For years, we were taught that credibility came from consistency, that success meant staying in one lane. That era is over.
Specialist knowledge is essential and always will be. But in a world where machines are fast becoming specialists, the advantage lies in being something else entirely. A connector. A synthesiser. A generalist.
I read this quote years ago in a New Yorker article. I had not heard of the author Robert A. Heinlein at the time, but it stayed with me:
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialisation is for insects.”
His wishlist is obviously theatrical – to be this capable would be superhuman, and I hope ‘planning an invasion’ never becomes part of the national curriculum. But there’s a genuine advantage to being broadly capable, or professionally eclectic, because linearity is increasingly fragile.
In his book Range, David Epstein makes the case that generalists tend to outperform specialists in complex and unpredictable environments. Now that unpredictability has become the status quo, curating a range of skills feels like the only sane strategy for career survival.
AI can execute and optimise, sure. But the work that matters often comes from blending perspectives, stretching ideas beyond their original context, and shaping them into something unexpected.
If you are someone with what you jokingly call a “quirky as hell CV,” welcome, friend. I know what it is like to quietly disqualify yourself from roles because your path has not moved in a straight line.
It is time to turn off those limiting definitions. The people best equipped for today’s industry are often the ones who have moved across disciplines, learned new professional languages, and found their way through unfamiliar territory more than once. What once looked scattered starts to look more like fluency.
One of the quiet assumptions we have made as an industry is that learning should map neatly to job titles. Take AdSchool, for example – Account Leadership is for account management. Strategic Planning is for strategists. Creative courses are for creatives.
It makes sense if we’re being linear. But if range is the new advantage, then learning needs to stretch across disciplines, not stay confined within them. The value of a program like this is not just in deepening what you already do, but in exposing you to how other parts of the system think, solve problems and create value.
That might mean a strategist learning how to sell the value of creativity. Or a suit building confidence in running research. Or a creative learning how to ask better questions of a media plan.
Not to become a specialist in everything, but to become more fluent across the whole.
For those earlier in their careers, this builds range faster. For those further along, it is often the difference between staying in your lane and expanding beyond it.
Either way, it makes you more adaptable. And right now, adaptability is the job.
If you have been thinking about building your range, AdSchool is a good place to start. Semester 1 kicks off in mid-May, with courses led by some of the best operators in the industry. You do not need to stay in your lane to enrol.