Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

The essential guide to improving your performance, and a powerful argument for how to succeed in any field: develop broad interests and skills while everyone around you is rushing to specialize. From the '10,000 hours rule' to the power of tiger parenting, we have been taught that success in any field requires early specialization and many hours of deliberate practice. If you only dabble or delay, you'll never catch up with those who got a head start. This is completely wrong. In this landmark book, David Epstein shows you that the way to succeed is by sampling widely, gaining a breadth of experiences, taking detours, experimenting relentlessly and juggling many interests - this is the power of developing range. Studying the world's most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors and scientists, Epstein demonstrates why, in most fields, generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. Range has challenged the status quo, reshaped career paths and changed lives. Read it to view the world differently.