A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Robert A. Heinlein
That’s quite the list. I think the conversation is more nuanced, especially since the quote seems so anti-specialization, but in general I think it’s correct. Even so, none of these things are really specializations/ exclusive of each other.
Really wishing all the boomers had gone the way of Heinlein. Bobby was no saint and some of his views aged terribly (and others weren’t great even at the time) but a free-love humanist hippy who has a ‘realist’ grounding’? A lot better than the Reaganism, “greed is good”, and culture war pearl clutching we did get.
I never understood how that generation could be given so much more than those before, grow up with all that opportunity, and become such cantankerous assholes.
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
Robert A. Heinlein
That’s quite the list. I think the conversation is more nuanced, especially since the quote seems so anti-specialization, but in general I think it’s correct. Even so, none of these things are really specializations/ exclusive of each other.
Really wishing all the boomers had gone the way of Heinlein. Bobby was no saint and some of his views aged terribly (and others weren’t great even at the time) but a free-love humanist hippy who has a ‘realist’ grounding’? A lot better than the Reaganism, “greed is good”, and culture war pearl clutching we did get.
I never understood how that generation could be given so much more than those before, grow up with all that opportunity, and become such cantankerous assholes.
Realism is racist. Reality is a colonial construct created by rich old white men.
For me, 🗸✗🗸🗸🗸✗🗸🗸✗✗🗸🗸🗸🗸🗸🗸🗸🗸✗ and ?, respectively.