Today, we drop in on the blog of economics professor and acclaimed author Steven Landsburg. His first two works (The Armchair Economist and More Sex is Safer Sex) are two of my favorites. He has a third book (The Big Questions), which has found its way into my library but that I have yet to read.
Landsburg’s most recent post is a celebration of the life and work of, in his words,
“Nobel laureate and all-around intellectual curmudgeon George Stigler”
I realize that I could be accused of skimping on an actual post of my own today by using Landsburg as some what of a stand-in, but I have several reasons.
- I’m not finished with the post I want to publish next.
- I want a somewhat relevant (to my journey, that is) reason to introduce folks to Landsburg. Agree with him or not, he will certainly make you think.
- His most recent post includes an excerpt from a Stigler piece on “the consequences of competition in the market for higher education”.
This post, and Landsburg’s blog, certainly aren’t for everyone, but to entice you to give him a few minutes of your time, I offer this quote from Stigler:
“there are at most fourteen really first-class men in any field, and more commonly there are about six.”
In context, you should know that Stigler is speaking about academic departments at universities and colleges (hence the somewhat related topic to my academic journey); however, I believe this truth carries weight in many other endeavors. The overarching premise of the argument (or rather, the implication of that statement), is that no one entity can have the top people or pursue excellence in every field. Want non-academic examples? Here are the first few that came to my mind.
***
Think back to Jack Welch’s mandate that GE lines of business would be #1 or #2 in their respective fields. What happens if you’re not?
“fix, sell, or close”
At GE, if they couldn’t be the best at it they focused their attention, and allocated their resources, to the areas where they could.
***
Think about Jim Collins’ Hedgehog Concept from Good to Great. The number one question to ask yourself, Collins says, is:
“What can you be the best in the word at (and, equally important, what can you not be the best in the world at)?
Collins goes on to state that even if you have a core competency, it doesn’t mean you can compete at the highest levels in that field. You have to find the limited areas where you can.
***
Think about Olympic track athletes. They focus on a single event. “What about decathletes?” you ask. “Aren’t they good at everything?” My point exactly. They are quite good at several events, but hardly great (world class) at any.
To prove the point, I researched the 2008 Summer Olympic results. The decathlon gold medal went to Brian Clay of the United States. Clay was the fastest of all 40 decathlon competitors in the 100m sprint; however, he was only faster than 3 competitors in the 1500m event. Further, I took Clay’s 100m decathlon time and compared it to the 100m medal event. In 7 of the 10 qualifying heats, Clay’s time of 10.44 seconds would not have allowed him to advance past the first round. In fact, at that speed, Clay would not have made it through qualifying for USA’s Olympic 100m team. He would have been watching the Olympics on TV.
***
I think about this common trait of the most successful few in any endeavor and I think about my own life. I enjoy many things and pride myself on being well-rounded. I plan to continue to pursue multiple hobbies, but when it comes to my livelihood, I know I need to narrow it down. I’ve already taken a few steps in that direction (transitioning out of engineering into management), but I know I need to do some more pruning. In a way, that’s what completing a dissertation and obtaining a PhD is all about.
Again, click here to read the excerpt from Stigler on Landsburg’s site.
Otherwise, I leave you with something for us all to think about: What are you spending time, money, and energy on that’s better spent in an area where you can become one of Stigler’s “fourteen first class men”…or women?
III
A Few Things Worth Mentioning 
I would advise your Twitter pals to read this and ask themselves the same question you posed at the end. But, then I realized that they’d need much more than a dictionary to fully grasp what you’ve said.
Great post.
😉 HR
Thanks, Halee!
And for readers who might also be on Twitter, she’s not referring to you, but to a few hooligans who found me on Twitter and decided to be a bit, well, snarky to put it politely.
III