As an OG generalist (I renamed my blog as the Unrepentant Generalist in 2006, and am @generalist on Twitter), I have many thoughts here. I agree that the "generalist" who thinks that being smart with no experience is valuable is wrong. I wrote up my take on defending generalists back in 2008 at https://www.nehrlich.com/blog/2008/05/14/defending-generalists/ where I make the caae that generalists are valuable in identifying the real problem (so you can call in the specialists to solve it) and in communication (helping different functions align - I used to say my superpower was in interdisciplinary communication).
As context, I did eventually find my way into a Chief of Staff role, 15 years into my career, and before it was the "cool" job - I ran business strategy and operations as the Chief of Staff to the Google Search Ads team from 2012-2019. What made me valuable in that role was not just being smart but having the multiple perspectives from having worked as an engineer, as a product manager, in FP&A, etc.
The broader point I see in your articles is that there is no shortcut - people want to get straight into leadership positions without putting in the work and getting the experience to make good decisions. In my case, even though I had good ideas early in my career, I had a lot to learn about how to influence and persuade and align others.
As an OG generalist (I renamed my blog as the Unrepentant Generalist in 2006, and am @generalist on Twitter), I have many thoughts here. I agree that the "generalist" who thinks that being smart with no experience is valuable is wrong. I wrote up my take on defending generalists back in 2008 at https://www.nehrlich.com/blog/2008/05/14/defending-generalists/ where I make the caae that generalists are valuable in identifying the real problem (so you can call in the specialists to solve it) and in communication (helping different functions align - I used to say my superpower was in interdisciplinary communication).
As context, I did eventually find my way into a Chief of Staff role, 15 years into my career, and before it was the "cool" job - I ran business strategy and operations as the Chief of Staff to the Google Search Ads team from 2012-2019. What made me valuable in that role was not just being smart but having the multiple perspectives from having worked as an engineer, as a product manager, in FP&A, etc.
The broader point I see in your articles is that there is no shortcut - people want to get straight into leadership positions without putting in the work and getting the experience to make good decisions. In my case, even though I had good ideas early in my career, I had a lot to learn about how to influence and persuade and align others.
The Tom Kalil link seems broken…
Whoops, it's a strange link. But I've re-linked it and it should work!