Career Decision-Making Insights with Malcolm Gladwell & David Epstein

Malcolm Gladwell sits down with bestselling author, acclaimed journalist, and renowned TED speaker David Epstein to discuss his book "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World."
“What do you want to be when you grow up?”
It’s a question we all faced time and again when we were young. Fully grown adults would loom over us with a grin, and expect us to make a reasonable guess about how we would feed our families some thirty years into the future.
It seems like a benign, if slightly absurd, form of interrogation, although it reinforces a widespread assumption about success-that we must decide on a path through life as early as possible, and stick to it with unwavering dedication. After all, we spend our lives competing with others who apply to the same colleges, send résumés to the same jobs, and vie for the same promotions. We can’t afford to fall behind by focusing on unrelated pursuits-it’s a waste of time.
Or at least, that’s what we’ve been taught. But bestselling author, acclaimed journalist, and renowned TED speaker David Epstein contends that we’ve had it all wrong. In Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, Epstein explains that our personalities, along with our skills and passions, change significantly over time, and that we rarely discover what roles feel right until we actually try them. So it’s not just difficult to stick to a single long-term plan-it’s ill-advised.
Combining cutting-edge social science and a knack for captivating storytelling, Epstein explains why we should stop stressing about getting off-track, and instead feel free to pursue the full spectrum of our interests. By taking unexpected detours and exploring unrelated areas, we arrive at exactly where we’re meant to be.
00:38 Gladwell and Epstein's friendship, evolving from professional debates to personal interactions, fueled intellectual growth.
08:16 ️‍️ Epstein advocates for delaying specialization for long-term development.
11:26 Matching abilities and interests optimizes motivation and success.
15:12 Building diverse skills enhances success in complex domains.
16:39 Differentiating "kind" and "wicked" learning environments informs skill development.
23:06 Multi-sport participation enhances skill development and reduces injury risks.
25:51 Early specialization in sports can lead to burnout.
33:50 Testing, spacing, and interleaving improve education outcomes.
37:31 Disordered attachments can limit problem-solving.
39:59 School outcomes are influenced by student selection.
42:23 Traditional grading systems lack effective feedback.
46:13 Short-term planning and adaptability foster career fulfillment.
51:12 Delayed specialization in education leads to better career choices.
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[@NextBigIdeaClub]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:38 *📚 Gladwell and Epstein's friendship, evolving from professional debates to personal interactions, fueled intellectual growth.* 08:16 *🏌️‍♂️ Epstein advocates for delaying specialization for long-term development.* 11:26 *🧩 Matching abilities and interests optimizes motivation and success.* 15:12 *📈 Building diverse skills enhances success in complex domains.* 16:39 *🔄 Differentiating "kind" and "wicked" learning environments informs skill development.* 23:06 *🏀 Multi-sport participation enhances skill development and reduces injury risks.* 25:51 *⚽ Early specialization in sports can lead to burnout.* 33:50 *🎓 Testing, spacing, and interleaving improve education outcomes.* 37:31 *🏥 Disordered attachments can limit problem-solving.* 39:59 *🏫 School outcomes are influenced by student selection.* 42:23 *📚 Traditional grading systems lack effective feedback.* 46:13 *🚀 Short-term planning and adaptability foster career fulfillment.* 51:12 *🏫 Delayed specialization in education leads to better career choices.* Made with HARPA AI

[@soopermikey2767]

Hearing David speak made me think of gladwell immediately. Def gonna get the book.

[@awkwardturtle77]

The part where they talk about learning who we are from our experiences in order to know what we want to do in our lives is so true. I really didn't know who I was until I was in my late 30s.

[@zoeydeu2261]

I absolutely ADORE both authors! This is like my mind's dream come true to see them interact lol

[@EricHillAuthor]

Every so often you hear a conversation or presentation that catapults your understanding. For me, this is one of those. The social sciences rock! Had never heard of David Epstein. I watched to hear Gladwell. Wow. Epstein’s incredible. Thanks for making this video available.

[@cartersmith7628]

I enjoyed this talk and both authors.

[@dosesandmimoses]

I am elated to hear that learning and testing are being reevaluated … thank you for discussing this topic!

[@ctjhe]

We need these two to make a season podcast 😂😂

[@karengordon-brown3494]

My liberal arts, interdisciplinary education conditioned me to NOT accept operational management promotions. I preferred the technical track over the management track and it has benefitted my entrepreneurial career in amazing ways.

