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.
I dont know if this is cool, but I recently published an essay on why generalism is a cool sort of specialist to be.
It’s a slightly long read (4k), so in case that isn’t your thing, the upshot is that generalism is specialising for uncertainty and that being a polymath is pretty cool.
Also, being a polymath is your default state and capitalism really doesnt like it.
That was a good read, thank you for posting it.
Sweet sweet ADHD.
I have ADHD.
Sure, it’s lovely. So many rabbit holes. Problem is while I have all sorts of knowledge, I’m also damn near incapable of focusing long enough to become a master at any one thing. I suspect many people dealing with ADHD could say the same.
I also have ADHD
I’m not a master at anything either, and honestly I don’t want to be
I’m far happier being decent enough at many things, to be able to procrastinate on my projects with my other projects
A master must dedicate his whole life to a craft, and that’s simply something I cannot do, I’d go mad
I kinda realised that the less specialised you are, the more you really know. If you don’t branch out here and there, you won’t develop necessary skills that will help you in your own specialised area. For example, Albert Einstein is well known as a theoretical physicist, a highly specialised occupation. But were it not for his hobby of playing the violin and willing to work outside his main field and interest, he would not have been able to come up with solutions to some of the pressing problems in physics. He did say that imagination is more important than knowledge, and his track record speak for himself and his mindset.
Moreover, I think there is some harm not developing other skills. I find that some people in positions of power being ineffective, because they may only know their technical skills, but did not bother to learn people or time management skills. Going further beyond, a lot of people have ill-informed takes in politics or life in general, because they do not bother learning more facets.
There’s room and need in the world for both. There’s some stuff you’ll just never figure out if you’re not hyper specialized.
There’s also stuff we’d never know if everyone was hyper specialized. Crossover knowledge develops a lot of unique stuff too.
With 8+ billion people in the world, having a mix of specialized and diverse knowledge helps build the world we see.
the way i look at it, everyone should just do what they enjoy.
All combinations have their benefits and you tend to be better at the things you like (for a variety of reasons), so if you do what appeals to you that maximizes the total amount of knowledge and skill you can gain.Like, we’re one of the most social species on earth, this is kinda the whole reason why everyone is so diverse, we have weaponized the ability to learn and benefit from each other. Because we stand on the shoulders of giants we have the freedom to benefit from having passions, rather than being forced to do things we don’t like to just survive. By dint of being diverse, we have people who inherently LOVE collecting garbage or maintaining electrical equipment.
This is why I think it’s so important for programmers to learn art and for artists to learn code. You find out there’s so much more to the world than whatever hole you put yourself in.
Yasssss. I’m a programmer but loving taking the time to learn instruments and writing. Really seems to scratch an itch in my brain that my day job doesn’t quite reach
Jack of many Master of none But better than A master of one
The manga is not bad.
My firm provides services that require our key employees to have great depth in certain things (specialization). A lot of firms do that. What makes us the leading provider in our field is that along with depth, our key personnel also have breadth.
Never believe anyone that tells you that you should only focus on one thing. Be great at some things. Be good at many things.
It’s true you create more value for your work/hobby if you specialize, it’s more true than you can just enjoy life if you don’t spend most of it being socially dominated into a job you hate doing in an oppressive environment you hate being in. You get so much more value of yourself just living, or at least making wise trade-offs.
I have a vast array of knowledge in a lot of dumb stuff. I get paid jack shit.
I’ve read the SVN book from cover to cover and understand what can go wrong during a merge and how to solve it. But I never tell anyone, because I hate it more than anything.
