2-3-4 FRIDAY

‘Seeking to spark the most potential within you per word of any online newsletter’

 

1 THOUGHT 

I used to think it was about going deep into something. Go 2 inches wide, and 2 miles deep. Develop deep skill, in one thing. Be known for that one thing. That’s how you succeed in life. 

 

But increasingly, I’m realising that it’s about your range of experiences, and not your depth of experience in one particular field. 

Here’s one reason why. 

 

Today, we live in what Hogarth calls a ‘wicked’ learning environment, where the rules are unclear. It’s tempting to take the route of increasing specialisation. Get your bachelor’s. Then grow in your knowledge with a masters. If that’s not enough, take a PHD. Our world today encourages greater and greater hyper-specialisation. That’s not wrong. But today, we live in a world that’s a ‘wicked’ learning environment, rather than a kind one.

 

What’s the difference? In a kind learning environment, there are repeated patterns and clear rules. Like chess. Or golf. Or firefighting. In those environments, the more you practice, the harder you try, the greater your ability to spot patterns, and to get a predictable outcome. 

 

Compare this to many jobs today where there are no clear patterns or feedback. You may grapple with delivering services in a COVID-disrupted environment. Or know how to adjust to the rapidly changing world. 

What’s needed is a range of experiences that allow you to fit on different spectacles and lenses to look at the problem. For example, working in the social service sector, I never expected my experiences as a stock investor, or as a speaker, or at Google, to have any relevance in solving social sector problems.

 

But one evening, as we were looking at how to overcome a reduction in our donation income, it all came back. It wasn’t about answering, “How are we going to get more money so that we don’t go bankrupt?” But it was about stepping back and asking, “Was money the problem here?” We took steps to increase staff efficiencies with technology. 

A wider range of experiences doesn’t help you to answer better. It helps you to ask better questions. Because when we are deep in experience in a certain field, we use all the mental models of that field to solve the problem.

 

Sometimes, what’s needed is time to step back, examine our assumptions, and ask, 

• What is the problem we are trying to solve here? 
• What are our assumptions going into this? 

1 QUOTE

Approach your own personal voyage and projects like Michelangelo approached a block of marble, willing to learn and adjust as you go and even to abandon a previous goal and change directions entirely should the need arise. 

 

Research on creators in domains from technological innovation to comic books shows that a diverse group of specialists cannot fully replace the contributions of broad indiduvals. Even when you move on from an area of work or an entire domain, that experience is not wasted. 

• David Epstein, Range: Why Generalists Triumph In a Specialised World

1 TIP

Run experiments. If you’re interested in something, don’t hesitate by thinking,

• is this going to contribute to my career? 
• will this give me deeper expertise? 

Run an experiment. Just do it. Here’s an example. I never knew what it was like to write a book. Publishers weren’t replying. So I decided, “Let’s just do it ourselves.” 

The journey has been exhilarating. I’ve made many mistakes along the way, and probably won’t be a million copy bestseller… but it’s taught me so much about shipping and learning. 

So don’t hesitate the next time you want to do something. Just try it. It can be something like Zumba. 

You may not be able to twerk like that instructor, but you can definitely move your butt. 

John

liveyoungandwell.com - Work Your Love