Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

Vincent van Gogh was a 19th-century Dutch painter. Though more or less unsuccessful and unknown until late in his lifetime, Van Gogh’s paintings have since become some of the most celebrated and widely recognized artworks in history. Some of his paintings are currently among the most expensive artworks ever sold. Epstein is less interested in Van Gogh’s fame than in the meandering path that led to Van Gogh’s relatively brief stint as an artist.

Van Gogh pursued several careers, including dealing art, teaching, bookselling, preaching, and more. Van Gogh, who had a tendency to shift quickly from interest to interest and throw himself into one only to move on to something else shortly afterward, abandoned each of these careers sooner or later. Many would see this tendency as a sign of a lack of focus, lack of commitment, and a surefire path to failure. Epstein turns this commonplace thought around to argue that Van Gogh instead exemplifies the ability to leverage short-term thinking and a willingness to quit to achieve success in the long term. As Epstein sees it, Van Gogh could not have achieved what he did without having made many stops and starts along the way. 

Frances Hesselbein is CEO of the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum, a distinction that is the culmination of an illustrious career that includes prior experience as head of the Girl Scouts of the USA, executive at Mutual of America, and other roles. Hesselbein is widely recognized as a highly influential leader. However, what interests Epstein most about her story is that she did not follow what many would see as the typical path to executive leadership. Hesselbein did not follow a path in business that started early and with a clear trajectory. Instead, she started her first professional job only in her 50s and came to it through experiences volunteering.

For Epstein, Hesselbein is the paradigm of the idea that a late start can be an equally viable way to succeed in contrast to the omnipresent assertion that one must focus and hyperspecialize from an early age. In addition, Hesselbein exemplifies the value of diverse experience and the fact that success can be achieved not only by diligently pursuing a preconceived route but also by reacting to steps along the way in unprecedented ways. As Epstein attempts to show, this model is actually more common than following a preset path.

Johannes Kepler was a 17th-century German scientist who made an impact on fields ranging from astronomy to math. However, he is perhaps best known for his foundational work toward the theory of gravity, later developed further by Isaac Newton and other scientists. Kepler worked during a time of fundamental changes and controversies in science, and his ideas were challenged and even ridiculed. As Epstein points out, critics of Kepler even included Galileo Galilei, who had himself faced persecution for his then-controversial theories.

Kepler’s unusual methods of developing his ideas garnered particular attention. In the absence of direct evidence for concepts like gravitational force, Kepler turned to analogies to help explain his ideas. For example, he at one point considered gravity as a force like magnetism, which showed how one object could act on another. As Kepler worked through analogy after analogy, he drew closer to a theory of gravity that later turned out to be largely correct. Drawing on the work of psychologist Dedre Gentner, Epstein argues that the analogical thinking Kepler utilized is of fundamental importance to human creativity and the ability to seek novel solutions to pressing problems. 

Oliver Smithies was a Nobel-Prize-winning physical biochemist who made numerous innovations, including the development of gel electrophoresis, which is a method for breaking down DNA. Smithies had a long tradition of what he called “Saturday morning experiments,” in which he set aside the research agenda he pursued during the week and instead spent time freely exploring materials and methods. Most of these explorations were fruitless. However, some of them led to notable innovations. For instance, Smithies developed gel electrophoresis after playing around with starch compounds and having no idea they would open up the possibility of this innovation.

Epstein argues that Smithies exemplifies the value of free exploration and what he calls deliberate amateurism, or a willingness to approach things with an open, curious mind rather than as an expert with established knowledge. The ability to see things with fresh eyes, Epstein implies, can not only lead to novel solutions and insights but can also help avoid the risks associated with entrenched views and established methods of procedures.

In the 18th century, composer and music teacher Antonio Vivaldi contributed to a remarkable period of growth in instrumental music. His efforts led to some of the most recognizable pieces of classical music, such as The Four Seasons. However, Epstein shares Vivaldi’s story to explain his role in the development of a group of Venetian musicians known as the figlie del coro. This group was comprised of orphans and individuals with disabilities living at a convent and orphanage, the Ospedale. The group was only able to devote a small amount of time to practicing music because of their many other obligations. Yet under Vivaldi’s direction, the figlie del coro became sensations lauded across Europe for their incredible musical abilities and for excelling across several instruments in addition to singing.

Epstein explores the root of the figlie del coro’s success and wonders how they were able to achieve such heights in music when the musicians did not follow the expected path of early, sustained practice on a single instrument (or voice) for substantial amounts of time. He argues that the group’s flexibility, the constraints they faced, and their motivation to learn more than made up for the small amount of time they had to practice and the challenging circumstances the musicians had faced. For instance, their need to study several instruments might have been born from a shortage of musicians or to accommodate their changing abilities over time. Yet it became an asset because the musicians were highly motivated to concentrate during practice and to play to the best of their abilities because it offered them a better life. Within Range, the example of the figlie del coro shows that alternative paths of development can not only be viable but also enriching.