David Epstein

#1 NYT Bestselling Author of Range and The Sports Gene & Expert on the Science of High Performance

David Epstein

#1 NYT Bestselling Author of Range and The Sports Gene & Expert on the Science of High Performance

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Biography

“David Epstein manages to make me thoroughly enjoy the experience of being told that everything I thought about something was wrong.” –Malcolm Gladwell

“Range is an urgent and important book, an essential read for bosses, parents, coaches, and anyone who cares about improving performance.” –Daniel Pink

“Range is a goldmine of surprising insights. Makes you smarter with every page.” –James Clear, Best-selling author of Atomic Habits

“I want to give Range to any kid who is being forced to take violin lessons — but really wants to learn the drums. Range is full of surprises and hope, a 21st century survival guide.” –Amanda Ripley, Author of The Smartest Kids in the World

“The most important business — and parenting — book of the year.” -Forbes

New York Times bestselling author, journalist and science writer David Epstein has made it his mission to uncover the keys to achieving high performance in any profession or fast-changing environment —knowledge that has become essential to educating, developing and retaining the workforce of the future. His New York Times bestseller, The Sports Gene, investigated the balance of nature and nurture in developing a skill. His latest book, #1 New York Times bestseller Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, examines the world’s top performers, from professional athletes to artists, scientists, entrepreneurs and Nobel laureates. One of only five titles to make Bill Gates' "Holiday Books 2020" list, Range was also named one of Wharton professor Adam Grant's "New Leadership Books to Read in 2019" and a finalist for the 2019 Financial Times/McKinsey business book of the year. Range was selected as one of Amazon's best business books of 2019, Inc.’s 2019 Must Read Books for Entrepreneurs and #1 out of 100 of the "Best Social Psychology Books of All Time" by Book Authority. The Washington Post named Range one of its “10 Leadership Books to Watch For,” and it was selected by Apple for its" Best Audiobooks of 2019" list.

In Range, Epstein brings bold new insights to business, education, technological innovation, healthcare and other industries on the best approach to career development, hiring and retention amid rapid technological change. His conclusion: In most fields, especially those that are complex, unpredictable and difficult to automate, generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel, and only organizations that cultivate them will survive. Epstein shares fascinating research and examples from career trajectories as varied as Roger Federer’s to that of the man who saved Nintendo, to a woman who took her first job around the age her peers were retiring — and who Peter Drucker called the greatest CEO in America. He shows that at every stage of life, from the development of children in math, music and sports, to young professionals trying to adapt to a changing work world, all the way to executives who urgently need to broaden their thinking and their skills—generalists triumph as the world around them becomes increasingly specialized.

Epstein’s two TED Talks have amassed more than 12 million views. He has spoken around the world on the science of high performance and novel uses (and misuses) of data, to organizations from X (Alphabet’s “moonshot factory”), to NASA (humanity’s original moonshot factory), to Cisco and the Association for Talent Development, and at a diverse array of events from the World Knowledge Forum in Seoul to the open-source software community’s Hadoop Summit.

Epstein’s writing has appeared in numerous publications, from The New York Times and The Atlantic to National Geographic. He was previously an investigative reporter at ProPublica, where his work ranged from an investigation into the DEA’s complicated pursuit of Chapo Guzman’s rivals, to a This American Life episode about a woman with muscular dystrophy who discovered that she shares a mutated gene with an Olympic medalist.

A former Sports Illustrated senior writer, Epstein authored or co-authored several of the magazine’s most high-profile investigative pieces, including the 2009 revelation of Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez’s steroid use. He has master’s degrees in environmental science and journalism from Columbia University and was twice NCAA All-East as an 800-meter runner.

Merging stories from the worlds of sports, business, medicine and education, Epstein sheds light on the paths to peak performance. From how to best prepare for our specialized world to how to optimally incorporate AI into our workplaces, Epstein unpacks the science of success—leaving audiences with actionable takeaways to improve how they live, work, teach, parent and prepare for the future.

