Great Quotes Pt. 1: Generalist PMs

“Back when I was an evolutionary anthropologist, I learned the most successful species are those which remain the most generalized...."

Here is a quote to guide you through decision-making and the vast data & AI space from people way smarter than me:

“Back when I was an evolutionary anthropologist, I learned the most successful species are those which remain the most generalized. If I hadn’t learned that, I would probably still be an evolutionary anthropologist.” - Marshall Sahlins, father of anthropological economics.

Don’t we want our products to be successful? Our companies to thrive? In the face of change, we need generalist founders, entrepreneurs, and product managers. Yet companies like Netflix hire A.I. specialist PMs for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

At some point, we have lost perspective. Specialization creeps into every aspect of our work life. Doctors have become so hyper-specialized that up to four specialists must be involved to address a single heart problem.

Don’t let your data product managers become like that. Nick Schrock founded Dagster because he was inspired by the software engineering practices he had learned to love, and that made his product stand out. The Airbyte gang founded a marketing startup first before getting into data engineering. That generality allowed them to bring a product to market that focuses on the less tech-savvy end user and be successful, unlike any other data ingestion startup before them.

You need to adapt, and your product needs to adapt. Generalist product managers will win in the long run.