You thought the generalist was dead — in the 'vibe work' era, they're more important than ever

Not long ago, the idea of being a “generalist” in the workplace had a mixed reputation. The stereotype was the “jack of all trades” who could dabble in many disciplines but was a “master of none.” And for years, that was more or less true. Most people simply didn’t have access to the expertise required to do highly cross-functional work. If you needed a new graphic, you waited for a designer. If you needed to change a contract, you waited for legal. In smaller organizations and startups, this waiting game was typically replaced with inaction or improvization — often with questionable results.AI is changing this faster than any technology shift I’ve seen. It’s allowing people to succeed at tasks beyond their normal area of expertise.Anthropic found that AI is “enabling engineers to become more full-stack in their work,” meaning they’re able to make competent decisions across a much wider range of interconnected technologies. A direct consequence of this is tasks that would have been lef