Agreed, but these are accomplishments at two years of expertise level. Two years is enough time to understand something, and that's generally the time required to demonstrate a promotion from "junior engineer" to "engineer" at big corporations. I guess it depends on your definition of generalist. I expect at least 3-4 areas of senior level expertise, which is 15-28 years in the business. Our definitions differ if you think it is someone who has dabbled in 7-14 things at two years of depth.
Both opinions are equally valid, BTW. I'm not sure there is "watermark" of what makes a generalist.
On the extreme far end, I know people who claim to "speak several languages" and basically know how to say "yes, no, please, thank you," and consider that sufficient to make the claim. Maybe that IS sufficient. I'm not actually sure, but the cynic in me says, "no."
On the other hand according to the Foreign Service Institute(Department of State) it takes about 1k hours for a native English speaker to reach "proficiency" at speaking and reading "Languages with significant linguistic and/or cultural differences from English": Level 4.
If your full-time job for seven years were learning spoken languages, you could become proficient in 14 of them. Or maybe you want want to learn 7 of them and leave room for nearly all level 1-3 languages. Maybe you just want to spend 2 hours a day M-F(you slacker!), you'll only be able to learn Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, and.. Dutch.
Both opinions are equally valid, BTW. I'm not sure there is "watermark" of what makes a generalist.
On the extreme far end, I know people who claim to "speak several languages" and basically know how to say "yes, no, please, thank you," and consider that sufficient to make the claim. Maybe that IS sufficient. I'm not actually sure, but the cynic in me says, "no."