Range

Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

By: David Epstein

Narrated by: Will Damron

The #1 New York Times bestseller that has all America talking: as seen/heard on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, Morning Joe, CBS This Morning, The Bill Simmons Podcast, Rich Roll, and more.

“The most important business—and parenting—book of the year.”—Forbes

“Urgent and important. . . an essential read for bosses, parents, coaches, and anyone who cares about improving performance.”—Daniel H. Pink

Shortlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award

Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you’ll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research on the world’s top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule.

David Epstein examined the world’s most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, forecasters and scientists. He discovered that in most fields—especially those that are complex and unpredictable—generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. Generalists often find their path late, and they juggle many interests rather than focusing on one. They’re also more creative, more agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can’t see.

Provocative, rigorous, and engrossing, Range makes a compelling case for actively cultivating inefficiency. Failing a test is the best way to learn. Frequent quitters end up with the most fulfilling careers. The most impactful inventors cross domains rather than deepening their knowledge in a single area. As experts silo themselves further while computers master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive.

©2019 David Epstein (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Will Damron narrates this fast-paced and highly engaging work of nonfiction - essentially a love letter to liberal education.... Damron connects well with listeners.... Teachers, students, parents, managers, and CEOs will all benefit from listening." (AudioFile Magazine)

“For reasons I cannot explain, David Epstein manages to make me thoroughly enjoy the experience of being told that everything I thought about something was wrong. I loved Range.” (Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and The Tipping Point)

“Range is a convincing, engaging survey of research and anecdotes that confirm a thoughtful, collaborative world is also a better and more innovative one.” (NPR)

“An assiduously researched and accessible argument for being a jack of all trades.” (O Magazine, Best Nonfiction Books Coming in 2019)

Recommended to overbearing parents who think a head start in everything is the answer

Great book, especially today with so many soon-to-be parents and new parents planning, waiting on long lists and paying exorbitant $ on day care, with the hopes of giving their child a “head start.” Same is true for the parents putting young children in camps and paying professional coaches to teach them sports. This author debunks these approaches to instead focus on getting a broad array of experiences and allowing uncoached play first before specializing and formal training. After all, he says, you don’t know what your natural skills and interests will be until much later in life. The author does a great job of explaining that skills you’ve gathered in areas unrelated to the field you ultimately focus on is never wasted. It adds to your understanding and gives you a breadth of tools to utilize. It gives you Range.

Lastly, I don’t understand reviews that say “it could have been shorter” because the authors point was made much earlier. The stories he shared were so fascinating that I couldn’t care less if his thesis was clear in the first chapter. If you enjoy books and learning stop trying to hack knowledge. If you read through the entire book he made this point as well. It’s a lifelong journey. Slow down and enjoy!

This kind of thinking

Loved reading this. I think so many people have disqualified themselves, because of specialized learning. This book can help give people the freedom to learn and open up new possibilities.

Great Compliment to “Peak”

While “Peak” argues the benefits of dedicated practice, “Range” argues that a broad spectrum of experience is, in many ways, a better pathway to success. Combine the two (encourage diversity of opinions and experiences while dedicating yourself to that which is most interesting to you) seems to me the right approach to efficiently realizing your inner greatness - even if the destination was not where you anticipated.

I’m thankful for Epstein’s ability to break me from my (often dogmatic and rigid) approach to specialization and commit to incorporating the lessons learned here in my own life.

Read it!

This is one of the best and most important non-fiction books in years with huge implications for how we should be fostering breadth as well as depth in knowledge. Today’s problems require synthesis of multiple disciples - we need to feed our minds broadly!

Great perspective

It was eye opening to hear about very successful people taking such wide ranging paths to where they got. It was also interesting to learn about the potential problems with specialization.

Inspiring affirming Book!

Every parent and every other person in a leadership position should read this book, relax and enjoy every person’s meandering and experimentation.

fun

and informative book that lets you know that mental meandering can be a good thing and we never know the consequences of what random inquiries and hobbies.

Facts over Intuition

Often our intuition about a particular subject ends up being proven out by facts. But, this book challenges our intuition with regard to broad knowledge versus specialized knowledge and backs it up with research and facts. Excellent book!

interesting read

Good job translating the survey data into a narrative.
The pdf was informative and citations were relevant.

Fantastic and Eye-opening

Really loved the unique perspective that this book offers! Very well researched, written, and performed.