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/lit/ - Literature

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10659237 No.10659237 [Reply] [Original]

Is it better to be a specialist or a generalist?

On the one hand, you can get deep specific knowledge on a topic, though your view may become myopic.

On the other hand, you may know a lot about many different topics, thereby giving yourself a cohesive and somewhat comprehensive worldview, but your understanding may be limited by shallowness.

Hmph.

>> No.10659242
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10659242

>>10659237
>says tv on the tv

>> No.10659244

>>10659242
well it's not exactly obvious that it's not a book

>> No.10659263

>>10659237
that’s some serious ableism shitlord

>> No.10659286

>>10659263
screw off fatty

>> No.10659321

A specialist with a good general knowledge. You may focus on 19th century English literature for example, but it's important to you to know something about 19th century French literature, the philosophical currents of that time and the basic zeitgeist of the period.

>> No.10659344

Look, I read all the time, but you’ll have to pry my weekly episode of Impractical Jokers from my cold, dead hands.

>> No.10659346

>>10659321
This.
You may specialyse, but a specialist who dosen't understand the surroundings usualy is a bad specialist too.

>> No.10659376

>>10659244
Lots of TVs say TV on them when it's displaying an input label.

I think one of the main benefits of having a broader knowledge base is knowing how your specialty fits into the bigger picture. For English, I think Eliot talks about this in Tradition and the Individual Talent. For math and science, I mean knowing where the tools that you use come from and how they've been generalized, as well as the historical context for your work.

Beyond that, I think hoping that you'll see something in one field that applies to another is great and often works out but isn't really a good strategy if that's all you're in it for.

>> No.10659383

>>10659376
Sorry, I meant >>10659242

>> No.10661059

>>10659376
>I think one of the main benefits of having a broader knowledge base is knowing how your specialty fits into the bigger picture.

This is a very good point.

>> No.10662772

>>10659237
s'all about personal preference
i'd rather be a specialist. but i do think that what narrows the mind is solely a reductionistic and arrogant approach to the subject and this has nothing to do with the number of topics you approach and having a most basic knowledge of them may be enough to bring the diversity of all insights to your understanding and eventually improve your approach to the "special" topic as well
when you become a generalist however you are condemned to mediocrity