Generalists will lead the future of work (it’s already starting). According to pioneers of the movement, Kenneth Mikkelsen and Richard Martin, the generalist “brings together diverse people, synthesizing ideas and practices, addressing the big issues that confront us in order to shape a better future.” Their curiosity, responsiveness and connectivity foster the ability to learn and adapt when the world changes. Generalists feature prominently in David Epstein’s Range because they are uniquely positioned to solve complex problems with their expansive toolbox. When Epstein was a guest on The Lowe Post basketball podcast, he recommended that one simple way to enhance your range is to read a variety of books. This resonated with me because of the weird, divisive and thought-provoking books that I’ve consumed over the 10 years of my book club. Here are nine books that enhanced my range.
The World Without Us
This book in one or two sentences
The World Without Us is a non-fiction book about what would happen to the natural and built environment if humans suddenly disappeared. It outlines how cities and houses would deteriorate, how long man-made artifacts would last, and how remaining lifeforms would evolve.
How it enhanced my range
Alan Weisman’s grandiose thought experiment fundamentally shifted my perspective in terms of how we talk about climate change. By all accounts the world will be fine without human beings – it’s been around for billions of years before us and will be around long after we’re gone. When I express urgency about climate change it is usually with a phrase like, “let’s focus more on saving ourselves because the planet is going to be fine.”
This book also helped me frame departures from teams I lead. Whether it was someone I had to let go or a superstar who earned a promotion, folks often responded with questions like “who will do the work?” or “how will we perform at the same level?”. Communities adapt when people and things leave and I’ve found myself citing Weisman more than expected during times of change.
A Man Came Out of a Door in the Mountain
This book in one or two sentences
In isolated British Columbia, girls, mostly native, are vanishing from the sides of a notorious highway. Leo Kreutzer and his four friends are barely touched by these disappearances—until a series of mysterious and troublesome outsiders come to town.
How it enhanced my range
Reconciliation is complex and personal. A simple thing that settlers like me can do to expand our range about indigenous issues and learn more about the communities impacted by generations of trauma is to read works of fiction by indigenous authors and/or about indigenous peoples. Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson is another excellent work in this genre.
Harun’s work also uses magical realism to explore the tragedy of Northern BC’s Highway of Tears because the Devil serves to personify the evil acts of the men who are responsible for missing and murdered indigenous women (the ones committing the acts as well as the ones neglecting to investigate disappearances). Reading books like this one make me a better conversationalist about why reconciliation and the rights of indigenous peoples is such an important and complex issue.
Evicted
This book in one or two sentences
Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of 21st-century America’s most devastating problems. Sociologist Matthew Desmond delivers his ethnography by following eight families in Milwaukee as they struggle to keep a roof over their heads.
How it enhanced my range
As a man of privilege, I haven’t faced eviction because of my economic circumstances. In fact, when presented with less-than-desirable living standards during my fourth year of university in Quebec my roommates and I just stopped paying rent until things got fixed. Needless to say, Desmond’s important and compelling work delivered details – mindboggling data and heartbreaking narratives – about a community with which I engage transactionally at best.
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
This book in one or two sentences
The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work is an exploration of the joys and perils of the modern workplace, beautifully evoking what other people get up to all day – and night – to make the frenzied contemporary world function.
How it enhanced my range
The first decade of my career was spend as a career practitioner. I coached and advised students and young professionals about research-based vocational options that aligned with their skills and interests. It took the work of philosopher Alain de Botton to expand how I imagined the world of work. To date, this is one of my favourite books because it perfectly captures consistent themes of work across professions and geographies. It also highlights the intimately personalized nature of working. Whenever I am praised for my ability to bring humanity and customization into peoples’ work life, I can trace this skill back to The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work expanding my range.
Fifteen Dogs
This book in one or two sentences
When Hermes and Apollo make a bet about human happiness, they grant 15 dogs staying at a veterinary clinic the power of human consciousness. The dogs instantly become divided between those who prefer their old dog ways and those who want to take advantage of their newfound increased intelligence.
How it enhanced my range
I mean… Gods giving dogs the power of human consciousness will probably shift everyone’s perspective in some way. Honestly, since reading this book I cannot see dog parks the same way. Alexis presents them as a vicious biggest-meanest-dog-takes-all
The Hidden Life of Trees
This book in one or two sentences
In The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben shares his deep love of woods and forests and explains the amazing processes of life, death, and regeneration he has observed in the woodland and the amazing scientific processes behind the wonders of which we are blissfully unaware.
