Book SummaryRange, by David J. Epstein

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Range

In recent years, we’ve come to assume that the formula for success is to start practicing early and refuse to quit until you’re the best in the world. We see parents hire violin teachers for kids who can barely walk, high schoolers expected to have the next decade or more of their lives planned by the time they graduate, and successful doctors who spend their entire lives studying a single gland in the human body. We view changing course, whether it be switching majors, switching jobs, or switching careers, as wasting years of past experience.

However, according to journalist David Epstein, this school of thought couldn’t be more wrong. In Range, Epstein argues that in today’s modern world, generalism—a broad competence in many professional fields—is the key to living a fulfilling and productive life. Epstein cites a robust collection of scientific evidence and recounts powerful real-life case studies to prove that there’s more than one way to become a world-class success.

You never need to despair that you’re “too late” to pursue something you’re interested in. Late bloomers and those seeking a fresh start are just as likely to become one of the greats—and, as we’ll see, may even have an advantage over those who have trained from birth to do just one thing.

To explain why, we’ll start by further defining the traditional path to excellence and explaining why it isn’t the most reliable path to success in today’s world. Then, we’ll guide you through the new generalist’s path to excellence, a style of personal growth that embraces the world as it is instead of how it should be. Lastly, we’ll show why generalists’ nontraditional background gives them an invaluable creative edge over specialists.

Why the Specialist’s Path to Excellence Falls Short

According to Epstein, the traditional path to excellence has been more or less treated as common sense for years. Obviously, if you want to get good at something, you have to practice a lot. By this logic, the path to success is to start training as early as possible.

If you believe in a purely linear relationship between practice time and success, specializing at a young age and never deviating from a given path would allow humans to accomplish maximum levels of greatness.

(Shortform note: This “traditional path to excellence” rose to prominence in recent years due in large part to Malcolm Gladwell’s 2008 book Outliers. Gladwell’s famed “10,000-hour rule” states that the way to become a master in any field is to spend 10,000 hours practicing. He attributes the success of virtuosos such as Mozart, the Beatles, and Bill Gates not to inherent talent, but to the sheer volume of time they spent practicing.)

However, Epstein argues that in the real world, specialization is a far less reliable life strategy than we would expect, especially in modern times. This is true for a number of reasons.

Reason #1: The World Is Unpredictable

The main reason specialization isn’t ideal is that the world is far more unpredictable than we’d like to believe. Epstein distinguishes between “kind” and “wicked domains”—what we’ll call Stable and Unstable Environments.

Stable Environments are settings in which the ways to achieve success are easily understood and unchanging. Games with clearly defined rules such as basketball or billiards are Stable Environments, as are simple procedural jobs, like installing circuit boards on an assembly line. Unstable Environments are settings in which the ways to achieve success are unclear and constantly changing. As a result, training in an Unstable Environment isn’t guaranteed to make you better. The worlds of business and science are examples of Unstable Environments—in fact, almost every environment in the “real world” is unstable to a certain degree.

Epstein argues that, because they assume that the world is a largely Stable Environment, specialists strive for efficiency above all else. They assume that to reach the top of your field, all you need to do is accumulate skill as quickly as possible. Generalists, on the other hand, recognize that we live in an unstable world—it’s impossible to perfectly predict what experience will be valuable to you—“efficient” narrow training won’t necessarily pay off. Likewise, experience that feels like a waste of time often pays off in ways you could never have imagined, as we’ll see throughout this guide.

The Ludic Fallacy

Coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book The Black Swan, the “Ludic Fallacy” refers to the misapplication of Stable Environment rules to an Unstable Environment. The word “Ludic” comes from the Latin word ludus, meaning “game,” as people falsely assume that the same strategies used to calculate probability within a game can be used in the real world.

For example, Taleb explains that casinos calculate their real-world risk using the same strategies they use to calculate risk within a game like blackjack. They spend millions of dollars on high-tech security systems designed to prevent people from cheating, which, according to their calculations, profitably mitigates their risk.

However, in the Unstable Environment of the real world, the largest losses never come from the places you’d expect, making the goal of accurately calculating risk impossible. Taleb visited a casino that lost $100 million dollars after one of its entertainers was mauled by his own tiger, had to pay a gargantuan fine to the IRS after an otherwise reliable employee forgot to send in certain tax forms for years, and had to pay the ransom for the kidnapping of the casino owner’s daughter. These losses cost 1,000 times more than the cheating losses predicted by their risk analysts. Statistical models like the one the casino used to calculate risk fail in Unstable Environments.

Specialists’ path to success fails in much the same...

