The pace of AI development ismovingextremelyfast—so fast that it's not uncommon for us to look back on what we wrote and see that the future we were describing is here.Dan Shipper's piece about theimportance of generalistsover specialists in the AI age from six months ago holds true more than ever. He reframes what it means to be a generalist—not just someone with shallow knowledge across multiple domains, but a curious, adaptable problem-solver who thrives in environments where rules are unclear and patterns aren't obvious. In anallocation economy, the winners won't be those who know all the answers, but those who know which questions to ask in the first place.—Kate LeeWas this newsletter forwarded to you?Sign upto get it in your inbox.A common refrain I hear is that in the age of AI, you don’t want to be a “jack of all trades and a master of none.”For example, my good friend (and former Every writer) Nat Eliason recentlyargued: “Trying to be a generalist is the worst professional mistake you can make right now. Everyone in the world is getting access to basic competence in every white-collar skill. Your ‘skill stack’ will cost $30/month for anyone to use in 3-5 years.”He makes a reasonable point. If we think of a generalist as someone with broad, basic competence in a wide variety of domains, then in the age of AI, being a generalist is a risky career move. A language model is going to beat your shallow expertise any day of the week.But I think knowing a little bit about a lot is only a small part of what it means to be a generalist. And that if you look at who generalists are—and at the kind of mindset that drives a person who knows a lot about a little—you’ll come to a very different conclusion: In the age of AI, generalists own the future.What generalists areBecome apaid subscriber to Everyto unlock the rest of this piece and read about:Generalists: Masters of the uncertainAI's limitations in novel problem-solvingHow the allocation economy favors adaptable mindsWhy asking the right questions trumps knowing all the answersSubscribeClick hereto read the full postWant the full text of all articles in RSS?Become a subscriber, orlearn more.
