Specialist vs Generalist
As a chemical engineer turned into project manager, I went through a very rough transition from being a specialist to being a generalist.
When I started my career, I had a chemical engineering degree and a specialization in alternative energy sources with a focus on solar power and, more specifically, concentrated solar power technologies.
As you can see, I was very specialized in a small and particular niche. I liked that and was used to the idea.
At a certain point in my career, I decided to make a change, and I left my engineer role behind and took one as a project manager instead. I won't get into the reasons why I made that decision in this post so that's a story for another time.
"Project manager" is a very loose term, and it can mean a lot of things, but typically, it is a very generalist role. Sure, some project managers specialize in one particular industry, such as construction, technology or health, but the internet attributions of the role force a project manager to dab in many skills.
In most companies, a project manager is responsible for managing all sorts of things related to a project, such as technical scope, resources, contracts, schedules, and relationships with internal and external stakeholders, just to name a few.
I quickly went from someone who knows quite a lot about one particular field to someone who knows very little about many things and, although I'm used to it and okay with it now, it was not an easy transition.
Because of my "old habits," I felt very bad about not knowing everything there was to know about all the topics I and my team were handling, and I would put a lot of pressure on myself to dive deep into things and try to learn everything there was to know in record time.
Needless to say that did not work at all.
It didn't take long for the projects I was managing to start getting in a "danger" zone. Because I was too busy trying to figure out everything at once, I wasn't spending time doing the things I should be doing, and instead of using my team members, who were real experts in their fields, I was trying to learn the things they had been studying for years, if not decades.
Fortunately, with the help of my mentors and friends, I finally realized I didn't need to know everything. I just needed to understand things enough to be able to assign the right people to each task.
From that point on, my life became much easier, and my relationship with my team and my stakeholders was a lot better!
Crypto
I first got into crypto around 7 years ago and while that is not a long time for most of the crypto OGs, I do not consider myself a "newbie" anymore.
In crypto, as in life, there are many paths you can pursue and you can still thrive even if you are not an expert in all of them. Sure, if you want to live 100% off of crypto, then the more you know, the better, but if you are like me, who treats it as a "side hustle," then it's perfectly possible to understand things from a broader perspective and pick whatever works best for you.
I was reminded of that in a recent interaction with a fellow crypto trader I just met.
He was talking about Technical Analysis and teaching me and some others a few tips and tricks. I must admit I know very little about technical analysis, so I was very impressed by his extensive knowledge of the field.
A few moments later, the subject switched to Liquidity Pools, which is something I am much more comfortable with. I was expecting the guy to drop some more knowledge about LPs, but, to my surprise, he said he didn't really know much about them.
"My time to shine," I thought. And I returned the favour by teaching him the basics and a few tips to get him started.
The result of that interaction was that both of us came out of it a little smarter and with a little extra knowledge we did not have before.
Final thoughts
There will be situations in life where we will be faced with the decision of becoming a specialist or a generalist. Each has its pros and cons, but, in my experience, the most valuable lesson is that you don't need to know everything in life.
Learn enough to be able to recognize when something is beyond your grasp and look for the right people to help you overcome the gap.