Wednesday 1 August 2012

A different kind of specialty

As the world grows more complex, it becomes less possible to be a generalist. You must specialise to develop the necessary level of skill as a professional. But it also becomes more necessary to have cross-disciplinary skills, because that is how specializations are applied usefully. A structural engineer who builds a slightly better bridge will make an impact on that industry, of course, but a structural engineer who applies his skills in medicine or some other unusual field has the potential to completely revolutionise an industry. We need people thinking like that, noticing new places where their unique skills might be put to use, and we also need people who can manage multi-disciplinary teams to work towards new, unusual goals. Tomorrow's breakthroughs are going to be exactly that kind of thing.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Specialise in diversity!
PPS - It's much harder than it sounds.

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