In the so-called Information Age, information is abundant and cheap, but time and attention are scarce and valuable. This chapter demonstrates a number of strategies for managing both abundant information and scarce attention, including how to choose among a number of attractive options, how to fish out the choicest ideas from the Internet, and how to record ideas and what you think about them once you’ve caught them. Attention works best when it’s under conscious control. Without control and discernment, you’re left grasping at anything shiny that happens to catch your eye as a river of valuable information flows by. Learning to discern what information deserves your attention and what doesn’t is surely a skill that deserves your attention.
Polyspecialize
Instead of knowing a lot about one thing or a little about many things, why not become adept at several mutually reinforcing skills that don’t usually go together?
The ancient Greek poet Archilocus said, “The fox knows many things; the hedgehog one great thing.” This saying is one of the few surviving fragments of his works, and Isaiah Berlin pointed out that “these dark words . . . may mean no more than that the fox, for all his cunning, is defeated by the hedgehog’s one defence,” or that we might see the hedgehog as an idealist who guides all her actions by a single overriding principle, whereas the fox is more of a pragmatist who pursues a variety of loosely related goals. We think Archilocus was really talking about people, of course, as Aesop did in his fables. For the purposes of this hack, we’ll take the word “know” literally, and define “hedgehogs” as specialists (people who have narrow but deep knowledge) and “foxes” as generalists or comprehensivists (people with broad but shallow knowledge). The breadth of knowledge some “foxes” have is praiseworthy, and the depth of knowledge some “hedgehogs” have attained is astonishing: People have become experts in areas as diverse as doorknobs, medieval Dutch castles, and Esperanto coins and postage stamps. However, is there — besides knowing little or nothing at all, of course — a feasible alternative to knowing a lot about one thing or a little about many things? We think so, and it’s a path to success that’s relatively overlooked compared to that of the fox or the hedgehog.
In Action
Why not become a polyspecialist? That’s our word for someone who knows a lot about multiple things, and a little about even more. The emphasis of polyspecialism is neither on extreme depth in one subject nor on broad but shallow understanding of the whole world of human knowledge. Instead, the emphasis is on a deep understanding of several subjects together with a nodding acquaintance of many more, incidentally acquired during study. Any individual area of a polyspecialist’s study may be useful, but the real power lies in how those areas complement one another. As the Roman philosopher Seneca said, “It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.” Several useless things taken together may generate one or two very useful things indeed. Seneca also said, anticipating twenty-first century polyspecialism, Shun no toil to make yourself remarkable by some talent or other; yet do not devote yourself to one branch exclusively. Strive to get clear notions about all. Give up no science entirely; for science is but one. In Bruce Sterling’s terms, a generalist is “well-rounded,” but a polyspecialist strives to be “spiky,” with narrow, deep spikes of skills and knowledge protruding in multiple directions. (Of course, few people have to try very hard to obtain wide, deep chasms of ignorance, so don’t worry about those!) Such spikiness can be a boon to your career, and the cartoonist Scott Adams makes the case for the polyspecialist path admirably:
If you want an average successful life, it doesn’t take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:
1. Become the best at one specific thing.
2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.
The second strategy is fairly easy. Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort. In my case, I can draw better than most people, but I’m hardly an artist. And I’m not any funnier than the average standup comedian who never makes it big, but I’m funnier than most people. The magic is that few people can draw well and write jokes. It’s the combination of the two that makes what I do so rare. And when you add in my business background, suddenly I had a topic that few cartoonists could hope to understand without living it. Of course, this is a bit vague. If you are a programmer, what does it mean to be in “the top 25%”? The top 25% of the general population? The top 25% of all professional programmers? Of all Perl programmers? Of all Perl programmers who specialize in regular expressions? Cutting crosswise, the top 25% of programmers in any language who specialize in regular expressions? We take the 25% number figuratively. Adams seems to be saying that his rule of thumb is that one way to succeed is to be pretty good at a number of mutually reinforcing skills, especially ones that don’t usually go together, and if the skills work together, you don’t have to be the best at any of them. That is a principle we can endorse. Take a look at your current set of skills and areas of knowledge, particularly those which you’ve studied to more than an average degree and of which you have a reasonably deep grasp. Also look carefully at more unusual skills and knowledge you may have. It may help to list them on paper so you can see them side by side.
Once you have done that, look for synergy: How can two or more of them fit together?
Are you fascinated by both aerospace and glacial melting? Perhaps one day you will launch satellites to study the polar ice caps.
Are you a budding rock historian with an interest in the postal system? Perhaps you could establish a museum of rock and pop music paraphernalia that was given away and sold through the mail.
Do you know how to field-strip a laser printer, add IPv6 addresses in your head, and also have an interest in diplomacy and foreign affairs? Perhaps you can rise to be the head of IT for the Council on Foreign Relations, or, if you’re of an anti-establishment bent, create the next WikiLeaks.
When you see how your particular constellation of experience meshes, you may find a whole new direction or project for yourself — one for which you’re a ready-made expert. You may even invent a whole new field of study.
