Expanding Knowledge

It seems that advanced education today focuses individuals on narrower and narrower fields of study so that they become experts on their subject, but often ignorant of other fields.  Interestingly, though, that advanced degree often instills arrogance that causes the individual to be blinded to learning from others who are not also experts in their field.  To paraphrase, "If you don't have an advanced degree, you are inferior."

There are many people in this world who are wired to be generalists.  They easily assimilate a wide variety of knowledge and are able to see cross-disciplinary applications and approaches that are missed by the experts.  These are the type of people who are often extremely successful in business because they assemble teams from multiple disciplines and bring them together to solve problems.

Deep knowledge of a subject is useful; it is where new discoveries are made.  Knowing how those discoveries can be applied to solve problems requires a completely different type of thinking.

Solutions typically come from those with a wide variety of interests who see the fit within a larger view.  They are "dot connectors."  They look at a puzzle piece and see where it fits in order to complete the larger puzzle.  They see the connections.

This world is filled with specialists.  It needs more generalists who are educated in a cross-disciplinary way so that they are trained to see connections.  They will never be the expert in a field, but they will be well-versed in multiple fields.  They will solve problems.

Fungi intrigue me.  They fill a niche at the end-of-life phase of most of the visible world.  But they are also the precursor to new life.  They break down the dead and decaying and make the usable nutrients available to the living.  They also signal, through networks of fibers in the soil, that nutrients are available by releasing chemical signals which draw roots, worms, microbes and other small creatures that build the base of the food chain.

Each species of mushroom is somewhat specialized to break down certain species of plant or animal.  The Golden Reishi (Ganoderma curtisii) is one common to our area which feeds primarily on dead and decaying Loblolly Pine.