A publisher once made the mistake of sending me a book for review. The book was David Epstein’s Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World [Riverhead: 2019]. I have no idea how I was entered into their drawing. Maybe by virtue of being a long-standing Amazon customer who had shown a willingness to buy new books and ebooks at full price. It remains a mystery to me. I have and had no trail of reviews at Amazon or anywhere else.
I decided to read the book as quickly and attentively as possible to write a review, and I decided to post the review to Goodreads. No one had provided me instructions as to where and when I should post a review.
I say it was a mistake on the part of the publisher because my review was less than enthusiastic, although I tried to take generous view. I was repaid by other Goodreads users with a lot of up-votes on my review over the years. For a long time it was the top review for the book. Finally, online fame!
Still, it was a tepid review. The book got good press when released. It wasn’t my wavelength, though. The subject matter wasn’t handled in a way that persuaded me of anything much. It was about the upside of being a generalist, and I’m a generalist. But the book’s treatment didn’t deal with my experience too much. Reading the book was sort of a chore. My intention with the review was to keep it short, since that’s all I want from most reader reviews of most books.
Bla bla bla. That’s a lot of preemptive entrée verbiage. The review is here under this link. And here:
Disclosure: I won this pre-release copy in a drawing from the publisher.
The book wasn't badly written, but for me it was something of a slog. I've enjoyed similar books in this genre more, the sort of pop-psychology-self-help mashup including books like "Willpower" (Baumeister/Tierney), "The Upside of Down" (McArdle), "The Power of Habit" (Duhigg), among others. There was nothing distracting in the style of "Range" that failed to work for me. But the presentation often left me wanting more, arguing in my head against the point the author was making. It often felt like being led down a garden path, and asked to ignore things on the edge of the trail as meaningless distractions.
Part of the challenge confronting the author was in tackling a deconstructed subject. In the opening chapter, Tiger Woods and Roger Federer are presented as juxtapositions in how to become the best in their respective sports. Woods is raised on golf obsessively from an early age, while Federer is allowed to explore all sports, until he settles on tennis much later. Woods exemplifies the narrow specialist, while Federer stands in for the generalist. As a reader, I kept complaining that they were both raised on sports generally, and that both were clearly encouraged to develop talents by sports-obsessive homes.
And the reading went on in this spirit throughout, with quite impressive, accomplished individuals described in broad outlines, predominantly having achieved success as apparent outsiders rather than very, very narrow specialists who had rarely been permitted to pursue interests beyond the narrow confines. This often felt like an anecdote held up as a contrast to a caricature. The supporting research mentioned frequently felt more vague than persuasive. And as a result, for me the book was mostly frustrating.
It was not all a loss, however, as the author certainly shows significant benefit of applying far-flung knowledge to unanticipated problems. He clearly demonstrates the tendency of narrow specialists in our increasingly specialized society to become blinkered by their own learning to the point that they can no longer step outside their fields for a fresh view from a different perspective. He also shows how institutions like NASA can succumb to a narrow-minded, specialist group-think.
I can't say that I regret pushing myself to read all the way through. But I felt I didn't get any particular insights from it, much less suggestions for how to get greater range, or how to make better use of my own more generalist background. Yet it may well benefit readers who've come to believe that specialization is all there is or should be in life.
You’re welcome, internet!
Katie got back from Mushroom hunting at the farm. She didn't find any, but her anti-tick spray didn't work. I encouraged her to make a tick tick video, before it gets banned as well. 🙄
She brought back some wood from the old barn (a future decoration project 😱). She had a good time. And it is now day 21 without my letting the dogs escape!
From the WFB Stiles section:
> Guest Column: Help! The Anti-Semitic Freak Leading Protests at Columbia Is Holding Me Captive as His 'Emotional Support' Slave <
https://freebeacon.com/author/stiles/satire/guest-column-help-the-anti-semitic-freak-leading-protests-at-columbia-is-holding-me-captive-as-his-emotional-support-slave/