Rubel wrong on Renaissance dead-end

You're both right. We need more generalists who are good at a wide range of skills. Most companies can't afford to hire a specialist for say, computer security. But they could hire a consultant and have their Jack of All Trades learn enough to work with him/her to maintain things. There's no way a generalist will ever be as good as a specialist, but that doesn't mean they couldn't do 80 or 90% of the same job sometimes, depending on the field.

Imagine a world created by uneducated nerds who know nothing but coding and messing about with servers.

I'm with Socrates who said that knowing where to find the information you need is enough, thank you very much.

I think being a dilettante is not so bad, provided you can recognize when you need more specialized knowledge. My friend calls me an advanced dabbler and while it's not necessarily a compliment, my love of info consumption has repeatedly proven to be useful both personally and professionally.

You're both right.

Yes, I agree Corinne. One point I didn't make in the article (because I don't want every single post to be about me and my type) was that most journalists are dilettantes, including myself. I've built a career on it. In fact, I just wrote about a whole book about a subject that 2.5 years ago I knew nothing about.

I don't see it as a zero-sum game, however, digital tools are providing greater access to more knowledge and providing their users the ability to have a breadth of skill and talent they may have not achieved before. If anything, I see the Renaissance-person becoming more prominent.

I think BW should sponsor a debate b/w Armano and Rubel...
http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2007/07/the-fuzzy-tail.html

Welcome to what most of the PR bloggers that do PR have been saying for years.

The real problem with nerds and teches is that without education in the[ Liberal Arts] , Many are educated at Starbuck"s ,where terms like Suck and Cool are effective communication ! Education without semantics,general semantics, and logic , and a smattering of art and literature make them like new age music ,no beginning no end just a very dull middle ! Steve Rubel is very interesting since his ability to communicate , show the results of and education that included the arts ! Technical educations usually give one the ability to only talk to machines !

Dilettantes and Renaissance persons are not the same thing: In fact, a journalist SHOULD be a renaissance person in the sense of knowing not just journalistic principles, and how to tell a story, but also knowing enough of the various media to tell that story in a powerful way, choosing the medium that bets fits the message.

Also, it's a misconception that coders and engineers are narrow-minded, tunnel-visioned. In fact, they're often not only gifted at their craft, but also well-rounded, with knowledge of favorite sports or literature or music ... an engineer friend once protested to me that it's more the liberal arts people who stick to their thing -- literature, music, whatever -- and are not so well-rounded.

Steve: God bless the dilettantes!

On a semi-related note, do you think it's necessary to be a consumer of a product/service in order to publicize it? I recently got into a discussion with others at my agency (I'm a journalist that's recently moved into PR) about whether or not a product can be effectively promoted if the promoter is not a user. I say being an end user can be somewhat limiting when it comes to determining potential targets; what say you?

From Steve Rubel: "Since I started living in my feed reader, I became blissfully ignorant about the world, facing an ever-pressing need to stay current in my domain of expertise."

Hmm. Maybe there are downsides to the current feeder regime. He lives in New York, and had *no idea* about the Sean Bell shooting?

That Rubel has these idle thoughts is one thing, but why do people respond?

I've been spending lots of time with tech and math-oriented people while researching my book, The Numerati (out in Sept.). One of my conclusions is that there really aren't "numbers" and "words" people. That's a trap we let ourselves fall into. In fact, we're all both. But many of the so-called numbers people do just fine with words and information from the world of liberal arts. Many I talked to (in English) were speaking to me in their second or third language. In that sense, at least the ones I met tended to be extremely well rounded in their knowledge and skills.

Here's a good rule of thumb: Do the opposite of most of what Rubel says and you'll be right most of the time.