The Artisan as Generalist
Thriving in the spaces abandoned by specialists
Only barbarians are not curious about where they come from, how they came to be where they are, where they appear to be going, whether they wish to go there, and if so, why, and if not, why not.”
― Isaiah Berlin
In Isaiah Berlin’s classic “The Hedgehog and the Fox”, the fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing. In our lives, I think we must spend time as both. Markets love Hedgehogs - specialists - and the idea that someone can persuade others they know more than others for a period of time long enough to turn a profit. They thrive in “Horizon 1”, short-term conditions of perceived certainty. They are confident, certain, and great salespeople. They are Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Elizabeth Holmes, and Bernie Madoff. They move fast and break things, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
- Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio
Shakespeare, on the other hand, was a Fox.. Like Warren Buffett and others, he recognised the need to adopt a longer-term, more holistic approach, recognizing that boundaries created by the reductive approach required to specialise will eventually be broken, and there is much to be considered over the horizon of the known.
I often think of Artisans as those who embrace both views - a sort of “Hedgefox”. They know enough about a field to achieve recognised mastery whilst not being seduced by the money and power that can be derived from immersing themselves in the theatre of doctrine and dogma. They can earn a living in organisations even as they recognise their frailty. They are acute observers, able to sense when circumstances and experience mean that the doctrine that has served to spread and embed a particular approach has reached the end of its useful life, and rather than “dig in and defend”, they reorient themselves to emerging realities.
They are a combination of heretic, catalyst and trickster - credible in both what is dissolving and what is emerging. They are those who live in what Gal Beckerman terms “The Quiet Before” - that period when the coming changes are clear but resisted by those whose interest lies in maintaining the status quo. Their mentors are those who, for the last half-century, have been quietly but persuasively telling us about climate change, ecology depletion, and the perils of the pursuit of never-ending growth in the hope enough people will listen.
The indications are that the next decade or two will be fertile ground for the Hedgfox artisan, as those who can constructively and generatively occupy the interstitial spaces between old and new practice, identify the “adjacent possible” exaptive spaces as we cannibalise old methodologies and absorb them into the new. Occupying this ground requires hard work and discipline - the hard work of mastery and the discipline to let those parts of it that no longer serve us go. Organisations, particularly large corporations, will struggle to adapt as the risk involved in embracing the new represents risks unacceptable to traditional investors used to exploitation more than exploration (as Roger Martins's post, linked below, explains elegantly).
The tension will be palpable and painful as we are forced to let go of mental models that have served us well for several generations. In many areas, we will have to use different reference points drawn from disciplines distant from those where they will become relevant. I can imagine current models of capitalism being upended in much the same way that quantum thinking has impacted Newtonian models in physics.
Going from the macro to the micro, what about those of us enmeshed in organisations whose existence will be threatened by the nature and speed of the change we are experiencing? We can expect them to retreat behind their walls of capital and influence, even though it is clear those walls will crumble under the logic of the assault underway.
Those of you who read my posts on a regular basis will be familiar with my admiration for John Boyd’s work in this area and the frameworks it offers for the time we find ourselves in. The ability to learn in real-time, across disciplines and integrate it into individual practice will be essential if, to paraphrase Boyd, we are to survive and prosper on our own terms. It is a challenging space as we select, analyse, synthesise, develop and discuss ways of thinking about and dealing with what is happening to us and those with whom we are familiar.
Living systems are open systems; closed systems are non-living systems. Point: if we don’t communicate with the outside world – to gain information for knowledge and understanding as well as matter and energy for sustenance – we die out to become a non-discerning and uninteresting part of that world.
Osinga, Frans P.B.. Science, Strategy and War: The Strategic Theory of John Boyd (Strategy and History) (p. 83). Taylor and Francis.
It means working with a combination of the familiar seen in a different light, counterfactuals, new ideas, and working with those we never expected to work with. We are entering a liminal space.
Those hedgehogs who are deeply specialised, whether by personal skill or reliance on technology that substitutes for it, will find it hard to suddenly become foxes. It is a different mindset, with a huge array of diverse knowledge to become familiar with. Both observation and orientation in these changing times need us to associate with those who share our aspirations but who have skills well outside our fields of expertise. We may not be able to become “instant foxes”, but we can create a fox perspective for ourselves whilst we gain experience and familiarity.
Next Wednesday: The Artisan as Philosopher.
"Outside the Walls” is both a perspective and a project. I will explore ideas and curate information there, as well as host a small team to test the idea (the list is now closed for the first iteration) and report back on what we find. We will create a curated space and populate it it research, literature, people and projects to support those for whom independence of means and purpose are central to how they want to live their lives.
Useful Reading and References:
The Hedgehog and the Fox. Isaiah Berlin
The Quiet Before. Gal Beckerman.
The Neo-Generalist. Kenneth Mikkelsen and Richard Martin.
Science, Strategy and War. Frans Osinga.
Oops - typo - Shakespeare was, of course, a fox :-)
As a Fox, I’m interested in what other foxes do. There are two types, the Neo-Generalist and the polymath. They are different. But, that difference is not significant in the grand scheme of things. What is interesting is the distinction between generalists of the mind and those of practice. The former are easy to spot. They know a lot about a lot different fields knowledge. They are celebrated as geniuses. The other type may have very little, if any, academic knowledge. Their practical knowledge is extensive. They know How to do things. Their knowledge is multigenerational, passed down from parent/grandparent to children/grandchildren. I know two men who are like this. They are endlessly fascinating to be with. They are the Artisans hidden in plain sight who are extraordinarily valuable to life in community.