When to Specialize, When to Generalize, & When to Innovate

A heuristic based on North American Urban Wildlife Adaptations

Author

Ray Doraisamy
June 09, 2025

IF (Predictability × Natural Ability) > (Costs × Rate of Change) THEN → Be like a Cooper's Hawk: GET REALLY GOOD AT ONE THING

ELSE IF (Opportunities × Reliability) > (Specialization Loss × Correlation) THEN → Be like a Coyote: GET DECENT AT MANY THINGS

ELSE IF (Change Speed × Learning Compound) > (Impatience × Skill Decay) THEN → Be like a Raccoon: GET GOOD AT LEARNING NEW THINGS