“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” – Robert A. Heinlein
Scott Adams, creator of the popular comic strip Dilbert, has a simple but useful strategy of personal success: you can either choose to hyper-specialize and become the best in the world (top 1%) at doing one very specific thing, or you can try to become very good (top 25%) in as many different areas as possible, which you then can use in combination. The latter strategy is far easier, and is often more effective: by improving your skills in a few different but related areas, you increase your versatility and rarity, making your particular combination of skills more uniquely valuable.
If you’re interested in improving the quality of your life and work, there are the 12 primary areas of “Core Human Skill” you should focus on developing…
Information-Assimilation – how to find, consume, and comprehend information and identify what’s most important in the face of a problem or challenge. A person who is highly skilled in Information-Assimilation is able to process information quickly and apply it to the situation at hand, with consistently high levels of comprehension and retention.
Writing – how to communicate thoughts and ideas in written form clearly and concisely. A person who is highly skilled in Writing is able to convey information to others briefly and simply, as well as use writing to persuade and influence.
Speaking – how to communicate thoughts and ideas to others clearly, concisely, and with confidence. A person who is highly skilled in Speaking is able to communicate individually or in front of a group of people in an engaging manner, with little visible evidence of tension or stress.
Mathematics – how to accurately use concepts from arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, and statistics to analyze and solve common problems. A person who is highly skilled in Mathematics is able to use numbers, ratios, and equations to gain insight into present circumstances and potential future scenarios.
Decision-Making – how to identify critical issues, prioritize, focus energy/effort, recognize fallacies, avoid common errors, and handle ambiguity. A person who is highly skilled in Decision-Making is able to weigh available information and come to a supportable conclusion, without falling prey to common reasoning mistakes and cognitive bias.
Rapport – how to interact with other people in a way that encourages them to like, trust, and respect you. A person who is highly skilled in Rapport is able to build productive, mutually-beneficial relationships with a wide variety of people in a way that influences their perceptions and opinions.
Conflict-Resolution – how to anticipate potential sources of conflict and resolve disagreements when they occur. A person who is highly skilled in Conflict-Resolution is able to anticipate potential sources of conflict and counteract unproductive emotions, both individually and in groups.
Scenario-Generation – how to create, clarify, evaluate, and communicate a possible future scenario that assists in decision-making, either for yourself or another person. A person who is highly skilled in Scenario Generation is able to envision possible future events, identify likely tradeoffs, and suggest multiple options that will result in the achievement of an objective.
Planning – how to identify the necessary next steps to achieve an objective, account for dependencies, and prepare for the unknown and inevitable change via the use of contingencies. A person who is highly skilled in Planning is able to examine available resources, anticipate potential issues and risks, and propose new / better paths as more information becomes known.
Self-Awareness – how to accurately perceive and influence your own internal states and emotions, including effective management of limited energy, willpower, and focus. A person who is highly skilled in Self-Awareness is able to recognize what physical and emotional state they’re currently experiencing, utilize or compensate for their current state, and intentionally elicit / reinforce preferred states.
Interrelation – how to recognize, understand, and make use of key features of systems and relationships, including cause-and-effect, second and third-order effects, constraints, and feedback loops. A person who is highly skilled in Interrelation is able to identify the most important factors in a system, explore how they affect each other, and improve systems without provoking undesired consequences.
Skill Acquisition – how to go about learning a desired skill in a way that results in competence by finding and utilizing available resources, deconstructing complex processes, and actively experimenting with potential approaches. A person who is highly skilled in Skill Acquisition is able to continually improve their skills in any field through deliberate practice, observation, and intentional experimentation.
Take a moment to imagine all of the things you’d be able to accomplish if you improved your skills to the point where you ranked in the top 25% of the human population in each of these areas. How developed are your skills now, and which of these areas could, if improved, help you accomplish what you’re trying to achieve?
{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
Any suggestions on building competence it those areas? (Books, Courses, etc.)
