To Specialise or Not?

I believe that the worst legacy that can be attributed to the 20th century is specialisation, a process by which a person’s education is continuously narrowed in scope as they climb the cursus honorum of their chosen field of study. Generally speaking, this produces a person who is highly knowledgeable in one field but has only a familiarity with other subjects.

In stark contrast to this approach to education is the 19th century’s production of what we can call “generalists.” While the student could still emphasise a particular subject, this was not done to the detriment of one’s exposure to, or study of, other subjects. The idea of the Renaissance man was still alive and well, though the nomenclature may have changed. Consider the specialist’s brain as being represented by a bowl of peanuts. Whether you pick out one or a handful, you will only ever get peanuts. Now picture the generalists brain as a bowl of mixed nuts and fruits. Whether you pull out one or a handful, every time you do it you will get a different mix. Now replace every type of nut and fruit with a different branch of knowledge. Having a working knowledge of numerous different fields within one brain makes possible something that is not a trait of a specialist’s brain: cross-fertilisation. When you have a working knowledge of a number of different fields of study, cross-fertilisation can take an idea from, let’s say history, and apply it to predictive sociology. Or, perhaps a notion from musical theory can bring a new perspective on the study of the patterns of high altitude wind currents.

It is so much more difficult for a specialist to achieve a truly novel breakthrough than it is for a generalist, who has a head full of seemingly unconnected facts but, just as increasing the number of connections between neurones leads to a more active brain, the interactions between unconnected fields of knowledge can cause connections to be made, integrated and either applied or used as a ladder or route to something never even conceived of before. 

Given the choice I would choose generalisation over specialisation any day that the chance presented itself.