How it enhanced my range
I wrote a blog post about this book because of how much it (and trees) blew my mind. Walking in nature has always helped me get calm and grounded, but Wohlleben’s book took my thoughts and feelings about trees to new levels. For examples, trees have complex communication systems that rival the Internet and care for each other in ways that combine universal healthcare and the best kind of organizational mentorship. The strongest trees sacrifice their health so that the weaker ones can have a chance.
Honestly, I think that this book and the communal efforts of trees have helped me understand the co-operative movement better.
Hominids
This book in one or two sentences
Neanderthals have developed a radically different civilization on a parallel Earth. A Neanderthal physicist, Ponter Boddit, accidentally passes from his universe into a Canadian underground research facility. Fortunately, a team of human scientists, including expert paleo-anthropologist Mary Vaughan, promptly identifies and warmly receives Ponter.
How it enhanced my range
Science fiction is an important genre to consume because of the allegorical connection to humanity’s greatest contemporary challenges. In this case, the relevance of diversity, inclusion and belonging are brought into question as Canadian scientists are asked to engage and trust an outsider who brings different history, culture and beliefs to the world.
There are some interesting Neanderthal-interaction-protocols in Hominids, too, which I tried unsuccessfully to integrate into some of my friendships.
In any case, success as a global community will be tested by our ability to embrace diversity and include as many folks at the table as possible, which is an existential crisis often tackled by science fiction. The two worlds in this story are more or less governed by the same scientific rules, so a result of Hominids helping to expand my range was how it emphasized putting data and science at the centre of any good story or conversation that seeks to connect oppositional views.
The Autobiography of Red
This book in one or two sentences
The award-winning poet Anne Carson reinvents a genre in Autobiography of Red, a stunning work that is both a novel and a poem, both an unconventional re-creation of an ancient Greek myth and a wholly original coming-of-age story set in the present.
How it enhanced my range
There’s no way that I would’ve read this book without it being recommended by my friend Alison – every great book club has an English teacher as a member and she’s ours. Carson’s work of postmodern fiction was divisive for our group to say the least. Kurt, this website’s co-founder, would probably rank it as his least favourite book we’ve ever read (definitely in the bottom five).
I hadn’t read literature like this since graduate school, so it was a good reminder of how wide a range there is for storytelling. Did I understand the “plot” of Herecles and Geryon “well” or “at all”? Maybe? Did I expand my perspective in terms of how a story can be told? Yes.
And I absolutely learned a lot about how my closest community of friends interpret what makes for a good story.
Basketball (And Other Things)
This book in one or two sentences
Basketball (and Other Things) presents readers with a whole new set of pivotal and ridiculous fan disputes from basketball history, providing arguments and answers, explained with the wit and wisdom that is unique to Shea Serrano.
How it enhanced my range
This is the greatest thing Shea Serrano has ever written! I love basketball. I love pop culture. I love creative story telling. When our book club conversation about BAOT started and I asked for peoples’ initial reflections I heard, “I understand John Horn better after reading this book.” This is true. Serrano uses data-driven arguments, fan rhetoric and even an action movie screenplay to tell a truly unique story.
Kurt and I love pop culture and we both know that twentysomething professionals – especially aspiring leaders – are more likely to respond positively to articles and conversations that highlight key career-building skills with pop culture references and examples. Mark Savickas, a leading career theorist, argues that humans use narrative themes from our live to construct career identities. Needless to say, BAOT was one great example of a masterpiece in creative storytelling that inspired how we produce content for this website.
Expand your range and generalism
There are two simple actions that everyone can take every day to expand their range. This article focuses on the first example, which is to read stuff and consume content that isn’t part of your normal diet of literature or videos.
The second thing you can do is to have conversations with people who see the world differently than you do. This could mean engaging in an uncomfortable conversation with a conservative uncle about climate change or having coffee with a process-driven, hyper-meticulous Chief Financial Officer about the role that game theory plays in making an organization more engaged and efficient (this might be happening for me soon!).
Get comfortable with being uncomfortable and expand your range.
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This article was originally published on October 2, 2019 and it holds up really well.