Generalist - Revision history

Eric Mukherjee: /* Supergeneralists */

2025-03-06T02:21:27Z

Supergeneralists

Eric Mukherjee at 23:16, 5 March 2025

2025-03-05T23:16:15Z

Eric Mukherjee at 23:12, 5 March 2025

2025-03-05T23:12:56Z

Eric Mukherjee at 23:12, 5 March 2025

2025-03-05T23:12:34Z

Eric Mukherjee at 23:12, 5 March 2025

2025-03-05T23:12:06Z

Kevin Wang at 22:05, 13 June 2021

2021-06-13T22:05:52Z

fix>QBWikiBot at 22:38, 24 January 2010

2010-01-24T22:38:53Z

New page

A '''generalist''' is a player whose knowledge extends to all parts of the [[canon]], and thus is capable of buzzing on any subject. Good generalists are often among the scoring leaders at invitational tournaments.

A '''surface generalist''' has a good command of [[giveaway|giveaways]] and other easy clues, leading to high individual scores, without any deep knowledge on any subject. The surface generalist approach, extremely popular until the mid-1990s, has been waning in the college game as surface generalists tend not to score points on hard questions or against good teams. However, surface generalists can still be relatively successful at the high school level or against weaker fields.

The more common approach to becoming a generalist at the college level involves acquiring depth in one or two topics, then branching out into other areas. Many generalists start out as "science-other" players, since science is typically considered the toughest category to acquire knowledge in. In strong fields with strong teammates, these players have the advantage of "turtling" around their categories while occasionally striking outside of their knowledge base, making them good people to have around.

A third type of generalist, best exemplified by [[Matt Weiner]], has decent-to-good depth on a wide variety of subjects, but is not considered dominant on any given subject.

The distinction between generalist and [[specialist]] isn't well established. Some generalists tend to have specialist-level knowledge in their areas while being able to consistently buzz on the last few clues of most other categories, for example.

== Noted Generalists (Current and Historical) in the College Game ==
Players considered generalists will usually have "General" listed under "Notable Subjects" on their individual pages. Almost all of these individuals have won multiple individual scoring awards at tournaments. Their individual and team performance at nationals has varied due to varying degrees in depth of knowledge as well as teammate strength.

*[[Zeke Berdichevsky]]
*[[David Farris]]
*[[Chris Frankel]]
*[[Jason Keller]]
*[[Seth Kendall]]
*[[Matt Lafer]]
*[[Subash Maddipoti]]
*[[Kelly McKenzie]]
*[[Eric Mukherjee]]
*[[Yogesh Raut]]
*[[Chris Ray]]
*[[Eric Smith]]
*[[Mike Sorice]]
*[[Seth Teitler]]
*[[Jerry Vinokurov]]
*[[Tom Waters]]
*[[Matt Weiner]]
*[[Ryan Westbrook]]
*[[Leo Wolpert]]
*[[Dwight Wynne]]
*[[Andrew Yaphe]]

[[Category: Quizbowl lingo]]
[[Category:Original QBWiki Page]]

@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 *[[Jacob Reed]]
 *[[Will Alston]]
 *[[Jakob Myers]]
 *[[Itamar Naveh-Benjamin]]

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 The more common approach to becoming a generalist at the college level involves acquiring depth in one or two topics, then branching out into other areas. In strong fields with strong teammates, these players have the advantage of being able to [[scale]], "turtling" around their categories while occasionally striking outside of their knowledge base.
-A third type of generalist, best exemplified by [[Matt Weiner]], has decent-to-good depth on a wide variety of subjects, but is not considered dominant on any given subject.
+Another type of generalist, best exemplified by [[Matt Weiner]], has decent-to-good depth on a wide variety of subjects, but is not considered dominant on any given subject.
-The distinction between generalist and [[specialist]] isn't well established.  Some generalists tend to have specialist-level knowledge in their areas while being able to consistently buzz on the last few clues of most other categories, for example.
+The distinction between generalist and [[specialist]] isn't well established.  Some generalists tend to have specialist-level knowledge in their areas while being able to consistently buzz on the last few clues of most other categories; for example [[Jordan Brownstein]] was considered both the best history and and best literature player in 2016 and 2017.
 == Supergeneralists ==
-The term '''supergeneralist''' is commonly-used but poorly-defined, but generally refers to the very best generalists who are threats across the entire distribution (or were, at their peak). Depending on who is asked, players with this designation include:
+The term '''supergeneralist''' is commonly-used but poorly-defined, but refers to the very best generalists who are threats across the entire distribution (or were, at their peak). Depending on who is asked, players with this designation include:
 *[[Matt Bollinger]]

@@ Line 21: / Line 21: @@
 *[[Jacob Reed]]
 *[[Will Alston]]
-*[[Jakob Meyers]]
+*[[Jakob Myers]]
 *[[Itamar Naveh-Benjamin]]
 *[[Amogh Kulkarni]]

