“The world has 2 kinds of problems: Kind problems that have rigid conditions or specific challenges, and wicked problems that have uncertain conditions or rapidly changing rules.”
“Facing uncertain environments and wicked problems, breadth of experience is invaluable. Facing kind problems, narrow specialization can be remarkably efficient. The problem is that we often expect the hyper-specialist, because of their expertise in a narrow area, to magically be able to extend their skill to wicked problems. The results can be disastrous.”
“The more constrained and repetitive a challenge, the more likely it will be automated, while great rewards will accrue to those who can take conceptual knowledge from one problem or domain and apply it in an entirely new one.”
It’s important to understand when and where one should employ a generalist and a specialist. The thumb rule primarily depends on the nature of the problem at hand and how big or specialized the problem can get in the future. But there is a third kind of problem - the ones that are repetitive and functional - because they will be taken over by robots instead of any specialist or generalist human.
Think over this - what kind of problem are YOU solving for your company/workplace?
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