Generalists view work from a multitude of perspectives, where specialists tend to fall victim to Maslow’s hammer (if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail). A specialist brand designer probably isn’t considering how their design explorations might or might not translate to efficient web assets, for instance. Generalists see the entire forest, and the work is better for it.

The work of a generalist is seamless, by default. The product of one mind, one vision. With a team of specialists, everyone is focused on their own domain and it’s easy for the end product to feel like what it is; a bunch of disjointed parts glued together. High-functioning teams are great at avoiding this, but it takes work to really pull it off (and usually another specialist).

Variety is the spice of life, and working as a generalist is very, very spicy. The idea of a job that’s nothing but drawing boxes in Figma interspersed with meetings about the boxes you draw in Figma fills me with dread.