Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Does expertise mean you are focused on a narrow area or that you have become narrow minded?

I recently met with a few persons who all had PhDs. Perons with a PhD tend to know a lot about a little. That is the state of us. We study something in great detail so we can add to the body of knowledge in that little area. Some of us move on to work in fields that are wide and shallow. Some of us continue a deep dive into a confined pool.

Enough of the cliches. It is easy to become narrow minded. It is easy to consider a few things paramount to everything else. It is easy to extend the last sentence to excluding almost everyONE else in life.

Sigh. Focus on topics does not necessarily mean exclusion of persons. Let’s take care with that one. Inclusion of persons often brings breakthroughs in narrow fields.

What is more important is that inclusion of persons is the right thing to do.