Why Being a Specialist is Overrated & The Extreme Creatures that Roam Our Planet

Something You Should Know

Mike Carruthers | OmniCastMedia

Education, Social Sciences, Self-improvement, Science, Health & Fitness

4.5 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 June 2019

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Automobile traffic, like the weather, is hard to predict. The slightest thing can cause a traffic jam and sometimes it seems that traffic jams just happen for no apparent reason. I begin this episode by exploring one oddity of traffic – where the solution usually makes the problem worse. (Edward Humes author of the book Door to Door). To be a success you have to get really good at one thing as soon as possible. In other words, you have to specialize. While that concept seems to make sense, it turns out to be flawed, according to journalist David Epstein, author of the book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. Listen as he explains why being a generalist is a better path to success despite popular opinion to the contrary. Spanking as a form of punishment is a lot less common than it used to be but there are still many parents around the world who still believe that when you spare the rod, you spoil the child. Listen as I explain why a lot of those parents will live to regret it. (30 Lessons for Living by Karl Pillemer) Our world is crawling with “extreme” creatures. By that I mean the largest, fastest, smallest, strongest and smartest. There is a lot we can learn from these animals and organisms. For example, the largest mammal could help us end cancer. The fastest bird is teaching engineers about flight. Matthew LaPlante, a professor of journalism at Utah State University is author of the book Superlative: The Biology of Extremes. He joins me to reveal the fascinating reasons why these creatures became so extreme in their own right and why they are so fascinating. This Week's Sponsors -LinkedIn. To get $50 off your first job post, go to www.LinkedIn.com/podcast -Capterra. To find the best software solutions for your business for free, go to www.Capterra.com/something -Stroke of Genius Podcast. Subscribe to Stroke of Genius on Apple Podcasts, at www.ipoef.org, or your favorite podcast platform -Fab Fit Fun To get $10 off your first Fab Fit Fun box go to www.FabFitFun.com and use promo code: something Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today on Something You Should Know, the strange way automobile traffic works to cause more
0:08.0	congestion and traffic jams.
0:10.4	Then, we live in an age of specialization, but he is specializing the best way to get
0:15.8	ahead.
0:16.8	We all know the Tiger Woods story of early specialization is on TV golfing at two years
0:20.8	old, whereas Roger Federer, who did a little bit of everything and delayed specialization
0:25.8	and became the best tennis player in the world.
0:27.5	We never hear that story, but that actually turns out to be the research-backed approach.
0:31.9	Plus, some advice for parents who still spank their children and the fascinating world
0:37.4	of extreme creatures, the oldest, the fastest, the smartest, and the largest.
0:42.7	The largest animal organism ever to live, the blue whale, this is larger than any dinosaur
0:49.6	we know of, exists right now in this point of time in our history in which we are here
0:54.6	too.
0:55.6	Today on Something You Should Know, you know, I'm always a little hesitant to recommend
1:02.6	a podcast because everybody's tastes are different, but one podcast I recommend a lot is the
1:08.9	Jordan Harbinger Show.
1:10.9	Jordan dives into the minds of fascinating people, athletes, authors, scientists, mobsters,
1:16.6	spies, and he does it in his own unique way.
1:20.1	Originally, we have the same guests, but our conversations usually go in very different
1:25.9	directions.
1:27.0	A couple of recent episodes of the Jordan Harbinger Show I bet you like are Dr. Scott
1:32.4	Lions, talking about your addiction or some people's addiction to drama.
	...

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