generalist is someone lacking depth and still does not conceive of the whole whereas a holistic thinker has both breadth and depth – when it is needed.
Tier2 (holistic) concepts aren’t really seen in our social systems but can be seen in the evolution of the internet. Many concurrent (and diverse!)”streams” happening all at the same time, under the “whole” of what we call the internet or web. It is dead obvious, then, that those who are still locked in their valuing system try to bend it to their values because they cannot see anything outside of that system and deem anything else to be “wrong” or “bad”. The net neutrality fight revolves around this – politicians with a completely different valuing system then that of hackers (who typically trend towards systemic almost holistic valuing) or other more liberal minds see anything but their valuing system as alien.
Now, most hackers/liberal minds who are in the systemic valuing system aren’t holistic because you’ll note they react with the same consternation that politicians react to their valuing system. Holistic thought is a synergistic whole (greater than the sum of its individual parts) of all the parts.
So, these are the terms I tend to use when describing myself: holistic thinker, rogue intellectual, polymath, autodidact, and most importantly: an individual. Hope this was a meaningful comment! :)
Ah I get it too now.
In hindsight:
Generalist – gets a lot of stuff done.
Dabbler – works on a lot of stuff.
Well said. Wow, that was succinct. Really well said Shrikant.
I love this post.
And I think I can help improve it by simplifying it. I think the word “ship” is somewhat obscured. How about simply differentiating based on producing output?
Dabblers mess with things and don’t create anything. Generalists are people who do create–but across a wide range of fields or topics.
The difference is creation.
“Dabblers mess with things and don’t create anything. Generalists are people who do create–but across a wide range of fields or topics.
The difference is creation.”
Brilliant. “The difference is creation.” Brilliantly put, Daniel. Agree 100%, well said.
creation and then share with the world, if you want to be recognized by others.
I don’t think Da Vinci ever “shipped” warfare technologies …
Frankly, how do we even know that Da Vinci and Jefferson were not dabblers? How do we know that history textbooks don’t make dabblers appear as generalists. Maybe if you want your name to be known forever you should aspire to be a dabbler
What defines them as generalists?
I was thinking out in text too, but I think these questions are worth further thought.
The generalist knows what he can ship and not ship.
The Dabbler is incapable of recognising the difference.
Isn’t that experience?
So does an experienced dabbler become a generalist?
My favourite quote :)
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein
This is a great post. Excellent analysis.
I don’t tend to think these mentalities are mutually exclusive though. DaVinci did a lot of things in his life out of his own curiosity. In his own time. Side projects. Not necessarily intending to ship. Though he also did a lot of professional and apprenticeship work, giving him a name, and allowing us to later find his unpublished <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_and_inventions_of_Leonardo_da_Vinci#Leonardo.27s_journals"journals.
I think dabbling is more of a precursor to generalizing. Like a child playing, you need to get a feel for how the world works before adding any value of your own. Moreover, by trying new things all the time, you get better at it. You learn how to pick up new skills. To relate other disciplines to your new one. What kinds of things to look for, to try, giving you a much better understanding much faster.
Dabbling also gives you the ability to choose which things you want to focus on. Which area is lacking the most? What would yield the best benefit? Since these things are not exclusive, you can generalize just a little bit, or go the other extreme and ship on most things you get involved with. It also lets you prioritize. You can decide not to produce music until after you’ve built a that new instrument you’ve been thinking about.
In any case, I think all generalists start out as dabblers. It’s just a matter of maturity and passion on individual disciplines. Though I also think after you start generalizing, you’ll see the benefit and keep doing it. You just have to really push yourself to get there that first time. From scripts to full-fledged websites. From journals to blogs. Licks to compositions. Ideas to products. Thinking of it this way can be helpful too. When you see a dabber, push him or her to take the next step and produce.
Hi Sebastian, just wanted to let you know that you inspired me to write my first ever ‘real’ blog post (long overdue), on this subject :) Thanks for that!
My idea: you can’t broaden and deepen your set of skills at a similar rate as just deepening it. Also broadening might lead to analysis paralysis (‘dabbling’) and making Mastery of a particular field, let alone multiple fields, very difficult. But actually shipping (which indicates that you overcame the analysis paralysis) might be key, if only to learn from the mistakes you make in the process.