Speaker Videos

TED: Why specializing early doesn't always mean career success

Technology and Strategy

David Epstein: 10,000 Hours Is A Lie! The Morning Habit That’s Secretly Ruining Your Day!

Virtual Keynote| Lessons from Range: Developing High Performance Teams

Bill Gates’s Holiday Book 2020: Range

Epstein and Gladwell discuss “Range” at MIT

Keep Experimenting

CLSA Investors' Forum 2014

An Introduction to “Range”

TEDTalk: Are Athletes Really Getting Faster, Better, Stronger?

Lateral Thinking: The Reason You’ve Heard of Nintendo and Marvel

CBS This Morning: "Range" Generalization Over Specialization

Juggling Through Implicit Learning

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Speech Topics

Confronting Change with Range & Resilience: Navigating Disruption & Turning Challenges into Opportunities

The post-pandemic world is changing at an unprecedented rate. New technologies such as AI and constant disruption demand that organizations and individuals become more resilient, agile, and equipped to tackle ambiguity on a daily basis. What was once a predictable, “kind” environment is now an uncertain, “wicked” one, requiring updated approaches to hiring, team formation, training, and creating resilient cultures grounded in diverse skill sets. In this impactful and empowering talk, David Epstein shares enlightening data, riveting research and eclectic success stories (ranging from business leaders and legendary athletes to chess champions and NASA engineers) from his #1 New York Times bestseller, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. Audiences gain insightful, actionable takeaways that will inspire them to embrace change, break down silos, make better-informed decisions, re-invent their roles, re-tool their skills, and turn change, challenges, and setbacks into opportunities and triumphs.

The Power of Range: The Secret to Success in Any Domain

What’s the most effective path to success in any domain? It’s not what you think. Plenty of experts argue that anyone who wants to develop a skill, play an instrument or lead their field should start early, focus intensely and rack up as many hours of deliberate practice as possible. If you dabble or delay, you’ll never catch up to the people who got a head start. But a closer look at research on the world’s top performers, from professional athletes to Nobel laureates, shows that early specialization is the exception, not the rule. Bestselling author on the science of performance David Epstein has examined the world’s most successful athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, forecasters and scientists. He discovered that in most fields—especially those that are complex, unpredictable and difficult to automate—generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. Generalists often find their path late, and they juggle many interests rather than focusing on one. They’re also more creative, more agile and able to make connections their more specialized peers can’t see.

Drawing from his #1 New York Times bestseller Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, which has attracted praise from thought leaders like Bill Gates, Adam Grant, Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Pink, James Clear and Susan Cain; Epstein shares how individuals, teams and organizations of all kinds can harness this under-recognized superpower. As Gladwell put it: “For reasons I cannot explain, David Epstein manages to make me thoroughly enjoy the experience of being told that everything I thought about something was wrong.”

David Epstein customizes his content for specific audiences, including:

Business: No matter the industry, every business thrives or dies on educated guessing about what the future holds. In a tour of fascinatingly counterintuitive research, David explains how specialists often develop worse judgments about the future as they gain knowledge and credentials in a particular domain, and how leaders who are interdisciplinary thinkers can reverse that troubling trend.

Human Resources/Management: Employing studies of “serial innovators,” David explains how HR policies at mature companies often accidentally screen out employees with the highest potential for creative contributions, and what recruiters and hiring managers can do to counter that. But the power of range doesn't stop with recruiting; David shares research on how employees with diverse work experience can make an organization more competitive, more agile and better prepared for the unexpected.

Healthcare: Increasing specialization in healthcare has been necessary, but also means that individual providers now see a smaller piece of the total health puzzle than ever before—a trend that has led to some eyebrow-raising outcomes. David discusses how generalists can enhance specialized environments, and how healthcare organizations can hire, develop and cross-train to improve performance and the patient experience.

Investment/Financial Services: As information becomes more rapidly disseminated, it is increasingly difficult (read: expensive, in time and money) to gain an information advantage. However, more information means more opportunities to take advantage of analytical inefficiencies in a market. Who is best suited to analyze the same information that everyone else has? People with range. David shares surprising research on the habits of mind that can lead to an analytical competitive advantage in an information-rich market.

