

Should you be a Specialist or Generalist? Devs, designers, and PMs weigh in - TalSafran
http://www.atroundtable.com/designdevelop

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msluyter
I've ended up a generalist (mostly by accident) and recently noticed a fairly
serious downside: because I tend to move from project to project, technology
to technology, I often forget what I've learned, due to lack of re-
enforcement. Furthermore, when I have to use an unfamiliar technology, I
sometimes find myself doing things in ways are sub-optimal or unidiomatic.
("You mean I could have used a library for that? Damn!") A related problem is
that, because technology advances so rapidly, it's difficult to keep up with a
number of different fronts simultaneously. So when you go back to a previously
used technology after a hiatus, you might now overlook recent advances.

To help with the first problem, I've started using Anki. For the last one I
read HN. ;) But these are imperfect, and short of "become a specialist," I
have no good answers.

