Authors like David Epstein territories. Liberal arts spotting.

spotting. Signals are seeds of even within the constraints These are much needed to
argue for learning by doing education has long realised future events, discoveries of current syllabi. solve the problems plaguing

Why we need a variety of things to

develop an intellectual
range — a deep generalist, a
term attributed to scholar
this. So, physics and
philosophy go
simultaneously in many
institutions. From Oxford to
and news items. A signal
seeker has an
interdisciplinary mind. A
daily thought exercise to
Why now?
Automation continues to
wipe out many jobs, and
the world, from climate
change to terrorism and
resource depletion to
unemployment.

deep generalists
Warren Bennis and
popularised by corporate
leader Aytekin Tank.
Scientists like Kepler,
Maxwell and Newton were
polymaths. Innovators and
Creative problem-solving, artists always combined
innovation, systems knowledge areas; the most
significant feature of a deep
thinking and emotional generalist. Leonardo da
agility are the Vinci was adept in art and
engineering. Steve Jobs
requirements for the blended design and
future, and our education technology. The idea is not
to discard specialisation; on
system should be geared the contrary, it is to blend
for this knowledge units from
different domains to make a
cross-disciplinary thinker.
GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCK PHOTOS
IIMs, engaging with the
Humanities finds an entry in
the business curriculum.
The secret is in the
learning habit, triggered by
solution orientation and not
grades. Learning a new
language or art form, or
community involvement can
ignite the learning gene in
novel ways. It helps to zoom-
in and zoom-out of the
context, on-demand.
Another tool is signal
link unrelated developments
and predict their impact in a
variety of domains is yet
another useful way. This will
make us a theme-based or
problem-centred learner.
Tinkering with options and
combinations is no more
limited to designers.
In an age of open courses,
web resources, learning
communities and social
networks, it is not hard to
create deep generalists,
algorithms are taking over
routine decision-making.
This allows us to engage
more with creative problem-
solving, innovation, systems
thinking and emotional
agility. We need deep-
thinking humans in addition
to deep-learning AI,
observes author Scott
Hartley, whose extensive
work shows that liberal arts
and technical literacy
complement each other.
If students focus on
specialisations with the sole
objective of getting placed,
they will most likely be
unemployed soon after. Let
us prepare them for
anything they can fix their
minds and hands to — as
deep generalists.
The views expressed are
personal.
The writer is Education Officer,
University Grants Commission.

Tools for diversified

b Salil Sahadevan
It was as a classroom game
inspired by Ikigai and some
psychometric tests. We
wrote the abilities, talents,
skills, and interests of each
student on different sticky
notes and asked them to
visualise their future
educational paths. But the
exercise did not result in
any clear paths; instead, it
opened up uncharted roads
with different skill trees and
revealed new
specialisations for which
courses do not exist. It led
to an array of looped
domains for which mono-
specialisations are
insufficient. It spurred
: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: generally favours specialists
A daily thought exercise over generalists, partly due
to link unrelated to the perceived expertise
developments and and educational
predict their impact credentials. But the actual
in a variety of domains... question is whether we
have the learning choices to
experiment across
unexpected disciplinary domains. This stems from
connections for which our the new debate on the skill
curriculum is unprepared — sets that can help us
a realisation that our navigate an uncertain
education cannot afford to future.
remain limited to narrow
specialisations. Making connections
The game evokes the old According to Vikram
debate between specialists Mansharamani of Harvard
who have expertise in a University, it is not a
limited area versus specific skill but the sort of
generalists who have thinking that connects
divergent skills in varying multiple domains that will
areas. Mainstream society get us ahead in the future.
learning
How can we develop
expertise in multiple areas
within a limited time?
Visual artist Jake Chapman
demonstrated one way. He
laddered the level of
expertise into five stages —
layman, beginner,
apprentice, journeyman
and master. Let us apply the
Pareto principle (which
states that, for many
outcomes, roughly 80% of
the consequences come
from 20% of the causes)
and assume that mastery
takes 20 years of practice.
In that case, reaching
journeyman status will take
only 48 months and 10
months to reach the
apprentice level. If we
structure our learning
around this approach, a
learner can move across
two or three domains with
cross-learning possibilities
in limited time.
As a beginning, if we
permit youngsters to play
with diverse domains,
interests and passions, it
will allow them to move
across knowledge