# The T-Shaped Engineer - alexkondov.com Synced: [[2023_11_30]] 6:03 AM Last Highlighted: [[2023_07_29]] Tags: [[personal growth]] [[Personal Growth]] [[Self-Help]] ![rw-book-cover](https://alexkondov.com/static/b6eddd8c6ec0677ad78e762842b40ad2/bc8e0/cover.png) ## Highlights [[2023_07_13]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h58hwpt1jfd06swkep821qxm) > As the saying goes, “A jack of all trades, but a master of none”. If you decide to go the path of the generalist your skills will grow horizontally. You will enjoy learning new concepts and will be able to satisfy your curiosity by working with different tools and languages. [[2023_07_13]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h58hwr7ggq35xzrpdv6m2kb4) > Specialists devote their time and work to a narrow set of technologies and tools. They sacrifice the joy of exploring multiple disciplines by dedicating their time and efforts towards one area. That way they may lack knowledge beyond the fundamentals in supporting areas but become masters at what they do. [[2023_07_29]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6g20g37q0cfqvk6as2kk3an) > Thus, the term “T-Shaped Specialist” was coined. It is used to describe a person whose knowledge distribution looks like the letter T. The horizontal line describes a broad working knowledge in multiple areas. The vertical one is for specialization in a topic. [[2023_07_29]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6g21qr3p326rqrpmr49k0ax) > The business may sometimes falsely expect such engineers to be experts in everything. T-shaped engineers can adapt and get up to speed with different technologies. But they still have a main area of focus. [[2023_07_29]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6g2304ybzkvb5bnm7fgphw0) > Generalists have access to broader variety of work. Specialists are focused on a single area but problems they face are often more challenging [[2023_07_29]] [View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01h6g23bmn19tetya13r1vrvx7) > A T-Shaped specialist is someone who has broad knowledge across multiple disciplines but focuses on one the most. Developers with this profile are highly valued across organizations. They are adaptable but can provide deep insight on the topics they have focused on.