Range Summary Shortform Introduction

Range is a bold challenge to widely-held assumptions about success and human potential. Whether you want to become an Olympic sprinter, a neuroscientist, or a virtuoso musician, the traditional advice is the same: Start practicing as soon as you can and don’t stop until you’re the best in the world.

However, David Epstein argues that this narrow, highly specialized path is not as reliable as it’s been made out to be. Instead, broad competence in a wide range of skills is the best way to get ahead of the competition. Counter to what you’d expect, learning to do several things well makes you better at each one. Being a jack of all trades is often the way to become master of all.

In reality, very few world-class professionals attain success in the way you’d expect. Rarely have entrepreneurs, scientists, or even athletes trained from birth to do what they’re doing. In this book, Epstein makes the case that starting late or switching fields is nothing to be ashamed of. No matter where you are in life, you have as good a chance as anyone to become one of the greats—your unique history may even give you the upper hand.

About the Author

David Epstein first gained public...

Range Summary Part 1: Why the Specialist’s Path to Excellence Falls Short

David Epstein argues that in today’s modern world, generalism—a broad competence in many professional fields—is the key to living a fulfilling and productive life. However, for much of history, accepted wisdom has painted early specialization in one narrow skillset as the ideal way to get ahead.

This is still a common mindset today. We see parents hire violin teachers for kids who can barely walk, high schoolers expected to have the next decade or more of their lives planned by the time they graduate, and successful doctors who spend their entire lives studying a single gland in the human body. We view changing course, whether it be switching majors, switching jobs, or switching careers as wasting years of past experience.

According to Epstein, this school of thought couldn’t be more wrong. In Part 1 of this guide, we’ll show why the specialized path to excellence is no longer the wisest strategy.

First, we’ll define the commonly accepted traditional path to excellence. Next, we’ll show why this old path to excellence is increasingly obsolete in today’s world. Finally, we’ll take a look at the flaws of an education system that’s still built around the traditional path to...

Range Summary Part 2.1: The Generalist Explores and Experiments

By now, you’ve seen why the traditional path to excellence—early specialization—is misguided and outdated. Luckily, Epstein has outlined a new path to excellence—a formula to help us thrive in the modern world. He argues that this generalist approach is effective even for narrow domains in which hyperspecialization seems necessary, such as sports or music.

Instead of picking one skill and trying to stick with it for your whole life, Epstein suggests that you:

• Explore and Experiment
• Specialize Inefficiently
• Be Prepared to Pivot

In Part 2 of this guide, we’ll examine each of these life stages in turn.

Epstein asserts that the first step to mastery is an era of exploration and experimentation with different activities—a “sampling period,” as he calls it. Musicians, entrepreneurs, and athletes alike benefit from a period of early exploration.

This exploration provides you with two valuable benefits: It gives you a broad range of experience and ensures that you’re a good fit for the activity you decide to pursue.

Benefit #1: A Broad Range of Experience

Epstein establishes the principle that broad learning teaches transferable skills. Basic training in a wide...

Shortform Exercise: Commit to More Exploration in Your Life

Epstein has shown us the benefits of exploration, but we’re left with the question: What to explore? An exercise answering this question called the “List of 100 Dreams” has become popular in recent years. The goal is to identify fulfilling new experiences to fill your free time instead of spending it on cheap leisure like TV by default.

List as many “dreams” as you can think of. Anything that you’re curious about experiencing in life should make the list. They can be big, like “write a book” or small, like “sleep outside.” Try to get to 25, no matter how bad some of your ideas are.

Range Summary Part 2.2: The Generalist Specializes Inefficiently

After an era of exploration in which they’ve built up a broad base of experience and found an activity that’s a good fit for them, generalists do engage in specialized practice, but they do so a little differently than traditional specialists.

On average, generalists have slow “inefficient” starts, but end up outpacing specialists in the long run. This comes down to the way they learn, which is more complex than the typical idea of deliberate practice. Epstein argues that we shouldn’t optimize learning for efficiency—the most effective learning is slow and difficult.

Specialists assume that all you need to master piano scales or trigonometric formulas is the discipline to work as many hours as it takes. But spending a massive number of hours studying isn’t going to cut it, as not all hours spent learning are created equal.

(Shortform note: This part of Epstein’s argument overlaps with general consensus. Several of the most popular books on learning, including Anders Ericsson’s Peak, Ultralearning by Scott Young, and _[Make It Stick by Peter C....

Range Summary Part 2.3: The Generalist Is Prepared to Pivot

By now, you’ve explored your options and discovered a path that’s a good fit for you, and you’ve specialized enough to become a master in your field, but your journey isn’t over yet. We live in a constantly changing world, and you need to be prepared to pivot—that is, to start chasing an entirely new specialization, if need be.

