![]() For his part, Roger Federer “dabbled” in a dozen different sports, cultivating his “athleticism and hand-eye coordination” in diverse arenas before concentrating on tennis, while many of his friends focused on tennis much earlier (3). ![]() Tiger Woods played golf on national television at age two, impressing (among others) Bob Hope he won a ten-and-under tournament later the same year. Epstein, a former Sports Illustrated writer, starts his book with deceptively simple stories about golf and tennis. In his most recent book, Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, David Epstein explains lucidly and with voluminous research why generalists thrive in an era of increasing specialization. Indeed, for all the handwaving at cross-disciplinary projects, universities continue to fetishize specialization. ![]() The god-term “interdisciplinarity” serves as a cloak for provincialism. Seldom do we meet practitioners in other fields as equals. In practice, however, crossing disciplinary boundaries too often amounts to invasion rather than collaboration: we use or critique other disciplines to our own ends. I have never met anyone who said that she opposes interdisciplinary scholarship in principle, and plaudits generally await those who cross-pollinate their research with research in other fields. University faculty and administrators make considerable noise about “interdisciplinary” work. ![]()
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