Educators: Drawing on the latest research, David shares how learners of all ages, and their educators, can thrive in an increasingly complex world — not by picking a single specialty and mastering it, but by sampling many areas, changing (and failing) often and focusing on the kind of analytical thinking skills that transfer between domains. His talk explains how to learn, teach, and create educational institutions primed for the 21st century.

Technology Innovators: In an age of rapid technological change, it can feel like hyper-specialization is a necessity for reaching the cutting edge, never mind pushing it. But in fact, there has never been more opportunity for “lateral thinking” generalists to drive technological progress. David discusses the habits of mind that lead generalists to make connections that their more specialized peers miss, and how organizations can be structured so that specialists and generalists enhance one another's performance.

Students & Parents: As any graduation speech will tell you, the key to success is knowing where you want to be years from now and determining the steps to get there. Except, research shows that’s precisely the opposite of how most successful and fulfilled people develop their lives and careers. David discusses work showing that top performers assiduously avoid rigid long-term planning and premature specialization. Along the way, he shares how anyone can adopt habits that will help them work toward an optimal fit between who they are and what they do.

Hiring, Cultivating & Retaining the Workforce of the Future

In today’s fast-changing world, organizations should be looking for nimble thinkers and skilled generalists—those who can see around corners and adapt their skills in response to disruption and change. What is the secret to finding, cultivating and retaining an agile workforce with this mindset and potential? And once you find them, how do you match generalists, experts and, increasingly, AI to form optimal teams hardwired for impact and innovation? In this essential talk, New York Times bestselling author and science writer David Epstein expands on his #1 best-seller, Range to reveal what it takes to recruit, build and retain the workforce of the future.

David’s customized presentations provide research-based strategies to:

Make your organization more agile and better prepared for the unexpected
Find and recruit skilled generalists equipped for fast-changing “wicked” learning environments
Identify candidates that are hardwired for impact and innovation
Improve “match quality” (the fit between abilities, interest and role)
Spot and cultivate future leaders and serial innovators—and eliminate practices that screen them out
Form optimal teams in which depth and breadth complement each other
Re-invigorate existing teams and foster ingenuity with outside perspectives
Use AI to enhance, rather than supplant, human intelligence
Foster idea diversity and a culture of continuous improvement
Cultivate, motivate and retain employees with the greatest potential for impact and innovation

Testimonials

“Please extend our heartfelt gratitude to him for joining today and being such an engaging, fascinating, and prepared speaker! The team loved what he had to say – lots of soundbites being quoted in the chat, and great anecdotal feedback. The Prezi format was also one of the best I’ve ever seen for a virtual presenter – will definitely be recommending him to anyone looking for a keynote speaker in the future!”

- AB InBev

“David was great! We loved wrapping up the show with his presentation and received positive feedback. Attendees loved that he stuck around for the cocktail hour and dinner.”

- O.C. Tanner Company

“David was just lights out incredible. He was both fascinating and insightful. He jumped out of the book and brought it directly down into why these frameworks mattered for the executives in the room and he absolutely hit it out of the park. There were so many questions that we had to be selective about which ones he chose to engage with. His visuals were not only informative but engaging and really kept the attention of the members in the room. David was brilliant! Please share our thanks….!”

- World 50

“He was spectacular, the session was great…. until next time!”

- AB InBev

“…David did great and I actually really wanted to talk to him for hours!”

- Portfolio Management Institute

“Thank you again so much for working with us on this. I think you definitely challenged many of our inherent thoughts and allowed us to broaden our ways of working collaboratively. I personally loved the conversation and thank you for this partnership!”