How It Works
One might argue that Leonardo da Vinci was a good example of someone who had mastery of all knowledge, and was therefore neither a narrow specialist, a polyspecialist, nor a shallow generalist or comprehensivist. However, strictly apart from the question of Leonardo’s native intelligence (which was very high), in his time, there was simply much less knowledge readily available. Given that just the searchable part of the World Wide Web circa 2001 contained 170 terabytes of information, equivalent to 17 Libraries of Congress, it’s clear that it would take much more than a human lifetime to assimilate all the recorded information in the world, even if a single person could remember it all.
Further, given that no one can know everything in practice, it’s clear that the alternatives include to know nothing, to know a lot about one thing, to know a little about many things, or to be a polyspecialist. We remain open to other logical possibilities, but it’s fairly clear that, as Scott Adams says, “the magic” often happens when people can do at least two disparate things pretty well.
Once you grasp this idea, where it can take you is, as they say, limited only by your imagination and your interests.
In Real Life
My friend Don tends to be a polyspecialist. He is neither a superb programmer or computer scientist (compare Donald Knuth), nor a superb writer (such as Shakespeare or James Joyce). However, for a writer, he’s a pretty good programmer; and for a programmer, he’s a pretty good writer. This may seem like damningly faint praise, but it has served him well in a number of day jobs, where his title is usually programmer writer or programming writer. It’s also helped with his books, which, you may notice, are sprinkled liberally with illustrative computer programs and scripts. As well, knowing how to write step-by-step procedural documentation has helped him write both mind hacks and game rules (game design being another of his areas of polyspecialization). Tina’s experiences as a technical editor are similar; she’s not even as strong a programmer as Don, but she understands enough about how programming and technology in general work to be often regarded as “highly technical” compared to other editors on her teams. Meanwhile, her coder friends consider her a word whiz.
Tagged: Career, productivity
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Why read The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Yak-Shaving when Yak-Shaving for Kids is less condescending and will often get you up to speed faster?
Not everyone learns the same way. The target audiences of conventional learning methods always reflect some kind of average; the methods work for the large percentage of learners who fit the profile, but others may benefit from a different approach. That may mean a different medium, a different way of talking about the subject, or a different educational model altogether.
One of those models you might find quite effective is to study material originally developed for young people. If your focus strays easily when you try to digest dry text and your learning goes down better with a little bit of fun sauce, consider using kids’ resources to ground yourself in the basics of many subjects.
In Action
If you’re just starting to learn a subject and looking for the fundamentals, there’s a whole publishing sector that breaks subjects down to the basics. Some of these books range from the implausible (The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Calculus) to the inadvisable (The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Amazing Sex); but in all fairness, despite their risible titles, many such books are quite good. As we write this, Ron is working his way through our own publisher’s Existentialism for Dummies, which he is finding very enlightening. Of course, there is probably no corresponding Existentialism for Kids explaining to children why Albert Camus considered killing a stranger to be an exemplary instance of the absurdity of all human life.
Nevertheless, if you want something even more basic than a book for dummies or idiots — and maybe more colorful and engaging — you might find it fruitful to check out books written for kids — and not just kids’ books, but kids’ videos, websites, comics, games, and toys. Here is just a partial list of our favorites:
- Greedy Apostrophe, by Jan Carr:1 Ever wonder what the difference is between its and it’s, and why so many people yell at you about it? If so, this book will set your mind to rest forever about apostrophes in a fun and friendly way. It should be read by every English-speaking person.
- As far as learning from kids’ videos goes, there are perhaps more educational videos available for toddlers and preschoolers than for older kids, which is where you should probably be looking. However, there are indeed some standout learning videos for older kids, such as the video DVD and audio album Here Comes Science by They Might Be Giants (a Hale-Evans household favorite). For example, do you understand the difference between speed and velocity? Let TMBG school you:
When I’m on my Big Wheel Skateboard
Roller coaster
Race car
Motorcycle
Rocket ship
Into outer space
Motion (keep movin’, keep movin’, keep movin’)
Direction (which way, anyway, uptown, all around) Acceleration (let’s go faster)
Acceleration (let’s go faster)
I’ve got speed (that’s how fast I am moving) I’ve got velocity (that’s my speed and direction)
How It Works
Learning from materials designed for kids works well for fundamental information because children’s content is carefully designed to be effective while also maintaining a level of fun and interest. It often focuses on practical applications, and it’s also great for people with a short attention span. It is a different approach to increasing your intelligence. In addition, educational content for children is often expected, or even required by law, to meet certain standards of quality, so you can usually rely on its soundness.
In Real Life
When we became interested in number theory and wanted to learn about the Riemann Hypothesis for some reason we no longer remembered, we visited http://simple.wikipedia.org, an edition of Wikipedia that is written for children, as well as adults who are learning English. The math articles in the standard English Wikipedia are well-written and well-maintained, among the finest in all of the site, probably because there is so little contention about them. However, they are written by mathematicians for other mathematicians. The Basic English math articles are much easier to understand. The Riemann Hypothesis article in the Simple English version of Wikipedia does not assume too much knowledge on the part of the reader. For example, it assumes you know what complex numbers are, but not the zeroes of a function, and it explains them.
