Some Generalizing about Specializing
Even though Khoi Vinh is specifically talking about designers and IAs here, this is exactly the same reason that I don’t want to get pigeonholed as a front-end developer, rather than just a developer.
Now, things have swung around the other way. The technology remains complex, of course, but it’s been successfully abstracted enough that it’s once again possible for a single person to create a very robust product, and for just a small handful of people to create a very robust company. And accordingly this has also become what the market expects; big company budgets are shrinking, and startup investors are expecting more out of smaller teams. That makes specialists look more expensive than they have in the past.