- Electronic Arts

"David Epstein came highly recommended through various colleagues who were familiar with his research and had enjoyed his bestselling book, Range. Although we originally intended for David to speak to a group of our talent development executive members in-person, we switched to a virtual meeting last-minute due to new realities of a COVID-19 world. David was completely flexible and willing to work with us and this new virtual environment. He was enthusiastic and responsive as we planned the content and format of the 90-minute session. He asked excellent questions about the audience and tailored his presentation to best suit their interests and challenges, even accepting individual questions from attendees ahead of the meeting. The content was exceptional and the visuals – using Prezi video – unlike anything I’ve seen virtually. David was overprepared, which I loved. He had enough material to present for hours and allowed attendees to choose which information they were most interested in discussing. Working with David was an A+ experience from beginning to end!"

- Association for Talent Development

"On a scale of 1 to 10, David was a 15! Perfect capstone for our meeting."

- The Cynosure Group

"We had a fantastic event! Our cohort loved David and walked away with a new perspective on their careers, which is what we were hoping to achieve. Thank you for your support in enabling this success and a big thank you to David for his amazing energy and his generosity with his time and effort. He’s a great person and we’d love to have him in-person someday."

- Microsoft

"I’ve heard a lot of positive feedback from our CEO’s and other executives. It’s clear to me that the audience learned a lot during the presentation and that is exactly what we were hoping for. We sincerely appreciate all of the prep work you put into this event, the Prezi slides worked great and your delivery was perfect."

- Providence Strategic Growth

"You tied with the Harvard Business School Professor as best speaker at the conference. What’s more, the survey results all featured lines like, 'more speakers like Epstein."

- BIFMA

"The audience loved him! David was so wonderful to work with. He took time to really talk to every attendee who approached him and attended his book signing. I watched him interact with them and he really took the time to listen and ask questions. I know those connections are what the attendees go home and tell their co-workers about. Very entertaining and engaging session. Fantastic and fascinating subject."

- Gartner

"I thought David was great! Really interesting and informative presentation and he also tried something new (he said was the first time) by having the audience pick different topics on this “map” he had created to discuss or show examples about. He also joined us for our Friday night dinner at the St. Regis which featured a political fireside chat so that was great. Would definitely be interested in using him at another event where there is no audience cross over!"

- JP Morgan

"David is extraordinary, everyone loves his presentation because they found it interesting and useful. His presentation format and style was extremely interactive. We treasured David."

- CLSA

"David was terrific! He was engaging, and spent lots of time with guests, and we loved the interactive nature of his presentation."

- Cisco

"It was a wonderful event, and we have gotten such great feedback from parents, faculty, and student on David's visit and presentations. We were especially impressed by the degree to which David tailored his presentation to Fay, and even modified his talk to make it age-appropriate for the middle schoolers. We felt that everything went beautifully, and both you and David have been a pleasure to work with."

- Fay School

"What an awakening and powerful commencement address to the UPJ class of 2019...I raised my children on the Gallup Philosophy and not only did you expand on it as it relates to today, you confirmed to them I’m an awesome mother!"

- University of Pittsburgh Johnstown

"His presentation was enlightening, entertaining and well received by a large audience. David combines a science based background with an engaging delivery, keeping the entire audience focused on his presentation. He is personable and does a very nice job answering questions and communicating with the attendees. His book is excellent and addresses the question of greatness: created or developed. His presentation is even better and I highly recommend David for your upcoming events. He is a special speaker who can combine honesty and observation with a diverse background from his sports medical journal experience."

- Arthroscopy Association of North America

"We just had David Epstein and he was so wonderful. One of our longtime members thought he was the smartest person we have ever had. He was just so interesting, charming, and great, and just a huge, huge, huge hit. What a perfect match he was for our group, and what a great success he was."

- Fort Worth Lecture Foundation

"His speech was well received by the audience at the forum…everything worked perfectly. Many of the participants were impressed by the amount of preparation he put into his presentations and visual/audio aids. It made the speech more engaging for the non-English speaking audience."

- Program Coordinator, World Knowledge Forum

"Everyone LOVED David Epstein! We are so looking forward to having him back some day. I can’t tell you how many times I heard “this was the best talk ever.” Thank you again for you and your team helping with the organization and being so patient with my response time. You all are wonderful. I hope we work together again soon."

- FORE (Foundation for Orthopaedic Research and Education)