In uncertain times, all-rounders beat experts. Generalists are crucial for solving today’s toughest challenges.

I’m not an expert, and I’m not striving to be one.

However, I’m an all-rounder. Being involved in many different things and building things out of nothing is what gets me out of bed every day.

And when those things start growing, they need some organization and leadership around them.

And when those things grow even more, it’s time to hire people who are better than me — i.e. experts in their domains — to keep myself all-rounding.

In a nutshell, this is my life.

Experts vs. All-Rounders

An expert focuses on one single craft or competence, trying to become better and better in his or her domain. Being very good or even the best at something is a valuable asset that can be monetized very handsomely— until that craft or competence becomes obsolete. History tells us many stories of crafts and competencies that suddenly became obsolete.

In contrast, an all-rounder maintains a wider set of skills, at the expense of not reaching expert level in any of those skills. Whilst the all-rounder might not reach the pay level of an expert for an individual craft or competence, he or she can rely on a much wider set of skills — and oftentimes, the combination of wildly different skills leads to creative solutions that make all-rounders super valuable.

So much for my summary of experts and all-rounders. From my pragmatic writing style, you can see that I am an all-rounder and not an expert. When researching, I was inspired by Brandon Moore’s article which shares my pragmatic approach, but much less so by Scott Young’s article which takes a much more academic approach to general skills.

No offense here, there is room for pragmatists and theorists, it just illustrates their differences once more. And that I belong to the species of the pragmatists rather than the theorists.

Now for the main part. Why are all-rounders a much-needed species in today’s world? Let’s look at the two main characteristics of today’s world, and how all-rounders add value.

Characteristic 1: Most Problems Are Complex Problems

There is a saying that the flutter of a butterfly’s wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world. That’s how complex and connected our world has become.

Try to find solutions to such complex problems using an expert’s view. Most probably the top butterfly researchers and the top typhoon experts never talk to each other, so some connections between that flutter and that typhoon will go unnoticed forever.

First, complex problems can’t be solved with simple solutions. Or rather, they can’t be solved with one-dimensional solutions. Whilst experts are often involved in complex problems, they often lack the multi-dimensional view that unearths the connections between that flutter and that typhoon.

All-rounders take a different approach here. Whilst the depth of their skills might be lower than those of experts, they usually built their general skills out of many different specific skills. And the true art of all-rounding is to connect the dots between wildly different skills to foster new, innovative solutions to complex problems.

Second, no two complex problems are the same. Whilst expert skills help you solve narrow problems beautifully, all-rounder skills can be applied to any new problem in the world. And each new problem in today’s world tends to be a complex problem.

Characteristic 2: Good-Bye Good Times, Hello Dire Times

The last 30 years were one huge party. Prosperity grew year on year, and with it did the focus on the individual. At the same time though, some big problems started developing underneath the hood, without much notice at first:

Climate change.

Return to power politics and wartime.

Pandemics.

Inflation.

Energy security.

The list could go on and on, but that’s not the point here. The point is that pandemics and energy security are as connected as that flutter of a butterfly and that typhoon. And still, most governments maintain a separate health agency and a separate energy security agency.

Enter the all-rounders. Dire times with new problems need a general skill set to find good solutions to those complex problems.

What is true for government, is true for business. Any entrepreneur who has built something out of nothing knows what dire times mean: You start with no money and with no experts. And that’s exactly what’s needed in dire times — people who roll up their sleeves and do a lot with little, in an uncertain world.