David Epstein, in his book “Range,” talks about this idea of Kind and Wicked domains.
Here’s his reasoning.
A kind domain is a field of work or study where rules are clear and pattern recognition is possible and valuable.
Think about chess.
Once you understand the rules, you have, theoretically, the same chance of winning as any other player, after all, his pieces move the same way as yours.
However, both of us know that, if you faced Magnus Carlsen, you would probably lose. Why? Because even though the rules are the same, the ability to understand patterns and connect different plays is completely different.
The beautiful thing about chess is that, at any moment, you can determine what’s the best play. If you lose, you can go back and understand exactly why did it happen.
Now, some domains are, indeed, like that. You can understand the full repercussions of your actions, immediately after you do them.
That’s the absolute opposite of a Wicked domain.
These are fields of study and work areas where pattern recognition is near to impossible because there are not a pre-defined set of rules, making it harder to get feedback on your actions.
Any kind of field where you work with people is, automatically, a “wicked domain” because we do not operate based on a specific set of rules.
Most of us will end up working on Wicked domains.
So how can we deal with such uncertainty?
David claims that, instead of focusing on specialization, we should try to become generalists. The wider your arsenal of mental tools is, increasing your mental and knowledge range, the easiest it will be to see patterns where other people miss them.
I truly believe that, in order to bring a Modern Golden Age, we’ll need more generalists, navigating wicked domains.