How I Take a Pivot Turn from being an Avid Specialist to becoming an Expert Generalist
I was in my fourth year of elementary school when the definition of “science” was first formed in a structured way in my mind. What else? It was the basic opinion of a 10-year-old kid: “science is knowledge about humans, plants, animals, and the planet earth.”
At that time, I was appointed to represent my school in the National Science Olympiad event. This is not something to proud of — I also didn’t win at the national level. But at least, this is an appreciated experience as it has made me set a very rigid career goal at a relatively young age to think about my future life wisely.
I stubbornly wanted to be a biologist for seven years. It then changed to be more specific into nutritionist and food technologist for the next five years thanks to college majors. The change was just moderate. I can also be responsible for my bachelor’s degree satisfactorily, though not perfectly.
I thought that getting a single bachelor’s degree in food technology was enough to satisfy myself, and finally, according to plan, pursuing a career as a specialist in that field. Oh, sure! I’ve dreamed of this career for 12 years!
Sadly, my dynamic mind can’t be silenced, and insight into the good and bad characteristics of the industry I wanted to work in made me take a steep turn for the first time.
Discovery in the midst of hatred
I have loved natural science for many years, except mathematics. That’s a super weird confession. In the beginning, the reason I hated math so much was that it was complicated. However, I found another hatred, which is more specific to this field: they tend to over-generalize and can’t explain social phenomena uniquely and specifically.
How can you measure the strength of social interaction in remote rural communities with an integral formula? I thought at that time when I got a communication science course.
To all math lovers reading this, please calm down. Don’t judge me for being too stupid to even ask.
Well, I don’t harbor a deep hatred for something. Therefore, I started to ask why I put math in despise. At the same time, I’d say that I should start loving it because any work in the future requires mathematical generalizations, at least in the form of statistics and modeling. It was super useful!
I wouldn't say I like it, but I need it. That was the most difficult type of relationship I’ve ever survived.
As time went on, I even got hidden facts in my discovery that I was deeply interested in social sciences. This was interesting, so I used my vacation time to learn about it. Not a very structured one, but at least in a day, I get a correlation between food technology and politics, culture, communication, psychology, or international relations.
Many issues have been left untouched by my point of view as a food technologist. It starts from public policy, global trade, climate change, sustainability, local wisdom, and social language to gender issues. I feel so dull and retarded because of the lack of insight that I have had for 12 years by only working in one field every day.
Specialist, Generalist, or Expert Generalist
The first question that came to me when I decided to take a turn in social sciences at the master’s level was: “what’s the use of your bachelor’s degree in food technology? You should make a lot of money!”
I doubted myself many times, even though I had been accepted at the destined university. I also had the state ministry scholarship program to support my studies for the next 2 years. In another sense, my vision to change the direction of my scientific orientation has been sufficiently validated and deemed reasonable by the expert— through tiring essays and interviews.
I’m not saying that I would completely switch from being a specialist to becoming a generalist or regret being a specialist for 12-plus years.
No.
Instead, I will explore and maximize the utility of one by one the knowledge that I get through formal or informal education. I will secretly walk on my way until people say I’m an expert generalist.
I want to master “many things deeply”, be it natural or social sciences, including the lovable math! I hope for new scholarly collaborations in every thought I put into a research project or even in small talk at a coffee shop with like-minded partners.
I believe that when it comes to knowledge production, two are better than one. So, multi-perception and collaboration will be my keywords to answer every skeptical academic and capitalistic question sabotaging my stance often.
God has blessed us with a plastic brain, which will not stop developing as long as we want to learn and gain new experiences. Finally, being an expert generalist is a marvelous way to understand humans and their complex, ever-evolving lives. Just imagine freely, from your leftover food in your fridge to the ups and downs of your country’s GDP, you can correlate and explore literally anything!
