Developing Range: from handstands to future wheels
Originally published on 24 May 2022
I’m reading David Epstein’s Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World at the moment and it speaks to my interests in generalists and how they develop. A good deal of the book so far speaks to learning a range of skills early on in life, but I want to focus on lifelong learning today.
The linear progression of finishing school/university, getting a job, staying in said-job, and moving up in your career as you gain some on-the-job skills is a thing of the past. The world is changing so rapidly that you need to build a range of skills even if you do decide to specialise rather than be a generalist. This goes for personal development as well as professional development. You can’t always rely on your employer to do the latter for you, as I learned the hard way last year.
As I was writing this piece, a newsletter from one of those I-can-get-you-hired-at-any-company-you-want people popped up in my inbox (I had signed up out of interest) offering me a $197 (R3000) course basically on the same thing I’m about to share with you for free. This is about how I developed more range in the past five months of this sabbatical than I did when I was working last year. And how I just did it.
From Handstands to Future Wheels
Skills development is up to you and your needs. For me, I was after a wide range of skills – personally and professionally – and I haven’t included everything here because it would just be too long a read and very boring. I just want to say that don’t underestimate personal development skills. It is why I have dedicated an entire paragraph to yoga in this section. It is just as important to develop yourself as it is your work skills.
At the beginning of the year, I was starting my consultancy but also considering going back into a communications role. For both options, I knew I would need to update my social media skills. I hadn’t done any content creation in so long that I decided the easiest place to try it out was on Instagram (Twitter is far too toxic) and see if I could create content every day. I didn’t have much to work with because I lead a pretty boring life. A few articles and video tutorials later, I learned how to use Instagram and Adobe Lightroom (need those Insta-worthy photos!). I learned what worked on Instagram, what didn’t, etc., and managed to produce content for 30 days straight with just me and my mundane life. Instagram was an interesting skills experiment and now I know that if I ever need to draw on that social media skill set, I have it in my back pocket.
I also decided this year to get back into yoga to try to heal and strengthen my body from the Long Covid. Thanks to all the time I was now spending on Instagram, I was following about thirty different yoga accounts and learning so many new things about yoga that I had never learned before. I have been constantly pushing myself into a deeper practice and building up my strength – physically and mentally. I have always wanted to do a handstand in yoga. This simple thing that we used to do as children as play without any fear of falling over. Granted we were a lot closer to the ground back then. I never knew where to start with a handstand and was too scared to try. A few weeks ago, I decided I was going to brave it and try kicking up into a handstand. I somehow managed to do it. I’m now able to do this thing that I thought was impossible. Through yoga, I have been learning greater discipline, creativity, flexibility (body and mind), and how to be a bit more fearless in my approach to life.
I missed writing regularly and so I decided to start a blog. I could have gone with one of the blog templates provided by Wix but decided that none of them suited me, so I built mine from scratch. Picking the right colour scheme and fonts, ensuring the look and feel fit me. It took me a bit longer to do but it was worth it because I now feel like I could design a website if I decided to start up the consultancy side of things again. A website had been something I was afraid to do and didn’t even know where to start with at the beginning of the year. I have also recently taught myself a bit about SEO so will start practising that skill. One could also view this as a continuation of the content creation skill.
Earlier this year, a friend of mine had suggested to me that she could see me working in futures thinking. At the time, I had no clue what she was talking about but then I came across the specialisation on Coursera. At first, I thought that this was a fancier term for strategic planning, but it is so much more. The other day I played a futures wheel (a collaborative foresight tool of futures thinking) with my best friend around a future scenario on the possible consequences of tech addiction. It was fun to share this skill with someone else and see the possible futures unfold on the wheel. This specialisation has expanded my knowledge beyond futures thinking and into the realms of gaming, the future of food, climate change, technology, urban planning, and so much more. Most importantly, it has taught me how to ‘unstick’ my brain. It isn’t so much about strategic planning but rather thinking about all the possible scenarios for the future.
Intentional Range
The story above might seem disjointed and meandering, however, I have been intentional in developing my range. At the beginning of this sabbatical, I knew I needed to develop new skills. Each skill was set with intention but had a ripple effect on something new. I am also seeing how each skill (even the handstand) can be applied in my Backup Plan. Most importantly, I just did it and learned along the way.
Granted I have had the luxury of time and so I have been able to pick up several skills over the past few months. However, if I were to look at the time spent on each skill per day, then it would be about an hour of learning and then doing. We can all find an hour in our week.
Back to Epstein’s Range, he discusses slow learning and what’s called the “generation effect” whereby “struggling to generate an answer on your own, even a wrong one, enhances subsequent learning” [Epstein, 2019: 85]. A lot of my learning has been through trial and error. Learning how to make an Instagram reel with video and photos embarrassingly took me 3 hours; I tumbled out of handstands (no injuries yet) at first until I figured out what worked for me; coming up with future scenarios about blockchain and climate change without any expert feedback was difficult when I started but I got the hang of it. You eventually develop “far transfer” which is when you can apply your knowledge structure to any problem or situation [Epstein, 2019: 98]. You just need to set the intention to develop a skill and start doing it.
Do It Now
I had always put off acquiring new skills because I thought I didn’t have the time and that it required some sort of formal learning structure and certificate to go with it. It turns out it just requires starting with an intention and getting going.
When you are stuck in a lifeless job or looking for a career change, you should try to develop a range of skills to get yourself unstuck. There are so many formal options out there for lifelong learning – Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, going back to university to study, etc. Or you can just get on with it and decide what skill you need and try it out. Lifelong learning doesn’t need to be formal and can take any shape – including a handstand.
Alex the Generalist
