Should you aim to specialise in a single domain, developing deep expertise on a specific topic? Or aim for breadth, developing understanding of a wide range of domains? In David Epstein's view, we should be aiming for the latter, and that is the argument that he puts forward in his 2019 book, Range. The poster child for (and possibly, against) the idea of specialising early and deeply is Tiger Woods, who Epstein contrasts with Roger Federer in the first chapter. I hadn't realised the breadth of Federer's sporting experience as a youth, and that he came to tennis rather late. He seems to have turned out all right, so is a good place to start.
The book is wide-ranging and somewhat difficult to abstract, but here is what Epstein writes in the conclusion:
The question I set out to explore was how to capture and cultivate the power of breadth, diverse experience, and interdisciplinary exploration, within systems that increasingly demand hyperspecialization, and would have you decide what you should be before first figuring out who you are.
So, a part of Epstein's argument in favour of breadth over depth is to develop a range of experiences. His own journey is a good example:
When I was seventeen and positive that I was going to go to the U.S. Air Force Academy to become a pilot and then an astronaut...
But I never did any of that. Instead, at the last minute I changed my mind and went elsewhere to study political science. I took a single poli-sci class, and ended up majoring in Earth and environmental sciences and minoring in astronomy, certain I would become a scientist. I worked in labs during and after college and realized that I was not the type of person who wanted to spend my entire life learning one or two things new to the world, but rather the type who wanted constantly to learn things new to me and share them. I transitioned from science to journalism...
I have to say that I should be very much in favour of Epstein's argument, as my own path to economics was long and winding. I too wanted to become an Air Force pilot, but failed to get into the final intake of the RNZAF fighter pilot programme. I went to university, and started initially in physics and maths, then changed in my second year to chemistry and materials science, before dropping out. I have variously worked as a lab technician, a labourer, an accountant, and in hospitality. I finally went back to university to study accounting, but before the end of my first year back I had decided to switch to economics and strategic management, before later dropping strategic management in favour of a focus on economics. However, to say that I 'focused' would probably be overstating the case, and one look at my academic CV would reveal the range of research projects in health economics, population economics, and development economics, that I have been involved in. Unlike most economists, I haven't gone deep on any particular topic, and I guess that is also reflected in the wide range of topics that I post on in this blog.
However, in spite of being somewhat predisposed to Epstein's arguments, I found myself not entirely convinced. He presents a large collection of anecdotes, supported by lots of references to research, and yet I didn't find it compelling. In part, that's because there are really two separate (but related) arguments that Epstein is really making. In the early part of the book, he argues for more breadth for individuals. That is, he argues that people should err towards becoming generalists rather than specialists, or at least they should delay specialisation until they have had a chance to test out many different paths. Later in the book, Epstein switches to advocating for diversity of teams. That is, that teams should be comprised of a variety of viewpoints and should develop norms of challenging group-think. The two parts of the book are clearly related, but ironically by failing to specialise the book on one or the other (and preferably the first argument), I think Epstein doesn't advance the arguments as much or as thoroughly as he could. IN particular, in relation to teams there is a whole research literature on ethnic and gender diversity of teams and viewpoint diversity that would have added significantly to the argument, but was not considered.
Despite that gripe, I did enjoy the book, and there are some important implications for education. In particular, if there are advantages to late specialisation, that suggests that making university students elect for a major at the start of their degree is a mistake (which is something that I have argued), and may hamper the development of their future careers. More breadth within majors would also seem to be useful, and on that point I thought this part of the book, which describes some research undertaken by New Zealand-based political researcher James Flynn (famous for the Flynn effect) on students at top state universities in the U.S.:
Each of twenty test questions gauged a form of conceptual thinking that can be put to widespread use in the modern world. For test items that required the kind of conceptual reasoning that can be gleaned with no formal training - detecting circular logic, for example - the students did well. But in terms of frameworks that can best put their conceptual reasoning skills to use, they were horrible. Biology and English majors did poorly on everything that was not directly related to their field. None of the majors, including psychology, understood social science methods... Econ majors did the best overall. Economics is a broad field by nature, and econ professors have been shown to apply the reasoning principles they've learned to problems outside their area.
I'll take being the best of a bad bunch as a moral victory for economics. However, it is clear that education needs to be re-considered. Another thing that comes in for some criticism is the difficulty that interdisciplinary research has in getting funding. Epstein observes that research increasingly involves asking for funding for research where the answer is already known before the research begins. That isn't a recipe for advancement, or the type of serendipitous discoveries that underlie a surprising number of Nobel Prizes.
Anyway, the book is a good read. And interestingly, just as I was finishing up reading it, my attention was drawn to this new article published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science, which concludes that:
...(a) adult world-class athletes engaged in more childhood/adolescent multisport practice, started their main sport later, accumulated less main-sport practice, and initially progressed more slowly than did national-class athletes; (b) higher performing youth athletes started playing their main sport earlier, engaged in more main-sport practice but less other-sports practice, and had faster initial progress than did lower performing youth athletes; and (c) youth-led play in any sport had negligible effects on both youth and adult performance.
So, there is definitely something to be said for breadth over depth, in science and in sport.
[HT: Marginal Revolution, for the article]
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