Fragmented perspectives - The importance of generalists in a specialized age

We need more generalists.  We need those who can connect unseen relationships between disciplines. Those that have a wide breadth of life experience and knowledge will be the keys to moving towards a common future the encourages equality.


Cultures require cooperation - symbiotic relationships between the people and open communication channels between various facets of organization.

The open source mindset is what we need to look to in order to solve many of the problems of the world today.  According to wikipedia, open source means:

1. universal access via free license to a product's design or blueprint.

2. universal redistribution of that design or blueprint, including subsequent improvements to it by anyone.

I want to go one step further and replace 'product' with any of organization or structure that currently exists. Take government for example.

The open source mindset is one that fosters relationships between generalists with specialists in order to solve societal problems today.  The mindset of specialists alone can encourage separation between walks of life.  Since we currently live in a culture of specialists, there is a very wide range of different views and visions for solving problems in a vacuum.  The power of generalists comes into play when they're given opportunities to work amidst specialists in varied fields to merge or collaborate ideas to bring forth new structures into the world.  

We need specialists to progress fields of study to new heights and we need generalists to find connections between fields to allow for new opportunities for building the future.

To add to what Joseph Campbell mentions above I'll say that to be more unified as a culture we should be working together to create communities by bringing neighbours together.  Combining skills and labour in creative ways to coexist effectively.  Generalists allow for a wider breadth of diverse skills to encourage community-building and cooperation.

Do you feel that generalists are undervalued today?  I'd love to discuss this below in the comments.