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'Fascinating . . . If you're a generalist who has ever felt overshadowed by your specialist colleagues, this book is for you' - Bill Gates

The instant Sunday Times Top Ten and New York Times bestseller
Shortlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award 2019
A Financial Times Essential Reads of 2019 pick

A powerful argument for how to succeed in any field: develop broad interests and skills while everyone around you is rushing to specialize.

From the '10,000 hours rule' to the power of Tiger parenting, we have been taught that success in any field requires early specialization and many hours of deliberate practice. And, worse, that if you dabble or delay, you'll never catch up with those who got a head start.

This is completely wrong.

In this landmark book, David Epstein shows you that the way to succeed is by sampling widely, gaining a breadth of experiences, taking detours, experimenting relentlessly, juggling many interests - in other words, by developing range.

Studying the world's most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors and scientists, Epstein demonstrates why in most fields - especially those that are complex and unpredictable - generalists, not specialists are primed to excel. No matter what you do, where you are in life, whether you are a teacher, student, scientist, business analyst, parent, job hunter, retiree, you will see the world differently after you've read Range. You'll understand better how we solve problems, how we learn and how we succeed. You'll see why failing a test is the best way to learn and why frequent quitters end up with the most fulfilling careers.

As experts silo themselves further while computers master more of the skills once reserved for highly focused humans, Range shows how people who think broadly and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives will increasingly thrive and why spreading your knowledge across multiple domains is the key to your success, and how to achieve it.

'I loved Range' - Malcolm Gladwell

'Urgent and important. . . an essential read for bosses, parents, coaches, and anyone who cares about improving performance.' - Daniel H. Pink

'So much crucial and revelatory information about performance, success, and education.' - Susan Cain, bestselling author of Quiet David Epstein manages to make me thoroughly enjoy the experience of being told that everything I thought about something was wrong. I loved Range -- Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers Fabulous . . . If you are interested in champions' journeys, this is for you -- Judy Murray on Twitter It's a joy to spend hours in the company of a writer as gifted as David Epstein. And the joy is all the greater when that writer shares so much crucial and revelatory information about performance, success, and education -- Susan Cain, author of Quiet An urgent and important book, an essential read for bosses, parents, coaches, and anyone who cares about improving performance -- Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and To Sell is Human A captivating read that will leave you questioning the next steps in your career-and the way you raise your children -- Adam Grant, author of Originals and co-author of Option B Extraordinary * Guardian * A goldmine of surprising insights. Makes you smarter with every page -- James Clear, New York Times bestselling author of Atomic Habits Brilliant, timely, and utterly impossible to put down. If you care about improving skill, innovation, and performance, you need to read this book -- Daniel Coyle, author of The Talent Code I want to give Range to . . . everyone who wants humans to thrive in an age of robots. Range is full of surprises and hope, a 21st century survival guide -- Amanda Ripley, author of The Smartest Kids in the World. The storytelling is so dramatic, the wielding of data so deft and the lessons so strikingly framed ...[it's] a pleasure to read . . . Range offers such a wealth of thought-provoking material * New York Times Books Review * Range elevates Epstein to one of the very best science writers at work today. The scope of the book-and the implications-are breathtaking -- Sebastian Junger, filmmaker and author of The Perfect Storm One of the most thought-provoking and enlightening books I've read -- Maria Konnikova, poker player and author of The Confidence Game A fresh, brisk look at creativity, learning, and the meaning of achievement * Kirkus Reviews * An assiduously researched and accessible argument for being a jack of all trades -- O Magazine, Best Nonfiction Books Coming in 2019 Range is a convincing, engaging survey of research and anecdotes that confirm a thoughtful, collaborative world is also a better and more innovative one -- NPR.org As David Epstein shows us, cultivating range prepares us for the wickedly unanticipated . . . a well-supported and smoothly written case on behalf of breadth and late starts * Wall Street Journal * A clear and unfussy writer . . . this book is likely to resonate strongly with most teachers -- tes.com Anyone contemplating a change of career late in life will find Range immensely reassuring. If you calculate that you don't have 10,000 hours left in which you can reasonably practice, you can use your range to connect ideas and use your varied experience. * Daniel Finkelstein, The Times * Masterful. Perfect holiday reading -- Dr Adam Rutherford In this fascinating book, David Epstein argues that although the world seems to demand more and more specialization - in your career, for example - what we actually need is more people 'who start broad and embrace diverse experiences and perspectives while they progress'. His examples run from Roger Federer to Charles Darwin to Cold War-era experts on Soviet affairs. I think his ideas even help explain some of Microsoft's success, because we hired people who had real breadth within their field and across domains. If you're a generalist who has ever felt overshadowed by your specialist colleagues, this book is for you. -- Bill Gates

Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World

Introduction - i: Roger vs. Tiger Chapter - 1: The Cult of the Head Start Chapter - 2: How the Wicked World Was Made Chapter - 3: When Less of the Same Is More Chapter - 4: Learning, Fast and Slow Chapter - 5: Thinking Outside Experience Chapter - 6: Finding Your Match Chapter - 7: Flirting with Your Possible Selves Chapter - 8: The Outsider Advantage Chapter - 9: Lateral Thinking with Withered Technology Chapter - 10: Fooled by Experience Chapter - 11: Learning to Drop Your Familiar Tools Chapter - 12: Deliberate Amateurs Section - ii: Conclusion: Expanding Your Range Acknowledgements - iii: Acknowledgements Section - iv: Notes Index - v: Index