The e-VeryThing Syndrome
Posted January 14th, 2006 at 01:07pm
About six years ago during the height of the dot-com madness, I was flown across the continent on very little notice for an e-learning consultation, and promptly placed in a high-end hotel (the type that feels no need to include “quality” in its title). Each morning the hotel would sponsor a special e-networking breakfast room for select guests, and it was here one morning that I stood, overlooking San Diego while indulging in aromatic coffees, decadent pastries and exotic fruits. There I made the acquaintance of the CEO of a newly-public company (e-something- or-other, of course), a man in his mid-twenties, just a few years younger than I, but far better-groomed and clad in clothes costing more than a luxury sedan.
The first ten minutes of the conversation was decidedly one-sided, and he went on at length about how he outsmarted his stock advisors and “stuck it to the vulture capitalists” to attain the nearly $40 million he needed to pursue his super-secret business idea (which, true be told, once he explained it to me, sounded like a flaky advertising project to create and sell ads to run within a company’s own intranet). R&D money, for him, meant wining and dining celebrities and high-powered executives in epicurean and orgiastic parties held in rented designer mansions. To determine what people actually wanted, of course.
He asked what I did, and I told him why I was there, and a little bit about my jack-of-all-trades background. He didn’t seem interesting in anything besides himself, so I kept it short. The conversation then went something like this….
“Listen, guy,” he said, mouth half-full with baklava no doubt flown in from Greece –he called everyone guy, even the women in the room– “there are two types of people in the world: the generalists and the specialists.”
I nodded, trying to hold up an tiny expresso cup in my large hands without jutting out a pinkie, because my father told me it wasn’t a manly thing to do.
“The specialists back themselves into a corner, you see. They only have one set of skills, and when those aren’t needed any more, where are they?” He awaited my response, a Socrates probing his Plato, while he picked his teeth with his forefinder and flicked the flakes ramdomly.
“Where?” I asked, cleaning off my tie in as subtle a fashion as possible.
“I’ll tell you where, guy… no where!” he exclaimed, slamming down his empty cup upon the table by way of punctuation. “But people like you and me, we’re too smart for that.”
“Are we?”
“You betcha, guy. You see, we’re the people who evolved, while others got left behind. You don’t see us running around with apes, do you?”
My mind returned to university, when a female friend of mine started dating a large and uncouth individual with an excess of body hair, but I simply shook my head.
“We’re the ones who adapt, who know enough about how everything works that we can be leaders. And leaders are leaders.”
A brilliant observation, I observed.
This went on for another ten minutes, wherein he expounded upon the virtues of those people who knew little about anything in particular, but about many things in general.
It almost made me feel good, however briefly. I had always been a generalist –I prefer the term “well-rounded”– with a hand in everything from project management to art and design, from high-tech multimedia production to marketing, from programming to teaching high school literature. I’d always adapted, often quickly, to whatever role was necessary at the moment, learning whatever skills were needed. It wasn’t a waste of time after all, I reflected.
In 2003, after the dot-com collapse had bankrupted the technology-based private college I was working for, I started going through all the business cards I had collected a few years previous, partly out of curiosity but mostly in the vain efforts to catch a few leads. The CEO’s company, like all the others, was redirected to a squatter’s perch with the pitch “This domain name is available and can be yours!”
Meanwhile, I’m still in pursuit of permanent employment with a good future, while all my specialist friends have been gainfully employed for years with decent, stable incomes. Sometimes it doesn’t pay to be a generalist, I’ve decided.
9 Comments Add your own
1. Brad Reid | January 14th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
Excellent story, Doug. It reminds me of some of Vonnegut’s short story work from the fifties. Seriously!
Developed a little more, with a middle and an end perhaps, it could be indeed a short story itself. This Domain Name would itself make an excellent title.
2. Stephen Harris | January 14th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Excellent work here man! You have a bevy of wonderful writing to explore and I could spend many an hour reading in each of the catagories.
I’ll be back, as they say… And by they, I mean Arnold.
Stephen
http://newfoundlandgreenparty.blogspot.com
3. Tom | January 15th, 2006 at 2:15 am
Funny, I tell myself this everyday. I’m not as good as the pl/sql developer in the next cube, I’m not as good as the network guy down the hall, I’m not as good as the qmail engineer at the .com down the street and I’m not as good as the Sr. technical project managers in the offices on the 2nd floor…but….none of them can do everything I can do.
Although I’ve been lucky and kept an Oracle background which for some reason always keeps me employed, I’ve never been an ‘expert’ and it bugs me and bugs me. For years I thought I had ADD. I would read 20 pages of an Oracle book, 35 pages of a ‘learn java in 3 hours’ book but never finish any of them.
So, after I read this post, I’m happy there are others out there like myself. The next time I tell my boss that it’s ] to get out of a stuck telnet window and all the database guys look at me trying to figure out how I knew that, I’ll think of this article. haha
4. Katina French | January 16th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
Somewhere in all this is a neat little connection to Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey stuff, I just know it.
In fairy tales, it’s invariably the generalist Jack of all Trades who ends up being the hero of the story, and the specialists who end up being the sideline characters who are simply there to contribute what they can to moving the Hero’s story arc along. Possibly why so many fairy tales have heroes named “Jack.”
There now. Does that make you feel good for a moment, anyway?
Sure, the gods and goddesses of specificity are complacently well-employed, but their stories aren’t nearly as interesting as ours.
5. Robert | January 16th, 2006 at 3:04 pm
“You don’t see us running around with apes, do you?” No, just monkeys. Lots and lots of monkeys.
Being a generalist has its ups and downs, it’s true. Once you’re in, though, you can make yourself useful in lots of ways. That’s how I got to be a SQL Server DBA at my last job — “Robert’s smart, he can learn it.” Thanks, guys…
Specialists have different problems — if the specialty falls out of favor, what do they do? All those COBOL programmers who were hot stuff right before Y2K — what are they doing today?
6. Warren | January 20th, 2006 at 9:29 am
Doug, this is good stuff, as are all of the comments here. I fall into the generalist category as well. Perhaps it is a personality trait that people have or don’t have. In any case, thanks for the insight. Well done!
7. anna | February 10th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
I love your writing style!
8. Marc Shiman | April 14th, 2006 at 2:05 pm
From your last paragraph - “I’m still in pursuit of permanent employment with a good future, while all my specialist friends have been gainfully employed for years with decent, stable incomes.” you seem to suggest wistfulness about what you are missing out on. This really gets at the heart of the issue; and it isn’t generalists vs. specialists.
Stay with me for a moment.
“Generalist” is often another phrase for “I haven’t found my life’s calling yet”. “Specialist” is not necessarily the antithesis. Often its about “I’m willing to stick with one thing to live the lifestyle I want”.
I don’t think you are a generalist from this post - I think you are the opposite of the specialist who surrenders his sense of discovery in order to get a regular paycheck. (I feel like I can say this a little, because I’m the same). Judging from your story, you want to learn new things, and you don’t want to be held back by some employer and a job description.
Having a decent stable income isn’t all its cracked up to be. There are no “permanent” jobs. On the other hand - bright futures are not the sole domain of the specialized and employed; its just that the generalist don’t always see them as clearly.
Stick with your current path and resist the temptation to specialize. One day you will be called to do something… your contribution… and nothing else will matter. You won’t care that you are a specialist, and it won’t be about the job and the benefits.
9. Cass | May 20th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
*Perhaps* “gainfully employed for years with decent, stable incomes” is a *vastly overrated* state of attainment….
…just a thought…
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