Also reminds me about what a friend of mine once said about his brother (a successful dentist, but certainly no generalist): “He was either going to be a carpenter or dentist; aside from the completely different public perception, both require more of less repetitive training of a limited set of actions. He just chose the ‘right’ path.”. Being a generalist definitely requires more discipline (to ship).
I think looking at accomplishment is a good angle, but there is more to it than just the choice of whether to ship. There is also whether you even get something ship-worthy made. Some people are able to create useful or complete things in new fields quickly, for a variety of reasons. Most people are not.
Good strategy here is very important – identifying low hanging fruit, picking projects big enough to be useful but small enough to complete, which use your relative strengths in the field. Identifying the summary that needs writing, the experiment that needs doing, the other field that hasn’t heard about this one but would benefit from it. Someone good at this will contribute more with the same amount of learning.
I tend to view a generalist as someone who cross trains their mind.
Sebastian – You have already answered your own question in your post. The generalist makes contributions while the dabbler does not. Leonardo Da Vinci left many of his ideas uncompleted. Most were never realized. But he made contributions nonetheless when he put these on paper for others to discover, study, and complete for him. The generalists are those who are both smart and get things done. The dabbler is smart but does not get much done.
Nice exchange of ideas.
Efforts to connect what seems disparate dots. I would prefer specialist vs generalist; instead of generaist vs dabbler. Why so?
How would one describe Richard Buckminster Fuller?
What mattered was his own description: a comprehensivist!
Where would you slot Arthur Koestler? or Isaac Asimov ? or Peter F. Drucker ?
The last two were easily slotted as ‘specialists’ though they were generalists within their chosen careers.
It is easy to slot a person if he is a specialist whose contributions confine to a single field’s development with his own creative ideas that are predominantly intra-field sourced.
But a generalist seeks creative ideas predominantly across the disciplines – inter-fields- where in he/she looks out for patterns and inter-connectivities.
It is one thing for a neurologist or a cognitive scientist to explore the gamut of biological studies for connectivities when what he/she does is an intra-field generalism.
But if a cognitive scientist looks far off into other fields – literature, arts, history, dance, music, besides other scientific fields (like mathematics), to arrive at a summation of ideas, he or she is a inter-fields generalist. Take Stephen Jay Gould for an example in his chosen field.
How would one classify Martin Gardner? A guy who was a specialist if one accounted for his career but with broad interests that makes him a generalist too. So is Douglas Hofstadter! Though a Computer Scientist, his summative thoughts were/are about mind patterns that fluidly surfed and dived across literature, art, genetics, mathematical logic, calligraphy and music (among others).
So, I reckon, we need to consider and go beyond the conventional historical references such as Da Vinci as a polymath.
Application need not be necessarily a criterion. Its about thought mode, multiplicity of aspirations, exploratory patterns of the mind, synthesizing of diverse ideas for a consilience.
Dabbler as a descriptive seems to be more a put down! Even if its only ‘conversation’, still one can differentiate between a specialist and a generalist!
Many scientists/intellectual thinkers/artists – who were generalists being specialists – have also been dabblers! Where do you draw the line? What one (specialization/generalization/dabbling) contributes to another alone matters within the domain of ideas if it happens at all; translating ideas into products cannot be the necessary criterion if history is a clue so far.
Good reply MS.
Re: generalist/specialist and generalist/dabbler, I think they measure slightly different things… you said “dabbler” is kind of put down – I agree in a sense. But the use of the word isn’t to insult or put anyone down, so much as to strive against dabbling and into successful generalism (or specialism if you prefer).
> Many scientists/intellectual thinkers/artists – who were generalists being specialists – have also been dabblers! Where do you draw the line?
It’s inherently subjective – but I still think that shipping/completing work is generally a good idea that most people would do well to strive for.
Good comment, good discussion, cheers.
A slight error had occurred while posting with my name appearing as ‘m’ instead of the full name. Probably due to a glitch I had after having pressed the post button. I had to reload and only then I saw the error (should I call an auto-error for I had typed the full name the first time too!).
Thank you!
{ 7 trackbacks }