[@sperez3275]

And why is that? Just ur personal preference and interests?

[@bladej7688]

I'd love to see both of these guys on the Lex fridmans podcast. They could dive much deeper into their ideas and theories.

[@James-cz5hf]

I'm 68 and have no idea what I want to pursue.

[@SteveAcomb]

Boy did I misread the title what a whimsical misunderstanding

[@emmar9104]

thank you!

[@simmonslucas]

I'm surprised this video doesn't have more views

[@dosesandmimoses]

I am interested in hearing about the methodologies of reflecting that are implemented and the code of ethics that the military is using in their statistical evaluations. If the objective is to provide a wide ranging framework of interest to incentivize recruitment, building trust and treatment for veterans is, in my belief, a crucial building block in fostering a reliable group of individuals that represent some of the best and brightest of this nation. Gratitude to those who serve this country.

[@labtechstudypoint.2003]

I like your video . It was very knowledgeable and useful discussion.

[@karengordon-brown3494]

Thank you so much for specifying WHY you like the video.

[@50thanniversary68]

It’s all fun and games with generalists until they start applying for top US colleges where admission officers don’t want “well rounded” but take the “ones with spike” 😩

[@victoriahunt7813]

The calculus example (30min) sounds suspiciously like a regression towards the mean effect to me.

[@guledsm]

Conflict

[@simonlevy2154]

In our high school. We were also incentivised to learn the math paper 1 work far more than the geometry featured in paper 2.

[@bend3rbot]

Korean higher education assesses your skillset at the end of high school and offers you one only tertiary option based on your strength. Students are so disciplined to study conditioning they generally accept. Competition, and the idea your nation needs you to be optimised to defend it, that compliance is strong, and individuality takes a back seat

[@carlettagoodrich-mann1377]

Christian and Jews alignment . conversations That make individuals better. sampling athletes from NIKE to sports camps define physically fit dynamics. Intellectual showcasing measure behavioral. Habits. GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT GREAT INTERVIEW.

[@SeoFam01]

One thing that has become increasingly clear to me is that no one talks about scale. The examples David uses almost always includes people in a narrow pool. Chess, tennis and golf are very elitist sports that have a small sample size. In defining greatness or attributes that lead to it, people that need to be studies are people such as Messi. To be dubbed the greatest player in the world in a sport where virtually every kid has played football (soccer), is an incredible feat. Examples about basketball or even American based sports are are still based on an extremely small sample size and devalue the importance of the 10 000 rule, which by the way is simply why Messi is the GOAT.

[@jojotheoj]

I’ve found this approach works beautifully in IT, scaled to a team setting. It’s already been extrapolated into classroom settings in some places. See the Agile Manifesto and The Scrum Guide.

[@thegolfbois1350]

Brooks Koepka started playing golf at 5. I wouldn’t consider that “later on”

[@rmariate]

Is this what they call a 'meet cute' ?

[@rosac464]

It’s a romance book term. It’s the first encounter.

[@carlettagoodrich-mann1377]

GEL

[@carlettagoodrich-mann1377]

Education has gotten more expensive. Homeschooling is better. social bullying intimidates the Lerner. Blue collar or white collar do what you LOVE. Living the dream to breathe first IS A measure for short term planning .Career innovation search.

[@karengordon-brown3494]

But why?

[@webmonkeymon]

This is a first time in this channel🎉🎉 And I so I have to subscribe to Malcolm I can’t just go to Epstein Stuff Hey Malcolm I subscribed just so you know but I love the 10,000 hours I was totally into that and I work really hard and I just love what I’m hearing though because Learned a secret hidden from the ages Apparently because just no one ever thought of it not because it’s hard All humans are composers Musicians are actors A music needs to be taught the same way we learn theater acting First you need to know how to talk for many years many years then someday you could be on the stage and copy someone else first you must learn to express your feelings on the piano or your instrument of choice You guys should play some ball ❤

[@stackingcoins4304]

The reason why I think we like the tiger model is because, parents what to think they are engineers of there child's life, like they have control over what they do in life, how good they are at it, and much they succeed. Truth is parents are not engineers but shepherds. Another reason excepting the other model shows alot of stuff is out of our hands. Aka your genome. You can work as hard as you want have all the advantages of money, clout....but someone that is 5 ft. Tall still would never play point guard for the Lakers

[@shawnahanley6242]

Delicious…I wish more people were thinkers like this

[@hilltopcresent]

David needs to learn to let the audience laugh and not saying "that wasn't a joke".

