But my early years as a generalist had their own uncertainties.
In the absence of being able to accurately predict which skills will be in demand in the future workforce, surely it makes more sense to build broad generalist skills of numeracy and literacy in the early years, rather than concentrate on the narrower skill of coding.
The current model of a GP being a generalist and gatekeeper is no longer sustainable.
She added that doctors need to learn to innovate in daily roles, and that the generalist doctor should be valued as well as specialists.
Indeed, we have a list of ways to help managers prepare for disruption: Be a curious generalist Throughout life, seek the new.
A curator used to be a generalist who made decisions on everything from breeding to advertising.
American data from the 1980s and 1990s, and more recent research in Germany, show a correlation between foreign direct investment, outsourcing and lower union-wage premiums.The shift from manufacturing to services is another blow: workers who have honed a specific welding technique have more bargaining power than generalist computer programmers or hotel cleaners.
That is because the specialist will look less like the second model than the generalist.
That would suggest that this industry, like many others, will evolve towards three large generalist players and several small niche firms, a phenomenon that Jagdish Sheth and Rajendra Sisodia, two academics, call "the rule of three" in a book of the same title.
Its knowledge about the needs of its users sets it apart from the generalist search-engines, says Angela Hribar of GlobalSpec.
The same sorts of ideas are also being applied in other vertical-search fields.At the same time, however, similar features and filters are appearing on generalist search-engines, enabling them to act more like vertical engines.