We are also learning to cook by using a couple of cookbooks written for kids. The authors of these books don’t assume that you know a lot of cooking terms or techniques already, and they go into detail about even the most basic parts of preparation. The kids’ cookbooks also contain fun food ideas, and have a lot of pictures that clarify what needs to be done. I hope you enjoyed this article and learned a little more on howto increase your intelligence.
Tagged: books, learning, reading
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Assuming you’re not, in fact, a grad student, learn to take advantage of both the privileges and the discipline of being one anyway.
There’s a new freedom of thought these days about what education means and how it happens, which is broadening opportunities for taking your own path to knowledge at any age. There are more resources available than ever before, on every subject imaginable, and it’s easier than ever to get hold of them.
Whether you’re years out of university, or you haven’t gone yet, you can avail yourself of creative and educational resources for your projects, resources that you would normally never have access to, by formally declaring yourself an “independent scholar.”
In Action
If you’re engaged in a creative or scholarly project, you can benefit from learning and employing methods of scholarship developed in formal academia. Claiming the title of independent scholar can help get you access to the selfsame resources to which the students and professors in your local university have access, even if you are not already affiliated with a university.
University Library Card
Chief among these resources is the university library card, which will grant you access to a world of knowledge that even an excellent urban public library cannot provide. If you can show your local university library that you are engaged in a scholarly project, and pay a fee (probably by semester), the library may give you a library card with access to all their resources, including databases of scientific and scholarly papers, and interlibrary loans from other universities.
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If you can’t obtain a university library card for some reason, a New York Public Library card, available to nonresidents for an annual fee, might be a good investment. It grants remote access to many of the library’s online databases. |
Loose Parts
Getting a university library card can be a foot in the door to other privileges à la carte, what the excellent Independent Scholar’s Handbook calls a “loose parts package.”2 In other words, although no university is exactly likely to grant an independent scholar a full professorship, you might be able to piece together a valuable mix of educational resources from your local school, or even multiple public and private institutions. These might include a mentor, a courtesy title, the right to attend lectures, a quiet private workspace such as a desk or carrel, and so on. For example, if you’re looking for a mentor or someone to champion your unorthodox affiliation with the school, you might start by finding out who teaches the subject you’re most interested in and what she or he specializes in. If you think you’re compatible, offer your services as a sort of informal intern and research assistant, in exchange for academic advice and criticism. In time, your new friend might introduce you to other professors, some of whom would permit you to audit their lectures, again informally. Now you’re building a relationship, and have found a colleague as well as some useful “loose parts.”
If you want to eventually pursue a more formal educational path, you may well be able to get university credit for your independent study, if you conduct it seriously. If you become familiar to the faculty at your local college and gain a champion who can advise you, this can be an excellent way to design a major in a really unusual or cutting-edge subject, if that interests you and you want the validation of a degree at some point.
Your Personal Library
There are other steps you can take as a scholar outside the university. For example, having better access to your own books and the information in them may be almost as useful as owning a bigger library or having access to a better one. Know what you have; organize and catalog your books. The following sites have excellent free or inexpensive resources for doing just that:
- calibre (http://calibre-ebook.com): Manage your e-book library. This open-source, multiplatform e-book multi-tool for desktop and laptop computers does everything from cataloging your e-books, to converting them to other formats, to displaying them for reading.
- LibraryThing (www.librarything.com): The best tool we know of for managing your paper book library; it’s also a social networking site centering around your books.
Your library is a crucial tool for writing and study. Learn how to select and hone a high-quality collection of reference books about your subject matter at the beginning of a project. You’ll never be sorry you did.
Scholar’s Dates
It can be hard to work on an independent project when you also have the demands of a full-time job, family, or other obligations. Improve your chances of success by making a regular schedule of dates — a fund of time — for yourself and your project. Make yourself a “class schedule” and keep to it, just as if you had a class and teacher to report to. Give yourself gold stars for excellent attendance! Write yourself a plan and a curriculum describing what you want to study and in what order, with milestones and dates, and then keep yourself on track, class by class. You might think of these techniques as being like the Artist’s Dates described in Julia CameDan’s book The Artist’s Way,3 but dedicated to a scholarly, rather than an artistic, pursuit.
How It Works
Studying as an independent scholar works largely due to a shift in attitude: There’s a distinct difference in what you can get done when you start taking yourself seriously. When being “interested in something” becomes considering yourself a scholar on the subject, it changes how you pursue your field and how you work on it. Taking yourself seriously gives you the confidence to seek out and gain tools and opportunities for your study, too, because it means others take you seriously as well.
There are many nontraditional students on most campuses these days; rising unemployment, changing work styles (like telecommuting and flexible hours), and simply living longer have provided many more people with extra time and energy to pursue scholarship. Most universities are responding to this by expanding the services and privileges they can extend to such students. In addition, there are a number of experimental and nontraditional colleges and universities throughout the country, such as Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, that are more flexible and more willing to admit those with an interest in independent scholarship.
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