Re: Not Sure

Subject: Re: Not Sure
From: Dick Margulis <margulis -at- fiam -dot- net>
To: Jeanne -dot- Keuma -at- ch2m -dot- com
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 08:24:09 -0400

Jeanne -dot- Keuma -at- ch2m -dot- com wrote:

I don't know anyone who would WANT to call themselves "communication
generalists"-- it's probably too generic and says nothing about any
technical writing/editing experience... Sounds like a PR person... But
perhaps some firms use that term for their tech comm folks...

Being a generalist isn't a bad thing, and thinking of oneself as a generalist does not constitute self-deprecation. The world needs generalists to integrate the work of specialists (people who "know more and more about less and less until they know absolutely everything about nothing," but I can't put my finger on the original source right now).

Being a generalist does not mean being an ignoramus. It means knowing enough about a wide variety of things to be effective in novel situations. It means being able to learn and adapt quickly. It means having a view of the wider world so that you don't fall down the rabbit hole of applying your specialized knowledge to the advancement of an evil cause.

Nonetheless, if what you need is someone to write software user manuals and the applicant has never been exposed to the basic concepts involved in writing software user manuals, maybe she's a bit _too_ much of a generalist ;-)

Dick

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RE: Not Sure: From: Jeanne.Keuma

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