Do you think it's worth staying a generalist long term?

Question

I'm a fairly novice SWE in my early 20s, and I've given everything a shot. Crypto, AI, web dev, backend, security, iOS / Android, Rust, even low level code

I'm beginning to consider specializing in something. I've always been intrigued by artificial intelligence especially with the recent explosions of LLMs and generative models generally. But because it's such a broad and complex field, I've never really had the time to focus entirely on it because I'm constantly interested in ten other things at once.

undertone · Accepted Answer

Specializing is for machines, we as humans are meant to be generalists. Think about it, we have to live life, learn to cook, learn to communicate, do our taxes, spend time with family, all that jazz. Being a generalist, funnily enough, makes you specialized in the unique basket of things you're good at. It's not one thing, but cross sections of many disciplines that gives you a unique edge.

It's funny that you mention AI because that's a great example of machines specializing in things humans can't necessarily be trained on without taking up a lifetime. So at the end of the day AI is a tool for us humans to be more effective generalists and abstracting away complexity in our lives. Essentially technology is just a set of power ups to make things better / easier for us.

TheDarkKnight777 · Answer

Yes and no. You want to specialize in one thing and still be a generalist. Ideally you want to be T shape in your expertise and grow the each part of the T out and down. If you can stomach it after a few years or so, branch out and become an "E" shaped learner; specializing in two or more areas which can set you aside as someone having a lot of value to offer the world... and subsequently your wallet. Aspire to become a polymath.

buffdash · Answer

Consider what you are naturally inclined to do. If you’re constantly interested in ten things now, you won’t stop being pulled to other tech once you decide to specialize. Don’t force a round peg in a square hole. Embrace your nature!

19f7dlj6fdob8gr · Answer

Everyone starts off as a generalist, but naturally you start to specialize towards your "Zone of Genius". Specializing beyond a certain level is just a matter of ambition and how much you're interested in that thing. Once you start to specialize is when you start getting the more interesting jobs and opportunities.

xartred · Answer

I’m unsure if my reply here applies to your experience because I’m a product designer. But I believe career paths in software engineering are quite the same, even though they may be called differently. Nevertheless, in the design world, it is better to be a generalist at the career start or when working at startups and agencies. They often require the jack-of-all-trades kind of people. But when switching to the product field, it is better to get some specialty, like product designer or user researcher, etc.

Do you think it's worth staying a generalist long term?

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