The Value of the Generalist Specialist
I used to do a lot of work on the front end, but it’s been a while since I regularly contributed to a front-end codebase. Recently, I built a web app that required writing HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in the form of React components. While I still have a strong mental model of front-end development and fluency in JavaScript, I found myself struggling to write the code without frequently looking things up.
At first, this was discouraging. My front-end skills had become rusty, and the idea of investing significant time to refresh them felt daunting. But should I really be discouraged? After all, I was still able to build my web app thanks to Claude Code and other AI coding tools. That raised a bigger question: do I need to memorize the React API, or is it enough to have a solid mental model of React and front-end programming, then rely on AI assistance to fill in the gaps?
This led me to reflect on what it means to have a “skill” as a software engineer today. For example, I couldn’t explain offhand how a React ref works, but I’m confident I could still build any UI in React given enough time and AI support. So the question becomes: what knowledge should engineers commit to memory, and what can simply be abstracted into a mental model, supplemented by querying an LLM for details?
If AI reduces the need for rote memorization, then the value of having a working mental model of many tools might outweigh deep expertise in a few. In other words, being a “generalist specialist” could be more effective: someone who has a conceptual understanding of a wide range of technologies, rather than spending all their time mastering one.
Of course, developing a mental model isn’t effortless. It requires a meaningful time investment to truly understand the core ideas of a new technology or platform. But once you have that foundation, it may not be worth refining your skills to an expert level. Instead, familiarity with a broad set of tools, combined with the ability to leverage AI effectively, might be the most valuable skill set of all.