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 == Supergeneralists ==
-The term '''supergeneralist''' is commonly-used but poorly-defined, but generally refers to the very best generalists who are threats across the entire distribution at their peak. Depending on who is asked, people with this designation include:
+The term '''supergeneralist''' is commonly-used but poorly-defined, but generally refers to the very best generalists who are threats across the entire distribution (or were, at their peak). Depending on who is asked, players with this designation include:
 *[[Matt Bollinger]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:05, 13 June 2021
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	A '''generalist''' is a player whose knowledge extends to all parts of the [[canon]], and thus is capable of buzzing on any subject. Good generalists are often among the scoring leaders at invitational tournaments.	+	<onlyinclude>A '''generalist''' is a player whose knowledge extends to all parts of the [[canon]], and thus is capable of buzzing on any subject. Good generalists are often among the scoring leaders at invitational tournaments.</onlyinclude>

	A '''surface generalist''' has a good command of [[giveaway\|giveaways]] and other easy clues, leading to high individual scores, without any deep knowledge on any subject. The surface generalist approach, extremely popular until the mid-1990s, has been waning in the college game as surface generalists tend not to score points on hard questions or against good teams. However, surface generalists can still be relatively successful at the high school level or against weaker fields.		A '''surface generalist''' has a good command of [[giveaway\|giveaways]] and other easy clues, leading to high individual scores, without any deep knowledge on any subject. The surface generalist approach, extremely popular until the mid-1990s, has been waning in the college game as surface generalists tend not to score points on hard questions or against good teams. However, surface generalists can still be relatively successful at the high school level or against weaker fields.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-<onlyinclude>A '''generalist''' is a player whose knowledge extends to all parts of the [[canon]], and thus is capable of buzzing on any subject.  Good generalists are often among the scoring leaders at invitational tournaments.</onlyinclude>
+<onlyinclude>A '''generalist''' is a player whose knowledge extends to most of the distribution, and thus is capable of buzzing on a wide variety of subjects.  Good generalists are often among the scoring leaders at invitational tournaments and tend to be captains of their teams.</onlyinclude>
-A '''surface generalist''' has a good command of [[giveaway|giveaways]] and other easy clues, leading to high individual scores, without any deep knowledge on any subject.  The surface generalist approach, extremely popular until the mid-1990s, has been waning in the college game as surface generalists tend not to score points on hard questions or against good teams.  However, surface generalists can still be relatively successful at the high school level or against weaker fields.
+A '''surface generalist''' has a good command of [[giveaway|giveaways]], binary matching, and easy clues (sometimes called "FTP merchants"), leading to high individual scores, without any deep knowledge on any subject. The surface generalist approach, popular among many high school players, doesn't always extend well to the college game.  However, surface generalists can still be relatively successful against weaker fields.
-The more common approach to becoming a generalist at the college level involves acquiring depth in one or two topics, then branching out into other areas.  Many generalists start out as "science-other" players, since science is typically considered the toughest category to acquire knowledge in.  In strong fields with strong teammates, these players have the advantage of "turtling" around their categories while occasionally striking outside of their knowledge base, making them good people to have around.
+The more common approach to becoming a generalist at the college level involves acquiring depth in one or two topics, then branching out into other areas. In strong fields with strong teammates, these players have the advantage of being able to [[scale]], "turtling" around their categories while occasionally striking outside of their knowledge base.
 A third type of generalist, best exemplified by [[Matt Weiner]], has decent-to-good depth on a wide variety of subjects, but is not considered dominant on any given subject.
@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 The distinction between generalist and [[specialist]] isn't well established.  Some generalists tend to have specialist-level knowledge in their areas while being able to consistently buzz on the last few clues of most other categories, for example.
-== Noted Generalists (Current and Historical) in the College Game ==
+== Supergeneralists ==
-Players considered generalists will usually have "General" listed under "Notable Subjects" on their individual pages.  Almost all of these individuals have won multiple individual scoring awards at tournaments.  Their individual and team performance at nationals has varied due to varying degrees in depth of knowledge as well as teammate strength.
+The term '''supergeneralist''' is commonly-used but poorly-defined, but generally refers to the very best generalists who are threats across the entire distribution at their peak. Depending on who is asked, people with this designation include:
-*[[Zeke Berdichevsky]]
+*[[Matt Bollinger]]
-*[[David Farris]]
+*[[Jordan Brownstein]]
-*[[Chris Frankel]]
+*[[Matt Jackson]]
-*[[Jason Keller]]
+*[[Andrew Yaphe]]
-*[[Seth Kendall]]
+*[[Seth Teitler]]
 *[[Eric Mukherjee]]
-*[[Yogesh Raut]]
+*[[Matthew Lehmann]]
-*[[Chris Ray]]
+*[[Jacob Reed]]
-*[[Eric Smith]]
+*[[Will Alston]]
-*[[Mike Sorice]]
+*[[Jakob Meyers]]
-*[[Seth Teitler]]
+*[[Itamar Naveh-Benjamin]]
-*[[Jerry Vinokurov]]
+*[[Amogh Kulkarni]]
-*[[Tom Waters]]
+*[[Arya Karthik]]
-*[[Matt Weiner]]
-*[[Ryan Westbrook]]
+Of these, Bollinger, Brownstein, Jackson, and Yaphe are completely uncontroversial, given their status as the best players of all time.
 [[Category: Quizbowl lingo]]