“Federer's parents discouraged him from taking tennis too seriously”

Roger Federer continues to recover from knee surgery he underwent last February and after which he will return to compete on the circuit in 2021, when the Swiss will turn 40. Meanwhile, one of Federer's great friends, businessman Bill Gates, who accompanied him in his exhibition match before the pandemic in Cape Town with Rafa Nadal and Trevor Noah, has once again put the Swiss tennis player as an example of improvement.

Through a blog post on David Epstein's book 'Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World', Gates once again showed his admiration for Federer and his adaptability . “When I watch Roger play I am amazed. As the late novelist David Foster Wallace wrote, he is 'one of those rare supernatural athletes who seem to be exempt, at least in part, from certain physical laws.'

Gates cites Federer as an example, of whom he says that he started practicing different sports disciplines before he began to dedicate himself seriously to tennis … despite the punctual opposition of his parents on several occasions. “Here's the part of Roger's greatness: as a kid he didn't focus on tennis and I wasn't getting great hitting or strength training. He played very different sports, such as skateboarding, swimming, ping pong, soccer, and badminton. He didn't start playing tennis competitions until he was a teenager. Even then his parents discouraged him from taking it too seriously. “

The Microsoft founder adds on his blog that he learned about this story about Federer from Epstein's book. “I learned this in a good myth-busting book called 'Range: Why Generalist Triumph in a Specialized World.' Sports journalist David Epstein uses Roger's case as an initial example. from the underrated benefits of delaying specialization and accumulating a wide range of different experiences. “In a world that calls for and even demands hyperspecialization, we need more Rogers: people who start out broad and embrace various experiences and perspectives as they progress.”

In fact, Gates himself compares the origin of his own career with the example of Federer and the stories that Epstein compiles in his book. “My own career also fits the generalist model. When I was a kid I used to sneak out of my basement room to do night coding at the University of Washington, but my passion for computers was mixed with other subjects as well. I read many books of very varied subjects. I think one of the reasons Microsoft took off was because we thought more broadly than other companies at the time. We not only hired brilliant coders, but also people who had real breadth in their field and across all domains. I found that these team members were the most curious and had the deepest mental models, “Gates added.