When you specialize early and you're doing the same repetitive movements over and over again your risk of injury later in life starts to increase. Cirque du Soleil decided to have their performers learn the basics of other performers skills not because they were going to perform them but to see if it would make them more creative. They measure their injury rates next to Canadian gymnastics and drop their injury rates by a third. So there's a beautiful parallel to this in non-sporting things which is this notion of burnout that somehow there is something about early specialization that leeches the joy out of an intellectual activity and limits it far too early.
You know Malcolm Gladwell's “10,000-Hour Rule.” But did you know that, according to David Epstein, it doesn't work? That's what Epstein argues in his new book, “Range: Why Generalists Triumph In A Specialized World.” In this episode, Malcolm Gladwell talks with Epstein about why a broad range of experiences in life is actually the best way to find success.