www.eamoncaddigan.net

commit 6d2758b7df0e442a432eec00501f1553cc9f5757
parent 6bd3f898b5fcb323103dd692e06b9187db6e777c
Author: Eamon Caddigan <eamon.caddigan@gmail.com>
Date:   Sun, 20 Jul 2025 21:34:47 -0700

Add weeknote for 2025-W28

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content/posts/weeknotes/2025-w29/index.md
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+---
+title: "Weeknote for 2025-W29"
+description: "Generalists (expert and otherwise)"
+date: 2025-07-20T21:10:52-07:00
+draft: false
+categories:
+- Weeknotes
+---
+
+I learned a lot from [this piece on "Expert
+Generalists"](https://martinfowler.com/articles/expert-generalist.html),
+certainly (at least in part) because I identify as
+such. At every step in my career, I've gotten a lot of
+mileage out of being my organization or group's "best X
+at doing Y" (where _X_ and _Y_ are variously related to
+different science, engineering, or programming tasks),
+without being distinguished at _X_ or _Y_. As I age
+into roles where I spend more time thinking about my
+colleagues' development, the notes on identifying and
+developing new "expert generalists" will be good to
+keep in mind.
+
+The notion of the "expert generalist" is orthogonal to
+the [craftsperson vs.
+scientist](https://gfsc.studio/blog/2024/craftsperson-and-scientist/)
+typology, but that feels relevant here. Many of the
+expert generalists I've personally known (and, it feels
+worth mentioning, many actual scientists) are
+"craftspeople" as defined by GFSC; "skilled
+individuals... looking to apply their experience gained
+from creating dozens of similar things and to build
+solutions based predominantly on their own best
+judgement". Working in this manner is a great way to
+achieve expertise---and can be incredibly
+productive---but will be a poor fit for some
+environments (as I've learned through experience).
+
+[I've mentioned before]({{< ref
+"/posts/weeknotes/2025-w05/" >}}) that my role has
+grown to encompass more "product" work; well I recently
+ran my first retrospective and am gearing up for a big
+new project. I'm not the specialist in this work, and I
+have to be more of a "scientist" than "craftsperson" to
+do it well, but I have been enjoying this professional
+challenge.