{"id":104736,"date":"2019-05-29T12:01:16","date_gmt":"2019-05-29T17:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=104736"},"modified":"2026-09-24T20:29:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T01:29:39","slug":"generalist-specialist-david-epstein-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/manhood\/generalist-specialist-david-epstein-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #512: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We often think that to become a success in today\u2019s modern world, you have to specialize and specialize early. My guest today makes the case that, actually, the most creative, innovative, and successful people don\u2019t specialize. They\u2019re generalists.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>His name is <a href=\"https:\/\/davidepstein.com\/\">David Epstein<\/a> and he\u2019s the author of the book&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0735214484\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=0735214484&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><em>Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World<\/em><\/a>.&nbsp;We begin our conversation discussing two different paths to success as embodied by Tiger Woods and Roger Federer, and why we\u2019re naturally drawn to the former&#8217;s specialized approach even though the latter&#8217;s generalized approach is in fact the most common way to success. David then explains why our increasingly complex and abstract world requires not only having a depth but a breadth of knowledge, and how our education system hinders us from gaining such. David and I discuss why you shouldn&#8217;t expect to know exactly what you&#8217;re going to do for your career when you&#8217;re young, why you should dabble in lots of different activities when you&#8217;re first starting out in life and even when you&#8217;re older, and why there&#8217;s a correlation between having hobbies and winning the Nobel Prize. We also dig into why intrinsic motivation is often mistaken for grit, why you shouldn&#8217;t be afraid to sometimes quit things, and the importance of finding pursuits that fit you if you want to achieve success. We end our conversation, with David&#8217;s argument that our increasing specialization is not only stifling individual flourishing, but also getting in the way of scientific advances that would benefit society.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We often think that to become a success in today\u2019s modern world, you have to specialize and specialize early. My guest today makes the case that, actually, the most creative, innovative, and successful people don\u2019t specialize. They\u2019re generalists.&nbsp; His name is David Epstein and he\u2019s the author of the book&nbsp;Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195324,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,42387,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-manhood","category-podcast"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/512-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/512-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/512-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/512-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/512-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How to Become Successful by Using Generalization | Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We often think that to become a success in today\u2019s modern world, you have to specialize and specialize early. Actually, the most successful are generalists.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/manhood\/generalist-specialist-david-epstein-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #512: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We often think that to become a success in today\u2019s modern world, you have to specialize and specialize early. Actually, the most successful are generalists.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/manhood\/generalist-specialist-david-epstein-interview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-29T17:01:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-09-25T01:29:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/512.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/generalist-specialist-david-epstein-interview\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/generalist-specialist-david-epstein-interview\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Brett\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"headline\":\"Podcast #512: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-29T17:01:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-25T01:29:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/generalist-specialist-david-epstein-interview\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":281,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/generalist-specialist-david-epstein-interview\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/512.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Character\",\"Manhood\",\"Podcast\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2019\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/generalist-specialist-david-epstein-interview\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/generalist-specialist-david-epstein-interview\\\/\",\"name\":\"How to Become Successful by Using Generalization | Art of Manliness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/generalist-specialist-david-epstein-interview\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/character\\\/manhood\\\/generalist-specialist-david-epstein-interview\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/512.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-29T17:01:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-09-25T01:29:39+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.artofmanliness.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84a51044fb965564cde35d18f7e0a832\"},\"description\":\"We often think that to become a success in today\u2019s modern world, you have to specialize and specialize early. 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