Range by David Epstein (no connection with Jeffrey Epstein) is a great book that argues that specialisation is not necessarily the best approach for success. Contrary to popular belief, many of the best-performing individuals in sports and other fields didn’t specialize early. Instead, they explored different specializations, gaining a competitive advantage when they eventually decided to focus on the field in which they ultimately excelled.
The book explores the concept of range from various personal and organizational perspectives. It demonstrates how an outsider’s experience can be valuable in overcoming difficult challenges, how changing careers can be a major unlock, and how the ability to deviate from expert advice in the right context can be vital. This last point reminded me of the amazing book Think Again by Adam Grant.
Something I hadn’t thought much about before reading this book is the concept of delayed learning. This is where one’s ability to process and retrieve knowledge long-term can be significantly enhanced by having a delay between the learning phase and the phase in which learned knowledge is tested. It’s a totally basic concept, which I have now implemented in some of the work I do.
