Invest Like The Best
Episode 133 Wide or Deep?
Invest Like The Best

Episode 133: Wide or Deep?

Invest Like The Best

Episode 133

Wide or Deep?

David Epstein is a writer and researcher extraordinaire and the author of two great books, The Sports Gene and Range. We cover the pros & cons in generalist and specialist mindsets, what research tells us about human nature & performance, and applying these findings to business.

[00:03:00] – What did the public pay most attention to and what did they gloss over

[00:06:44] – How his views on nature vs nurture shifted during the process of writing The Sports Gene

[00:08:53] – Blending practice with your nature

[00:11:52] – His process of reading 10 journal articles a day as part of his research

[00:21:51] – Idea of the cult of the head start and how we set up our own feedback loops

[00:27:46] – What does his research say about the nations education system

[00:29:30] – The Flynn Effect chapter

[00:32:43] – Hacks for learning

[00:36:40] – The concept of struggle and harnessing the power of it

[00:45:19] – Personality changes and how to drive those changes in a positive way

[00:50:48] – Using the outside perspective in businesses for more productive outcomes and how it applied to Nintendo

[01:03:34] – Other examples of using withered technologies, 3M

[01:07:48] – The arc of his work and how it has evolved

[01:12:42] – Taking a different view on problems    

[01:16:52] – Anyway to change these bad trends with new strategies

Wide or Deep?

Introduction

Patrick
My guest this week is David Epstein. David is a writer and researcher extraordinaire and the author of two great books. His second, Range, is out today and I highly recommend it. We discuss the pros and cons of both the generalist and specialist mindsets in detail and go down many interesting trails along the way. Please enjoy our conversation.

So David, thanks for being here with me. We've got a whole ton to discuss, covering your two books and a lot of your other writing. I know you're interested in a million things. We're going to go all over the place.

The Sports Gene

Since the antecedents for your latest book, Range, really are buried in your first book, The Sports Gene, I thought it'd be fun to start there, and really focus on what you discovered in the first book's research that led you to get so interested in this idea of specialization versus broader set of interests. Maybe talk about that, what you uncovered, the kernel that you uncovered in The Sports Gene that's led to this later research.

Access the full transcript
Sign in or register to view episode transcripts.

Contact

Get in touch at help@joincolossus.com