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Range
- Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Business & Careers, Management & Leadership
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Publisher's Summary
The number one New York Times best seller that has all America talking: as seen/heard on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, Morning Joe, CBS This Morning, The Bill Simmons Podcast, Rich Roll, and more.
“If you’re a generalist who has ever felt overshadowed by your specialist colleagues, this book is for you.” (Bill Gates)
“The most important business - and parenting - book of the year.” (Forbes)
“Urgent and important...an essential read for bosses, parents, coaches, and anyone who cares about improving performance.” (Daniel H. Pink)
Shortlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award
“So much crucial and revelatory information about performance, success, and education.” (Susan Cain, best-selling author of Quiet)
Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument, or lead their field should start early, focus intensely, and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you’ll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research on the world’s top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule.
David Epstein examined the world’s most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, forecasters, and scientists. He discovered that in most fields - especially those that are complex and unpredictable - generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. Generalists often find their path late, and they juggle many interests rather than focusing on one. They’re also more creative, more agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can’t see.
Provocative, rigorous, and engrossing, Range makes a compelling case for actively cultivating inefficiency. Failing a test is the best way to learn. Frequent quitters end up with the most fulfilling careers. The most impactful inventors cross domains rather than deepening their knowledge in a single area. As experts silo themselves further while computers master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive.
What the critics say
“For reasons I cannot explain, David Epstein manages to make me thoroughly enjoy the experience of being told that everything I thought about something was wrong. I loved Range.” (Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and The Tipping Point)
“For too long, we’ve believed in a single path to excellence. Start early, specialize soon, narrow your focus, aim for efficiency. But in this groundbreaking book, David Epstein shows that in most domains, the way to excel is something altogether different. Sample widely, gain a breadth of experiences, take detours, and experiment relentlessly. Epstein is a deft writer, equally nimble at telling a great story and unpacking complicated science. And Range is an urgent and important book, an essential read for bosses, parents, coaches, and anyone who cares about improving performance.” (Daniel H. Pink, author of When, Drive, and A Whole New Mind)
“In a world that’s increasingly obsessed with specialization, star science writer David Epstein is here to convince you that the future may belong to generalists. It’s a captivating read that will leave you questioning the next steps in your career - and the way you raise your children.” (Adam Grant, author of Give and Take and Originals)
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What listeners say about Range
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Omar Bawhab
- 2020-04-16
Put a smile on my face
This is one the most influential books on a personal level that I read in the last few years. I have always struggled with breadth but lack of depth. I read everything and anything! I tried many hobbies, kept some and left some. I changed paths from undergrad to masters and currently PhD. I have curiosity for knowledge about anything and everything. I noticed this early in my twenties and I thought there must be something wrong with me. Most of my peers followed through into one path and became very specialized which made me feel behind, awkward, a failure, and many other negative feelings. This book made me look at myself in a different way! I now have a different perspective on life and my progression within it! This could be my path to benefiting many people on the future!
2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rhonda
- 2019-10-24
yesss
This was just the book I needed....it was recommended to me by my business coach and I'm glad I tuned in. I came away feeling like every lesson amd moment in my life had given me something and that range can be so positive
2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2019-08-30
Fresh take on innovation & the generalist mindset
This book is reassurance for all the wanderers, day dreamers and tinkerers that you don't have retire your insatiable curiosity for a path to success. Nearing thirty, I still havent settled in just one career path, never mind a narrow trajectory. My lack of specialization has been a source of deep personal anxiety and exasperation from peers and mentors. This book offers an alternative that celebrates the generalist's path to success and happiness. I'll continue to follow my interests wherever they lead, but having read this book, I'll bring along a few new tools, and a lot less guilt.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bobak Baud
- 2021-05-09
My life story
The book resonated with me very well as I have gone through a career shift and totally see the advantages of expanding your area of expertise rather than deepening it at younger ages.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Dean Tester
- 2021-03-28
Really interesting take on what drives success
I've always considered myself a jack of all trades and thought my business succeeded despite that, not because of that. This gave a really great perspective on how having range can be an asset in a specialized world. In particular, the author used great real world examples to demonstrate their point — examples that would be familiar to basically anyone reading. I really enjoyed this audiobook and thought it was well read by the narrator as well.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- the reeser
- 2021-03-18
Fantastic book
There is much in this book that I have known intuitively, but it is very interesting to see it backed up by research and synthesized across many life disciplines.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- pradha
- 2021-03-09
Excellent listen. What a relief to read!