[@karengordon-brown3494]

Soccer first then basketball is one of the ways to have a competitive advantage, but also, as we may recall, Ballet and Dance will deliver a competitive advantage in Football.

[@hollygolightly8048]

They both need to have a party and invite their pants down to their shoes.

[@TIm_Bugge]

B'but... master's tools, hurt feelies, mwaaaah.

[@seanwebb605]

Searching For Bobby Fischer.

[@silviavanderheiden5123]

in my early 30s or so i had a curiosity about the paranormal and psychology. Then these interests got me to go deeper and explore related subjects like anthropology, zoologie, in a round about way, and there were many other subjects around that time that got mentioned or whatever and I then wanted to know more about. Turned me into an autodidact and eclectic 'mind'... And the wanting to learn and know, was such a delightful process - after quitting college because just not happy anymore etc. Wish schools could somehow know how to use this... I could say so much more on this all, but unfortunately have to get ready for work...😁

[@maxwright4387]

great talk

[@TIm_Bugge]

Howza 'bout allowing students to offset their elective course fees by successfully completing randomly assigned classes or courses:)

[@l.s.26]

These two would make a cute couple if they could just mentally suppress the deeply gross thing they would need to do to be considered a couple. Just do it guys so we can say what a cute couple you are

[@carlettagoodrich-mann1377]

Narrow and broad framing. TESTING Spacing and inter -looping . Portals voicing unsuccessful sampling. Triangulating algorithms that allow US accessors to know ones self. XYZ endocrinology.

[@choosecarefully408]

The thing is, while maybe Malcolm makes the point that physical presence determines how people view a thing to a few people, as a general point, so what? He, David, the General Public *_all have_* POVs based upon non-factors that continue well after listening to this. If the garbage in your home is starting to smell or a loved one gets cancer, does anyone think "I need to hold a rally & get members of the General Public to scream about this" in order to fix either thing? Would that make the garbage magically take itself out? Would it cause the tumors to shrink? Why does everyone in Western society think that screaming their frustrations at the Sky-Gods causes some Great Force For Good (GFFG) to respond to what they're whining about? That's just it: neither of these guys have a *clue* as to _why_ people think a certain way or why any of what they're talking about happens. They're _only_ flinging their own opinions around. What's the point of _that?_ Like protestors, are they *intentionally avoiding* the root causes of things? Yes & no. The problem is that people adopt POVs *because having those makes us feel like we belong to a collective* or a GFFG is on our side. Subconsciously, our subconscious (SC) acts like a 4-year-old complete with wish-fulfillment fantasies. When we _search for_ some over-arching philosophy for some valid explanation as to explaining anything, the instant one appeals to us in part, the SC thinks _"That's_ The One" then it also starts seeing everything through it. *That's how* the SC works: "I wouldn't have adopted this POV if it didn't solve *All Problems,* so my POV _must be_ *THE* Correct One. Adults _can be_ nuanced. We can see how taxes going toward social programs might be a good thing. What about when they go to subsidies for corporations that don't need them like oil ones, who then share back a % of this with the very people who gave them those subsidies? allaregreen.us/. That's 100% theft, right? But your SC can't do nuance at all. Like I said, it's like a 4-year-old. The SC inner 4-year-old sees the *idea **_of_** taxes* as either 100% good or 100% bad. & you'll notice that even people who argue 100% against taxes deliberately avoid the good aspects of them. The underlying problem here ... well, *everywhere* when you think about it is that while making a reactive knee-jerk decision as to what you believe makes sense at an instant, most people never then put themselves through a process of review. It's like, once having adopted a POV, it becomes THE GFFG forever after that point. But listen to how mentally blocked both of these men are by their POVs: same goes for anyone who never reviews their POV or analyzes _why_ they retain it. & then we try to make excuses for things based upon the 4-year-old's desire to retain the POV as if it is our oldest, dearest friend - not based upon the merits of the circumstance. When people protest, they have adopted a POV of a caring Living Entity that they think of when they think of 'Government' because a 4-year-old can't even talk to both its parents at once if it's unsure. 4-year-olds can't juggle two conversations _and_ stress. But adults? D'uh. So if everyone were to take just a little bit of time to stop themselves & review what they think or were about to say, & maybe realize that it isn't rational, pertinent or was going to fix the problem such as the garbage needing taking out, or the cancer cured, we'd end up fixing most social problems by remembering that politicians are massively corrupt individuals who are stealing from us that we need to hold accountable, & stop begging them to rescue us. Thus removing their power to remove our rights. Hey: you can always go back to behaving like 4-year-olds right after fixing this one easily-solved problem.