If you decide to pivot—for example, you quit your job at a top law firm to start a daycare for dogs—a specialist would tell you you’re throwing away a lifetime of experience. A generalist would disagree. Epstein argues that pivoting is a valuable and often necessary part of a fulfilling life.

First, we’ll show why specialists are wrong to dismiss pivoting by debunking the value of “grit.” Next, we’ll discuss how to integrate pivoting into your life by planning in the short term instead of the long term. Finally, we’ll close by arguing that pivoting is an inherently satisfying part of life.

How Grit Gets It Wrong

Often, we see pivoting as a sign of weakness, giving up on what we’ve promised to do—a deficiency of “grit.” Epstein disagrees, arguing that “grit” is a deeply flawed way to measure human potential.

Popularized in Angela Duckworth’s...

Shortform Exercise: Do You Need to Pivot or Cultivate More Grit?

It’s difficult to strike the right balance between commitment to difficult goals and the flexibility to pursue exciting new opportunities. Take some time to reflect on whether you need more grit in your life or the courage to pivot and reset.

Write about a long-term goal you’ve set for yourself. Does it still seem worthwhile, or does a different goal sound more appealing?

Range Summary Part 3.1: Generalists Are More Creative Thinkers

Now that we’ve compared the traditional specialist’s path to excellence to Epstein’s new model for generalists, we’ll compare how each group performs in the professional world.

First of all, Epstein argues that, by and large, generalists are more likely to come up with successful creative ideas than specialists. We’re going to discuss various strategies generalists use to come up with fresh ideas and solve problems they’ve never seen before—analogical thinking, the use of familiar patterns in new situations; lateral thinking, the use of old information in new situations; and playful curiosity, the openness necessary to discover solutions by accident.

While specialists succeed by being one of a rare few who understand something, generalists are uniquely good at using less knowledge in more effective ways. Generalists try to limit themselves to only the information relevant to the problem at hand, and they draw that relevant information from a bevy of unlikely sources.

Epstein asserts that, due to rapid advances in scientific research, the mass of discovered human knowledge has been growing exponentially over the last several decades, and it’s now outpacing our ability...

Shortform Exercise: Brainstorm Analogies to Solve Your Problems

Deliberately brainstorming a wide range of analogies is a proven strategy to reframe your problems and make them easier to solve. Try it for yourself.

Think of a problem that’s been troubling you for some time. This might be an obstacle at work, a bad habit you want to break, or a conflict with a family member. Have you encountered any problems like this before? How did you solve them?

Range Summary Part 3.2: Generalists Consider a Range of Perspectives

Generalists’ wide-ranging experience helps them cultivate a broader perspective and avoid an all-too-common pitfall of professional expertise: the tendency to overestimate their own knowledge.

In this section, we’ll first dive into Epstein’s argument that specialists have poorer judgment than generalists, as their limited experience causes them to see the world as simpler than it really is. Secondly, we’ll look at the characteristics of generalists that make them uniquely good at integrating multiple points of view.

Specialists Are Blinded by a Narrow Perspective

On this topic, Epstein extensively cites the work of political psychologist Philip Tetlock, specifically his book Superforecasting. Near the beginning of his career, Tetlock began a study on predictions: He collected a total of 82,361 forecasts from 284 highly credentialed experts on topics such as global politics and economics, then waited decades to see how accurate the predictions would be.

Surprisingly, expert predictions were no more accurate than guesses from outside the field. Neither education nor years of professional experience had...

Range Summary Part 3.3: Organizations Benefit From Range

Just as the most versatile individuals have accumulated a wide range of experience, Epstein argues that the most robust organizations cultivate a wide range of perspectives.

First, we’ll argue that the greatest weakness of narrowly specialized organizations is self-destructive conformity and show how robust organizations overcome this fatal flaw. Then, we’ll conclude this guide by explaining how diversity among team members enables innovation within an organization.

The Conformity of Specialist Organizations

In the same way narrow-minded specialists assume their area of expertise applies to everything, narrow-minded organizations make the mistake of assuming that all problems can be solved in the same way.

To support this argument, Epstein draws heavily on an analysis of the 1986 Challenger space shuttle explosion. He argues that this disaster was due to NASA’s over-reliance on a single guiding principle, specifically, to ignore unreliable human intuition and make decisions based on objective quantitative data.

This principle is a good one—human intuition is sometimes dead wrong, and when it’s your job to build rockets, the idea that you would trust a gut instinct...