It felt great to hear about research and science on what to me was a hunch and a way I enjoy living my life. Thanks!
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cloff the champ
- 2021-01-04
enjoyable
With all books like this it's kind of hard to know if it's if it's so enjoyable because it confirms biases and suspicions that I hold or because it affirms my own meandering path. It does feel right though and it's an enjoyable listen to
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- ProlificReader
- 2022-02-25
Excellent
Top notch narration. A wonderful summation of an idea that is simultaneously intuitive yet counter-intuitive, strongly backed by both evidence and riveting anecdotes.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- A.O
- 2020-08-01
Excellent/informative. A Management must!
This is a great follow up to the sports gene. I was expecting to have more about sports in Range but it actually supports the theories and facts displayed in the sports gene and extends it further to the "real world". However, one thing to consider is the subjects are typically all outliers in their fields.. but didn't get there through the "traditional narrative". I'll be looking forward to any future work from David Epstein as he continues to scale out these logical theories to the "average" human or to "human capacity". What's great is anyone at any capacity level can experience this book and be enabled to contextualize their lived experience as a comparative. Also I think anyone in Corporate Management should 100% read this book. It's a "must" for my toolkit 😊😊!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- anon.
- 2019-06-07
If you're highly curious, read this
Who will like this book
* If your friends would describe you as highly curious, you’ll like this book
* If you’re an investor, a business owner, a researcher, a scientist, a musician, a writer, a director, an athlete, or really anyone dealing with complex questions or seeking world-class achievement, you’ll like this book
* If you care about doing the most good for the world and maximizing your positive impact on the world, you’ll like this book
* If you’ve thought about how to increase innovation and problem solving in the world, you’ll like this book
* If you’ve thought about what makes great inventors or innovators great, and how to identify and encourage world-class talent, you’ll like this book
* If you like books like “Sapiens,” “Poor Charlie’s Almanack,” “Elephant in the Brain,” “Principles,” you’ll like this book
* If you have ADHD, you’ll like this book
* If your job or passion involves trying to accurately forecast the future, you’ll like this book
The benefits you’ll get from this book
* You’ll see how to achieve more, professionally
* You’ll understand the ways your understanding of the 10,000 Hour rule has been wrong
* You’ll better understand the path to world-class achievement
* You’ll better understand how to spot potential world-class achievers
* You’ll better understand how to forecast the future
* You’ll better understand how to solve complex challenges where the answers aren’t obvious, both in your work and personal life
Conclusion
If you think that you'll benefit from it based on my above notes, I recommend buying it. If you're on the fence, listen to interviews with the author either on the "Invest Like The Best" or the "Econtalk" podcasts to get a better sense.
After you read it
Search YouTube and watch the talk called “Greatness Cannot Be Planned.” It extends the ideas from this book in a brilliant way.
If you like the Greatness Cannot Be Planned, then you’ll also enjoy the following books: “So Good They Can’t Ignore You,” “Where Good Ideas Come From,” and the chapter on the evolution of technology from “The Evolution of Everything.”
Also search google for the blog post “Focus May Be Your Worst Enemy in Biotech R&D” — it also resonates with the ideas from this book.
P.S. If you’re a curious person, and you probably are because you’re looking at books and reading the reviews, definitely get this book!
P.P.S. This book is the next “Sapiens.”
137 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Ted
- 2020-05-09
Anecdotes Around an Assertion
Apologies about alliteration, but this is one of those books that uses a mess of examples to drive home a general point. The narrator does an acceptable job delivering a sometimes interesting series of accounts that essentially state that specialists get bogged in their field while generalists drive real change. It will make you feel good if you’re the latter and it will offend you if that the former. As a former NPS ranger who has applied a natural history degree to the tech world, I enjoyed it, but I’m exactly the type who this book should please.
29 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- GuamUsa65
- 2019-10-22
Excellent read for 50 somethings like myself who has peaked in one field but is far from done in contributing to this world.
