Many years ago I read an article by Michael Lopp, Russian History, that resonated with me so deeply, I started sending it to my managers, to help explain why I was in a technical organization with no technical degree. This article details an archetype, the Russian Lit Major, who can understand and sympathize with multiple domains, and then be able to translate between these domains. This has been the essence of my career, even before I stopped being a programmer as my day job.
If you’re in a start-up, you need them because, very soon you won’t be able to figure out everything by walking the hallway. There are too many people. If you’re in a big company, you need them for the same reason; there is simply not enough time in the day to regularly take the pulse of the company and that is what your Russian Lit Major is going to do. They’re going to make sure that whatever relevant shenanigans are going on outside of your team are going to cross your table. They’re going to eliminate surprises and they’re going to do this the best when they know that they are an essential part of the team.
Yup. That’s me. My degree was not Russian History. I did not study Russian literature. My degree was Biological Sciences with a side of teaching credential. It’s not that I lucked into technical jobs, well…that’s not entirely true but it’s a story for another day, I spent a few extra semesters taking enough CSCI classes to become an extremely mediocre developer.
Recently, I read another article, Expert Generalists, that felt not exactly like a sequel to Russian History, but definitely adjacent. If Russian History focuses on communication and translation, Expert Generalists focuses on having a learning mindset. Russian History emphasizes understanding the entire company, while Expert Generalists emphasizes understanding the entire technical stack. The Russian Lit Major will help you know “whether or not my Sr. VP is going to kill the whole project”, while the Expert Generalist will help you see a potential dependency in a seemingly unrelated area that will bring your application down. Among other things...
The Expert Generalist, currently has six identified characteristics: Curiosity, Collaborativeness, Customer Focus, Favor Fundamental Knowledge, Blend of Generalist and Specialist Skills, and Sympathy for Related Domains. I’d score myself 5/6 on this rubric. I’ve been in roles where I do so many random things for so long, I don’t know what my specialist skills really are anymore. I doubt being able to instantly recall almost any line of dialogue from Ghostbusters (1984) or The Hunt for Red October counts. If you know of a job where those are key skills, please do get in touch! The overlap I see between the two archetypes is essentially complete, there may be a sliver on each side of the Venn diagram, but it’s probably a rounding error. Again, it’s just that the focus may be in opposite directions.
While Russian History is a fun story, the Expert Generalists article is a rigorous exploration of how to spot these people, how to effectively place them in teams, and how to help them grow. It’s less a sequel and more how to optimize organizations with these types of people. I don't think I would send Expert Generalists to any new boss though (too long for most managers today), I'll stick with Russian History as I will always be that Russian Lit Major at heart.
The Thoughtworks Technology Podcast recently has a nice discussion about this article and it’s well worth the listen.