Great list. To Clint’s point, the best way to build competence is to do. Sounds simple but the more you practice, the better you get. It’s an incremental thing. If you picked a topics and worked on in 15 minutes a day, you will get better. That is what I started to do with writing. The result is my blog (http://blog.venturecooker.com).
On the Planning front, I do that a lot in my job (creating innovative products). One of the things I have noticed, when planning, is that most people get hung up on the duration of task, not the effort. The end result was a blog post on scheduling innovation (http://blog.venturecooker.com/2009/07/15/scheduling-innovation-2/). This is how I plan projects and think about planning.
I agree with Clint. Now that you’ve listed 11 skills, how do we go about building them? How do we know when we are deficient in them?
Dave & Clint – great question. I have two answers: 1. The books in the PMBA reading list were chosen because they help you build skills in one (or more) of these areas. 2. I originally built this list to help me filter which concepts I would talk about in my book.
The question at the end of the post is important – which of these skills would help you most if you focused on developing it just a little bit more? What would that help you accomplish?
Josh,
Do you value each equally or do you have a top 3?
Love the Heinlein quote…have you read any of his works? One of my all-time favorites is “The Door Into Summer”. Very obscure but very Heinlein.
Thinking of myself as a generalist, I really like this approach and find the skill breakdown very useful.
I am just finishing Koch’s 80/20 book, though, and he suggests the alternative approach (be the best 1% in ONE area). Is there an existing dialogue comparing these two perspectives? I’d suggest that it depends partially on individual character and strengths – some of us are wired to be more focused experts, and others generalists following the approach Josh outlines here.
Other thoughts? Or tips on existing sources that have explored this debate?
Thanks!
Hi Josh,
This is very Interesting and as your other posts thought provoking and useful.
I have been working on a “Side project”(inspired by your site!) to improve my communication skills by preparting presentations on different topics that I can go back and present at my engineering college. One of the topic I selected is “Specialization : Should we be jack of all and master of some?”.
This site has been extremely useful to me overall thanks for all the good work.
In Australia we call these people “all rounders” and you are absolutely right – there are plenty of specialists out there, but not many people who are skilled in a multitude of areas (and these skills, when combined, make the individual greater than the sum of their parts)
Great list – I just had my work review today and I can see a few ways to take some action on that report such as better people-management within projects. I’m very task-oriented, whilst my boss seems to have a stronger emotional side.
I have another question – what about mentorship and mentoring others so that you value-add into their lives/work-scope? Any suggestions for that?
This is good stuff [snip]. Do you know any person (famous person) who has all these skills?
Maybe Don Trump, Brad Pitt, Angie Jolie or what about late MJ?
My point is, these ideas are wonderful in theory, but are they practical? I do not think so. What about you?
(Post edited by Administrator for inappropriate content.)
Akshay – I think the top three most important skills vary depending on what you’re trying to do. I do think, however, becoming better than 7 out of 10 people in each of these skills is a worthy goal for everyone. (Re: Heinlein – yes, I’ve read Stranger in a Strange Land.)
Nell – I agree with Scott Adams that this strategy is probably easier than picking one very narrow thing to become the best in the world at doing. Being highly developed in multiple skills makes you more versatile and more rare, and hence more valuable with less inherent risk.
Chillbuddy – mentorship is on my list of things to write about in the future. Thanks!
Amity – not sure what you’re trying to say here. Doing things to improve these skills – like reading, practicing, and pursuing side projects – is about as practical as it gets. You don’t need to perfect all of them, but improvement in any one of these skills will enhance your ability to do great things.
I would define this list as “transferable skills”. Sometimes I feel like I’m spreading myself a bit thin because I like to learn about a diverse range of subjects, but this article made me realise that if I am building my core while I’m doing that, I’m not wasting time at all, in fact, I’m getting stronger!
Thanks Josh.
