Ask HN: Is There a Place for Generalists

Re:Ask HN: Is There a Place for Generalists by eganist on Thursday May 19, 2022 @09:21AM (#31434277)

> I am reading through a thread on how to scale a company, and one of the points is replace generalists with specialists. How can a generalist optimise for a long term career?

Pick up the management and leadership skills (including things like decisioning on incomplete inputs) and step up the ladder. Generalists are essential in the executive team to have the necessary context, make hard decisions, and own outcomes.

Alternatively, enjoy working in small teams (skunkworks-type product teams in large orgs, startups, or teams that are small by nature of what they do e.g in media and entertainment).

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Re:Ask HN: Is There a Place for Generalists by grldd on Thursday May 19, 2022 @09:34AM (#31434437)

From what I've seen only specialists are moved to management.

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Re:Ask HN: Is There a Place for Generalists by sloaken on Thursday May 19, 2022 @11:26AM (#31435938)

I disagree. Although a specialist will often move up one level, and manage a group of specialist that specialize in what the manager specializes in. Often when they have to move up to manage people outside of their specialization they are hampered, if for no other reason they do not enjoy the diversity. They specialized for a reason.

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Re:Ask HN: Is There a Place for Generalists by dredmorbius on Thursday May 19, 2022 @11:02AM (#31435589)

That doesn't match my experience at all.

Could you provide examples?

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