The Hello Generalist Manifesto - Response
There is a website called "hello - generalist", and when I first came across it. I thought oh great another employment network. There have a been few around the ideas of being multidisciplinary.
However going over their "Generalist Manifesto", I think that they should be more well known. I make response posts like this sometimes, and I thought this was a perfect fit for my polymathic audience.
I intend to share high points of the short manifesto, and share my own views based on what they said too!
Calling from Multiple Areas of Expertise
Think about the most talented people you know. They’re experts, excellent at what they do—but what makes them magical is their generalist mindset. They’re flexible instead of rigid.
The deepest experts didn't get there by just being in one narrow focused niche. Usually they got there because they took some knowledge from another field, and applied it in a new way to their current specialization. In rare cases it comes from pure tenacity to keep pushing until you find an innovation.
However even in those cases the expert generally had a side focus or hobby, which they would do in the meantime in between focusing on their main specialization. I.e. Einstein would go out onto the lake, playing puzzles, or playing Violin.
Even if you don't pull directly from another area, and use that transcontextual knowledge. Then you still USE another field, even at a hobbyist level, to explore your mind in new ways.
The Future of Work
Companies are no longer hiring a list of responsibilities.
I see this all the time when it comes to the job title "Digital Marketing Specialist", they are literally asking for a unicorn or in this case a Digital Marketing GENERALIST. Where they ask for content/inbound, SEO, PPC, paid ads, social media, and more. It is ridiculous, and they're not even catering the job listing to the right audience.
We reject the fearmongering and panic, the doom and gloom. What if the future of work was supportive of humans, companies, and the future?
There is a lot of fearmongering going around with the Rise of AI, and it is complete hogwash. AI is not going to replace your job, maybe the five percent of you with easily automatized jobs, but the rest of the workforce it isn't. What... or rather WHO is going to replace your job, are the people who can ADAPT to the ever changing landscape.
Who has the skill of adaptability? The naturally polymathic generalists.
Embracing Flexibility
They might not do things the way everyone else does, but they always get things done.
That is the point though, as you wouldn't want them to do the same thing that everyone does. One of the reasons that homo-sapiens evolved, and other hominins didn't was because of the lack of innovation in their ecologies. Whereas homo-sapiens continued to innovate, and adapt to new environments.
It was our ancestral generalist DNA, that lead us to where we are now.
From a Polymath to a Generalist I salute you
I try to make PolyInnovator's Omniblog a centralized place for all things multidisciplinary and polymathic. Including generalists, jacks of all trades, multipotentialites, etc.
I want to share with the world the great projects, that are leading the way forward into the digital renaissance.
Our challenge to you? Be a generalist. Embrace ambiguity and curiosity. Apply your expertise to new fields and models. Continue learning. Have optimism in the face of change—you will figure it out, just like you always have. Stay empathetic. Stay flexible. Stay visionary.
By embracing your curiosity, you are one step closer to the level of Polymath. Every multidisciplinary person is an autodidact, so I agree please continue to learn. When you come across a challenge or plateau, then please overcome it. Don't give up!