I’m definitely more in the generalist camp and that has served me very well through out my career, both as an employee and a business owner. It also has served me well in my personal live. That being said, in a recent job search I can tell you that it is the opposite of potential employers search for when looking for experienced people. They much prefer a person with 20 years experience in one domain (Sales, development, marketing, accounting, etc) rather than someone who has done 3 – 7 years in a number of them.
It would not change what I do but its something to consider.
Great post Josh. I am one of those people who has found strenghts in mupliple areas (some of them inlcluded in your “top 12″ here) and I am constantly trying to use them to hone them better. If I were to rank them, I would put all the communication skills at the very top (include Writing, Speaking, Rapport, Interrelation and Conflict-Management).
Thanks for clear and concise thought.
Become like a Roman Nomenclature Slave. Make it a point to memorize what people do and what their interests are. You will be amazed how you can endure yourself to other people when you are able to direct them to the right person to help them solve their problem.
Very interesting read. Incidentally Warren Buffett says recommends that one should have multiple income sources, which becomes difficult if you become highly specialised in any one activity.
So Josh, there are synergies between your thinking and the sage of Omaha.
But I am worried, it would be tough to assimilate these. Going to try hard though.
Great post!
I especially liked the quote in the beginning – I hope you won’t mind my using it…
Not many people can achieve the 12 core skills, so I believe that for those few who can and who devote time and energy to that, it will be quite easy to be successful both in times of crisis and in times of prosperity.
Thanks for the inspiration!
M
Hey Josh,
Are you a fellow AskMetafilter reader? The quote you used came up in a discussion just the other day. Good post you’ve written as a follow-up to it!
Great Post Josh,
And the list is truly comprehensive and I could instantly see a couple of areas of improvement for myself.
Conflict Resolution is definitely one of them.
Nice broad view here. I’m afraid math may be a kind of Great Divide though – if you don’t get onto that early, it’s hard to catch up, although I have known individuals to pick up math skills very specific to their professions later in life.
I’m not at all sure I agree with Heinlein’s statement. Einstein, I have heard, had 10 identical suits because he didn’t want to waste mental energy on deciding what to wear! That fits more with the first category you mentioned of “hyper-specialization,” though I must admit I fit more into the second. Sometimes the idea of a “Renaissance Man” is overly romanticized. When you factor in that the total realm of knowledge is increasing exponentially (doubling in shorter and shorter time increments, perhaps at this point less than a year), it makes it more and more difficult to assimilate the change…which explains why “oldies” like me end up turning to our kids or grandkids to program the DVR, etc.!
This is quite similar to Snarkmarket’s recentl “New Libaral Arts” book:
http://snarkmarket.com/nla/
Great list. I’d add a skill called “Vision”: The ability to see past all the planning and steps to some ideal future outcome.
Excellent list. I’ve just subscribed to your feed, and look forward to more good stuff.
The only really specialized people I’ve met that have been successful are engineers in relatively obscure and demanding fields. Even then, though, they’re only specialized at work, and in their personal lives they of course have a wide range of hobbies, many of which they’re really good at because they’ve gone after them with the focus and dedication that you tend to think of when you think of the title “engineer of (some obscure and demanding field).”
I’m certainly gunning for generalist.
I think there is a trap in being a generalist, however. That is the ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ thing. It is very easy for people with lots of abilities to disperse their energies and never accomplish anything significant. Success demands focus, long-term effort, and the guts to overcome setbacks.
Re: Is it better to be Specialist or Generalist? Why, neither, of course!
It’s easy to see that some tasks that you do alone need specialization and others need generality, but in groups you absolutely need both kinds. Very often two specialists in different fields find it impossible to communicate with each other. I’m definitely more of a generalist and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stopped a meeting to “translate” from one specialization to another (saving tons of frustration in the process!). I often don’t have the training to develop the ideas, but if I know enough to understand them, I’m usually much better at communicating them to non-specialist than their originator.
That said, without the specialists generating the ideas, I wouldn’t have much to contribute!
