I'm interested for you to elaborate a bit more! I'd like to see more clearly the connection of my statements and the argument for generalist over specialist.
Overall, I think I'm arguing that you cannot become an expert without continually improving the process; and to do that you need to continually understand and study the process at progressively deeper levels. If a person cares nothing for the process, just the outcome - they therefore cannot achieve mastery (I'm like 85% convinced this is true).
If we assume a specialist is also an expert, then by definition specialists are not midwits - I agree.
An expert musician I would suspect should know how the different qualities of the instrument they play affect the outcome. Whether they can actually construct an instrument is a different question, but they ought to know the differences. Can you also be an expert musician and not know, nor care about the differences in instrument construction quality and material? Can you be an expert on a piano and not know what makes for a good piano?
I think the most exact analogy would be a musician who does not care about how an instrument is played - they don't study it, they don't care, just do something that makes for a nice sound, and that is all they desire. I don't think a person can achieve mastery in that manner, to achieve mastery - the 'how' does matter; the master should know everything about the different 'hows' and the trade-offs; and that is what makes them a master.
Overall, I think I'm arguing that you cannot become an expert without continually improving the process; and to do that you need to continually understand and study the process at progressively deeper levels. If a person cares nothing for the process, just the outcome - they therefore cannot achieve mastery (I'm like 85% convinced this is true).
If we assume a specialist is also an expert, then by definition specialists are not midwits - I agree.
An expert musician I would suspect should know how the different qualities of the instrument they play affect the outcome. Whether they can actually construct an instrument is a different question, but they ought to know the differences. Can you also be an expert musician and not know, nor care about the differences in instrument construction quality and material? Can you be an expert on a piano and not know what makes for a good piano?
I think the most exact analogy would be a musician who does not care about how an instrument is played - they don't study it, they don't care, just do something that makes for a nice sound, and that is all they desire. I don't think a person can achieve mastery in that manner, to achieve mastery - the 'how' does matter; the master should know everything about the different 'hows' and the trade-offs; and that is what makes them a master.