I began my career in the mailroom of an advertising agency, and I often say it was the best job I’ve ever had. Each day a stack of letters and packages would be delivered to our storeroom, and my job was to sort them into pigeonholes for each staff member, and then hand-deliver it to their offices one-by-one.

I’d spend hours walking the halls, observing who did what and how they did it, chatting with people, and just soaking up all the knowledge that I could from anyone I met. I said “yes” to every opportunity, eager to try everything at least once so I could figure out which area, if any, I wanted to double down on.

After this early period of experimentation, you usually have a choice to specialise in one field that you connect with the most. Ironically, the higher you move up in a business, the more you need to give up your specialisation to become a generalist manager who is across multiple areas at once.

So which one is better for you? Well, there are firm arguments for either side. One simple summary is that generalists are more useful, while specialists are more valuable.

David Epstein, the author of Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialised World, argues that it’s better to be a generalist in the long term as a broader set of skills is ultimately better for you and your ability to flex different muscles. He argues that due to a highly volatile future of work, being a generalist is the best way to protect yourself with resilience and knowledge of how to adapt.

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Specialists, however, decry that the world needs more of them. If everyone is surface-level on topics, then how are we ever going to make advancements and progress? Specialists usually earn higher salaries due to their unique skills, and can use their focus to build new understandings of a subject.

Similar to the debate over whether you are a segmenter or integrator at work, just being aware of which of the two you currently are – and want to be – can help you better understand your career.

In a good workplace, both types are required: generalists rely on specialists, and specialists need generalists. That way, the two types of workers can make all their mistakes collectively and use breadth and depth to solve problems together.

Tim Duggan is the author of Work Backwards, Cult Status and Killer Thinking. He co-founded Junkee Media and writes a monthly newsletter called OUTLET that gives One Useful Thing Literally Every Time at timduggan.substack.com