Great List!! I’m actually a part-time MBA student currently as I subscribe to your blog to read the practicals that one must extract through sometimes these jiberish mumbo jumbos of scholastic language.. =) I’m also currently a 9 to 5 marketing bump n’ grind specialist; Meaning I bump n’ grind with the corporates of the suits, ties & safety gear to make ends meet. You rock man!
Charles – as Jakeob Bame eloquently put it, “Jack of all trades, master of none, is oftentimes better than master of one.”
One of the things I’ll be writing about in the near future is the tradeoff between optimization and resilience. A person who only knows how to do one thing exceptionally well is on solid ground for as long as that skill is in high demand, but if the environment changes to make that skill unnecessary or undesirable, they have more trouble adjusting to the new situation. A generalist is less optimized, but more resilient – having a variety of skills that can be used in combination is highly valuable due to increased flexibility.
Josh is right. Look at President Obama. He has all skills mentioned above. I will add one in the list above – good attitude, honesty.
I often listen to the Stanford entrepreneurial podcasts and they suggest a “T” shape, depth in one main field and breadth across many disciplines. This seems to make the most sense to me, rather than one or the other. I’m not sure who came up with this idea originally, if anyone else does please let us know.
Also, Charles Munger of Berkshire seems to be a big fan of a multidisciplinary approach.
Another skill which is worth to have is to be empathetic towards others. This is very important because even if you have all the other skills but if you cannot emotionally connect with people everything is wasted.
Good advice.
I have worked single-mindedly and tirelessly at cultivating a lack of desire, for most things really. I would even go as far as to say that I have successfully achieved the status of ‘non-achiever’ (or ‘loser’, if you will). I’m definitely a lot happier.
Ironically, this puts me in the top 1%
“You can do no great things, only small things with great love” — Mother Theresa
http://www.woodka.com/2005/11/07/lets-get-small/
This is great, Josh. Really well written and I appreciate how you wrote regarding ‘rapport’.
Great work. I knew something was up when I realized the value of multiple skills way back in 2002. My rap sheet:
I’m an RN with 15 yrs experience in multiple disciplines: Long Term Care to Critical Care (ICU/ER). 2 years ago, started studying Computer Science thinking I could go into Medical Info Systems. I switched to Mgt Information Systems because I saw less need for classes like Operating Systems Design and Physics (no offence to CS majors). I took Accounting and Business classes instead. Now, I know 3 skills: Medical; Computational/Business- I studied Calculus as well; and Information Mgt- I’m studying Java programming and database/systems design.
My goal: To be a Critical Care RN who can speak Java, read a Profit-Loss statement, design Business Intelligence systems and provide Decision Support to healthcare-related companies (not just hospitals). I think there’s money to be made with such a consultant.
Great read, and very important skills!
Awesome list,
This saves time for people to wonder what books/areas in life to focus on.
I appreciate this post a lot, especially since I’ve always had a lot of curiosity about a broad range of interests. I’ve worked in two corporate environments where I was encouraged to become a specialist and it never sat well with me. I’ve always been more comfortable in environments where I have a broad range of duties and responsibilities.
I am glad this post was put this way. I always teach people to figure out what they would be willing to do 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and not get paid. Then I tell them to learn as much as possible on the subject so they can become an expert at it. Through this process the person would develop most if not all of these skills.
Josh Bulloc
Kansas City, MO
I am glad this post was put this way. I always coach people to figure out what they would be willing to do 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and not get paid. Then I tell them to learn as much as possible on the subject so they can become an expert at it. Through this process the person would develop most if not all of these skills.
Josh Bulloc
Kansas City, MO
Great list, Josh
However, I just wonder how you treat the skill of leadership. As it doesn’t appear on the list, do you think it is not a core human skill? Or is it the sum of the 12 skills? Or is it something else?
Best wishes
Mirko
Great list, Josh
I just wonder how you treat the skill of leadership. As it doesn’t appear on the list, do you think it is not a core human skill? Or is it the sum of the 12 skills? Or is it something else?
Best wishes
Mirko