range: why generalists triumph in a specialized world (david epstein)
i had to bail on this after dragging myself well over halfway through it. i just couldn’t take the repetition any more. if there was something revelatory in the last 100 pages, my skimming did not surface it. i feel fine with this.
key points/messages:
- subjecting your kid to focus on a single sport early in life is a bad idea. only works out in the rarest of instances.
- broadly, (ha!) specialization, doesn’t yield effective or transformational leaders.
- failure can be a catapult to success
- grit is not a predictor of success. suck it marshmallow test.
- wide ranging exposure and interests can enable one to deal with the increasingly complicated nature of things and establishing relationships.
most of these veer pretty clearly into the domain of duh. but i suppose in a world of 10K hours and masterclass, this is what we get.
various online promotional blubs called this book “provocative”. it wasn’t, it was merely a counterpoint to 10K hours. the verb, “engrossing” was used to describe this book, this was not the case for me.
glad i checked it out from the library.
meta
- location: Minneapolis, MN
- weather: 79°F and Sunny