Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. Two very different books that I’m working my way through brought up an interesting concept that ties in to a lot of what we talk about here. I wanted to share it with you.
From the book Peak the new science of athletic performance that is revolutionizing sports, Dr. Marc Bubbs introduces the idea of the expert-generalist.
“In the wake of overspecialization, let’s consider the expert-generalist, a term coined by Orit Gadiesh, chairman of Bain & Company, to describe ‘someone who has the ability and curiosity to master and collect expertise in many different disciplines, industries, skills, capabilities, and topics”
Gadiesh highlights that the expert-generalist can draw on a pallete of diverse knowledge to recognize patterns and connect the dots across multiple areas. Rather than diving deeply into one subject, the expert-generalist casts a wide net across multiple disciplines, expanding the breadth of their knowledge rather than simply plumbing the depths.
The context for Dr Bubbs, is that it is difficult for the athlete to be a true expert in their individual sport or discipline, and also be an expert in nutrition, hydration, sleep/recovery, training/programing, etc…Â But, an expert-generalist, can have a breadth of knowledge across those many disciplines to maximize athletic performance.
The second book is The Storm Before the Calm by George Friedman. A geopolitical forecaster, Friedman’s latest book examines the history of the US through the lense of institutional and socioeconomic cycles.
Below is Friedman’s theory on the issues plaguing the current institutional cycle that will need correction as it reaches the end of its useful life.
“The second problem is that the expertise that won World War II and built the postwar world is now encountering its own problem of inefficiency—diffusion. Diffusion is the distribution of authority among several departments or agencies. At a lower level, it is the diffusion and fragmentation of knowledge among individual experts. Knowledge of what is happening is diffused rather than integrated. Diffusion ties in with the problem of expertise. Expertise is needed. But experts are experts in different things, and when entities are constructed with specific expertise, barriers are built between entities that are sometimes dealing with the same issue.”
“Instead of creating a single perspective on a problem, experts have perspectives on different parts of a problem, and the entity they represent has parallel responsibilities for fragments of an issue. This creates diffusion with the federal government and frequently contradictory directions for entities. What had begun in World War II as an effort that was highly focused on war and tightly controlled turned into a highly diffused undertaking frequently lacking a center from which it can be understood. This is not unique to the federal government. It happens in all, particularly large, organizations. Expertise has this inherent defect. But in the federal government, the problem is the size of the defect.”
Being an expert in just one area can lead to a myopic view. This leads to errors when the project or problem spans across multiple domains.
Triathlon immediately comes to mind. It is impossible to be a true expert in any one of the three disciplines, without developing shortcomings in the others. Throw in, hydration, nutrition, recovery, strength work, and being an expert generalist is the only reasonable path forward.
Mixed martial arts is very much the same. There is too much to learn, to many holes to plug, that it is impossible to be a true expert in all of them. Even Brazilian Jiu Jitsu on its own, has so many different unique positions, that you are starting to see experts in very specific “games”, rather than well-rounded expert-generalists.
Hell, even just being a parent nowadays requires being an expert-generalist. There is no instruction manual. Trying to keep up on what is healthy, what will nurture and promote proper development, what will keep them safe, is a full time job. Too narrowly focusing on any one aspect will inevitably lead to overlooked and mismanaged areas.
We rely on experts for advice, and that is important. But taking too narrow of a focus can lead to missing the forest for the trees. It is sometimes better to know a little about a lot, rather than a lot about a little.
There are two built in benefits to embracing being an expert-generalist that jump out to me right away.
Before you can learn a little about a lot, you have to have a natural curiosity. Being an expert-generalist inherently promotes continuous lifelong learning.
It will also lead you to a lot of situations where you don’t know the answer. Getting comfortable with not knowing is a difficult but worthwhile pursuit. It pushes you to learn. To be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. To go out and find the answers. (Coming full circle to curiosity and lifelong learning)
If Friedman and Bubbs are right, embracing an expert-generalist mentality should help us be better athletes, better parents, and better people. I’m sure there is some serenity in there along the way.
Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.