I am 50 something and her and CEO and people keep asking me what do I do now that I’ve peaked. I am nowhere close to being done and my contributing to my country, people of Guam or family. This book is in inspiration to all of us who have meandered our way through our lives to relative success but still feel like Caesar that our life has just begun!!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2020-06-30
Recommended to overbearing parents who think a head start in everything is the answer
Great book, especially today with so many soon-to-be parents and new parents planning, waiting on long lists and paying exorbitant $ on day care, with the hopes of giving their child a “head start.” Same is true for the parents putting young children in camps and paying professional coaches to teach them sports. This author debunks these approaches to instead focus on getting a broad array of experiences and allowing uncoached play first before specializing and formal training. After all, he says, you don’t know what your natural skills and interests will be until much later in life. The author does a great job of explaining that skills you’ve gathered in areas unrelated to the field you ultimately focus on is never wasted. It adds to your understanding and gives you a breadth of tools to utilize. It gives you Range.
Lastly, I don’t understand reviews that say “it could have been shorter” because the authors point was made much earlier. The stories he shared were so fascinating that I couldn’t care less if his thesis was clear in the first chapter. If you enjoy books and learning stop trying to hack knowledge. If you read through the entire book he made this point as well. It’s a lifelong journey. Slow down and enjoy!
8 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Brian Tudor
- 2019-06-06
Generally Speaking…
As someone who has a vast amount of hobbies and interests I found Range to be a very well informed look at the idealized nature of success based on having a wealth of experience to draw upon. Epstein is a wonderful writer whom I have enjoyed since his time at Sports Illustrated and Will Damron did a great job narrating the book. If you are someone in a field where innovation is the order of the day this book is for you. If you work in HR, Management, or College admissions, this is the book for you. Understanding how to look at all the salient data points to see the full story of a problem, product, or most importantly a person is broken down in Range to help you find the most successful teams in the last place you'd think to look.
11 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Zack
- 2019-08-11
Gladwell-Esque Supplement to Fuzzy and the Techie
3.5 — I can't help but think of this in relation to The Fuzzy and the Techie: Why the Liberal Arts Will Rule the Digital World. Both address a similar idea, but with with slightly different focuses. Range was more personal, sharing case studies of individuals who got late starts or hopped across industries/careers/specializations. Stylistically, it's one of those Gladwell-esque books that follows the case-study-illustrating-a-broader-lesson formula. What has stuck with me from The Fuzzy and the Techie, in contrast, was the more societal stuff: how some of the jobs we think of as most secure (STEM, coding, etc.) may actually be vulnerable as AI and automation advance, whereas cross-disciplinary, expansive, critical thinking-oriented skill sets will be in demand (because those functions simply can't be replicated by computers). On that front, I thought Fuzzy was stronger, but Range was a great supplement, particularly in its explanation of "kind" vs. "wicked" learning environments and those implications. The case studies were interesting, too, running the gamut from Roger Federer to musically virtuousic brothel orphans.
10 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- J. Fried
- 2020-01-23
Eye opening for all ADD & folks with multiple interests
Interested in more than one thing? Here’s the book to save your self image, give you avenues to get better and learn how to produce breakthroughs through diversity of interests.
I enjoyed every chapter on its own and all together as a book. Highly recommended and very easy to listen to.
4 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- ST
- 2019-06-05
I wish I had this book 10 years ago
Having been raised, and currently living, in an environment dominated by the philosophy of “Grit” and the “10,000 hour rule”, this book is a refreshing look at those who have thrived on the other end of that spectrum. I wish this book was written 10 years ago; it would have saved me a lot of time and grief.
14 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- A Baker
- 2019-07-17
A gem worth 6 out of 5 stars
Wow. The book description does not come close to justifying the depth, importance, knowledge value, quality of writing AND narration, breadth of life and career applicability, insight, credibility, and even the level of entertainment contained herein. Epstein did a stellar job of painting a complete picture of how we think, problem solve, interact, learn, grow, and progress in life. Showing the necessity of continuous analytical curiosity and critical thinking development.
This book contains mountains of important lessons, perfectly curated to provide a complete, deep understanding of our skill sets in the world. I have a top five reading list in psychology, critical thinking, statistics, and philosophy.. this book thoroughly competes with the entire combination of my essential reads.
I could go on and on. But I’ll end with this, if you have any interest in deep learning and critical thinking, this book is my #1 recommendation for most important work of the decade.
7 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- KE
- 2019-06-21
Interesting
Interesting content, but falls short of proving the case that one is better off embracing being a generalist today to "triumph" (present tense) as the subtitle suggests. It rather makes an interesting case as to why generalists should be more valued than they currently are.
7 people found this helpful
