I was once talking to a UX designer in Bangalore, who was supposed to be quite good at her craft. And she explained to me some nuances of UX design quite well.
But when our discussion shifted to other social issues, she seemed quite lost. At one point, she decried why government ministers can’t fix all our social problems.
When I explained that these problems are complicated, and many require changes in legal frameworks, she said, “Why can’t the ministers issue the new laws?”
When I explained that it is the legislature that makes laws, and not ministers, she did not see much of a difference. At that point, our discussion was sort of over.
And it was not really her fault. The world is complicated and our understanding is often like that of the parable of ‘the blind men and the elephant.’ We understand some slices of the world really well but are quite oblivious to others.
This shows two different approaches to building a successful career.
The first one is going really deep in a narrow technical area – e.g., UX design, derivatives trading, etc.
But there is another approach – understanding the world widely, cutting across its disparate slices.
A good CEO of a large corporation can’t just make do by understanding the technical aspects of their business – they need to understand business strategy, people, finance, legal frameworks, organizational design patterns, and many other unrelated things.
As you look to build your career, there is no one right answer – choose what suits your personality and preferences.
But be aware that the ability to cut across knowledge domains and connect the dots will remain incredibly valuable, even for specialists.
And in the age of AI, that will be ONE skill almost impossible to automate.
– Rajan