Creative Generalist is an outpost for curious divergent thinkers who appreciate new ideas from a wide mix of sources. Completely random and updated regularly, inspiration drawn from - and relevant to - the larger creative world.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Generalism v. Specialism
Mark McGuinness, a London-based business coach and the caretaker of one of my favourite creativity blogs, Wishful Thinking, has just posted a delightfully well-rounded synopsis of the generalism-specialism debate (if one can indeed call it a debate – I most definitely see the value of both sides and have always advocated a more complementary connection between the two). His post is partially in response to my recent post, What Specifically Do Generalists Do?, which he pits/balances against a post last summer in which ad copywriter Scamp opines that creative generalism is “godless, anti-capitalist, and contrary to all good sense” (alas, my feeds seem to have failed me and I’m embarrassed to say that I missed Scamp’s fun rant at the time – I’ll belatedly respond to it soon). McGuinness pulls in some great ideas and visuals previously put forward by thinkers like Dave Gray and David Armano. I encourage you to check out the post - Is it Better to Be a Creative Generalist or a Specialist? – and add to the growing list of thoughtful comments.