[@michaelzilbering9844]

@@choosecarefully408 .

[@choosecarefully408]

@@michaelzilbering9844 ? ? ?

[@bubstacrini8851]

@@choosecarefully408 Ah, condescending tone, like someone who is in a frustrating public school role...the dinosaurs might have chosen carefully but the mass impact event that was there demise appears to be outside of their control

[@choosecarefully408]

@@bubstacrini8851 1) The Written Word _HAS_ no tone. *You* have to *project one onto* it. 2) Not only am I wrong about nothing, you yourself used an inapt analogy of dinosaurs & things outside of their control. Wtf? I'm talking about how we *perceive politicians as if* we have no choice but to accept their decisions as Decrees from On High. That is a _perception!_ *Obviously,* the people making Rule By Politician Instead of Monarchs made it impossible for politicians to do certain things os they couldn't _become_ too powerful to stop. Look at it this way: the articles of impeachment against Trump *reminded you all that* even the president isn't allowed to use his public office for personal profit. Ergo lobbying is illegal. Did _no one in the world watch_ FOX or CNN for *two full years??!?* No; The reality contradicted a belief held out of fear. This made people uncomfortable. So what did _every last person on Earth do?_ Pretend that they didn't hear this. For *_two straight years??_* Yep. If the _facts_ "sound condescending" to you, then _you_ must have Quite The Problem with the facts.

[@realtruth529]

The very small amount of comments and low the quality of this talk shows me clearly how overvalued the hype on these psedo thinkers and writers are. Like the music industry. Completely lost respect for Gladwell selfimportant vibe, especially after seeing him debate Matt taibi and murray and realize he is part of the big problem of intellectuals running along unscientic ideas and give space to totalitarian state control, regressing democracy into a downward spiral of manipulated narrow political correctness all to easy to see used for maintaining and missusing power by the usual power people in top lying and spinning a easyseen web of contructed false naratives, where any real intelligent research and modest observation would put them against this control narrative. We had great thinkers in history who supported democracy, but this pack just run along to pick up the next bookcontract or wellpaid lecture to catch the dimes from their master pockets like sheeps. Sad, when intellectuals who should be able to think critical and muster up some fight normally with oppression and wars, like vietnam, but what do we see.. They sleep beneath the wolfs feet blind to the tyranny they inable. Im normally middleleft former bookstore owner and have spend much of my life`s reading and pondering life big questions. I will listen to Jordan Peterson or Jimmy Dore any day over these sleepy guys , and listen and read those who actually gives a shit about normal people and have a sense of humour. These egobloated lost souls are in love with their own twisted minds that are not that impressive unless you only read one book a month or year. This Pseudo ego babble is speaking to the big city spoiled uppermiddleclasses who dont know who they are and forgot to see what is happening right infront of them in real life. I advice to STOP the warmongering and support only clever people on both sides of power and else put the hardest critic forth, as if our lifes depend on it. lazy intellectual bastards is what I see. For sure our kids lifes will suffer from the lack of direct protest from those who should know better and work against this insane tyranny instead of thinking Putin is the real problem. He is no a good man, but the downfall in democratic societies we see comes from within the west and the elite`s wrong doing merging corperate oligarchy with social green ideas to convert public and control perception of reality. Its mainly all a manipulation and media supported grip of the manufactured narrative to further special interest. Demented Idiots at the top in the west put there by the power within and is a laughing stock of the world and shows how dangerously far out things are now. Here in scandinavia is lighter touch but things are going in wrong direction. If you cant see Biden and the government is corrupt to the core, and the admin. previous too you are blind ! Look deeper and have an open mind like child to learn and be curious every day. we all need to do our bit to turn this totalitarian AI nano and techhappy tyranny ship around before its too late. How little people are reading books and the lack of attension span now should tells something is not well and its not about Putin or climate. Sorry my rant, people, but this is serious times.

[@chensun6156]

This is common knowledge in this discipline. After the first twenty minutes, I decided to watch more valuable videos.

[@harryaldieny7697]

This is so delicious

[@sperez3275]

47:01

[@user-nf6bw9zm8d]

17:17

[@notyourmother445]

Any relation to Jefferey Epstein?