My whole life a narrative that was drilled into me was that in order to succeed in this world, one needs to specialize. From teachers at school to consistent exhortations from my father to become an expert at a specific field, this formed an undeniable truth in my mind. Yet this has been the cause of much internal strife, as I felt it ran counter to one of my greatest strengths.

On the outset, this advice seems sound. We do live in a world where every single industry and technological innovation seems to derive from a concerted effort of a large team of multidisciplinary specialists. Compensation seems to reflect this. A PhD, probably the archetype of the conventional specialist, tends to earn an amount that reflects the effort that has gone into specializing in a very narrow field. In contrast to one who hasn’t specialized to that degree. At university, I was heavily influenced by this blog post which details how the author got into and succeeded in the ivy league, by heavily specializing at very young age.

The common narrative is of course valid in the general sense, as most such generalizing narratives are. Yet to suggest that this is the only way to succeed ignores a crucial skill set that is only becoming more prevalent in the modern age, and the commensurate type of person that excels in that.

I’ve struggled against this narrative of specialization as I’ve always been drawn to learning across a vast range of disciplines. Though I fed this desire by reading indiscriminately about whatever fed my interest, I had to contend with a degree of self blame that came from feeling like I was doing something counter to established wisdom. Thankfully I never let this stop me, but through university especially I found myself in constant comparison with my peers who seemingly had more defined interests that they pursued at higher and higher levels of specificity.

Why could I not do the same? I would ask. Why does the idea of foregoing all my other, seemingly disparate interests seem so painful? This was particularly acute when considering the contrast between my love for various technologies, design and, history and politics. What possible confluence of these fields could my skills effectively fit into. There was a paralysis in the sense of having to feel like I had to choose one field in particular if I ever wanted to be of any use in this world.

A moment of clarity came to me when I stumbled upon this TED talk about multipotentialite people. This was a true shock of clarity, when I realized I wasn’t unique in feeling this way and that this could possibly be a valuable skill set. Further research led me to the term comprehensivist , to describe someone with a wide variety of skill sets that is capable of single-handedly managing complex tasks that would have otherwise required a team of specialists.

Since this moment of self realization, I’ve come to fixate more on the unique strengths such an outlook has given me. One in particular is the ability to place any new knowledge in a broader and broader set of narratives that can effectively analogize between different domains.

I think of this like a compression algorithm for the brain, as more and more diverse information enters it, the brain naturally forms connections between broadly related ideas that can minimize superficial differences and focus on repeated patterns across various ideas. This was something I realized I couldn’t percieve until I had attained a sufficient degree of information saturation. But upon crossing that threshold, I’ve noted my capability of absorbing new information in a tangible way without any need for memorization or repetition. A single reading neatly fits new information into this vast structure of patterns that have emerged.

The practical relevance of this is yet to directly prove itself, though I am confident it will. I need only look at the types of endeavours we aspire to as a civilization to see how many arise at the confluence of various fields. Most new technology startups have to define a niche that exists purely at this intersection, and their continued growth requires people that can perceive opportunities and challenges that might be hidden to those with a solely limited field of view. In that respect I am newly confident in my abilities and I will continue to read and learn as broadly as my interests desire.