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.
No homo stuff, but you can time travel to fuck your mother!
I eye-rolled and went with the “incest doesn’t apply because they’re clones, not actual brother and sister” but the ending… I was searching for a reason why that plot line existed
I've got most of them as well depending upon what kind of ship we're talking. I suppose I lose points if my invasion needs to be successful or well-thought-out.
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.
4k? 4000 pages? That seems too high. File size (poor 'b' got lost)? length? (4km is a lot of reading). 4 kelvin (really cold essay).
And at that point, my brain finally said "oh, probably 4000 words". My brain is weird.
Though that is great example of mental dexterity.
Considering something from a number of angles.
'4 kelvin essay' is also a decent name for a math rock band.
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
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
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.
I love how a compliment "He's a Jack of all Trades" was turned into an insult by adding ", a master of none", which was then turned into a compliment again by adding ", but better than a master of one".
Hobbies, sure. But specialization comes with tools and learning that generalists don't have, couldn't possibly afford, and would be a ridiculous amount of things to store and knowledge to remember. E.g. I don't want to do my own dentistry and I'd prefer an expert for that. Dentistry in the US requires a whole medical degree, specialized tools, etc. I also don't own the equipment nor have the knowledge to find and drill a well if I want to be "self sufficient".
You don't have to be an expert, and that can be very freeing, but we do need them and becoming an expert has opportunity costs. That doesn't mean experts are shallow or becoming a generalist is deep or morally better nor does it mean generalists are in any way insufficient.
Mindfulness. That's what this all comes down to. Deliberately choosing how much time and energy you are going to invest in each path, depending on your specific goals and desires.
They way they have defined generalist in this discussion just says there is no such thing as a specialist because you cannot survive without learning a variety of things.
Basically this whole conversation is just saying that it is a spectrum, but both ends are impossible because of the nature of our existence. Thus we all exist as semi-specialized generalists. A realization that will shock noone.
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.
Dolphins use two males to mate. One for the act and the other to help the female stay in place. That's a real bro right there.
Haha what a load of shit. Generalists are useful on a day-to-day basis, while specialists advance civilization. They're both useful in their own way, cause I can't do anything with a rocket scientist if I wanna change my spark plugs and my man has no idea how cars work, but to claim one is better and the other is garbage? You think humanity is ever inventing the telephone if it's only your average ass around? Fuck outta here.
IDK man, even your rocket scientist probably has hobbies and other shit besides rocket science that they like doing but are kinda bad to good at, which leads to a lot more fulfilling of a life than only being really really good at rocket science. Which is the whole point of the comic.
Bell was initially strong in science and music theory. The reason he was able to actually end up with the first practical telephone, was that he then also learned electronics. You really need both to develop a ttelephone.
Bell then did a lot of public shows to promote the telephone. It was certainly usefull that Bell worked as a teacher earlier.
That is actually extremely common for big leaps forward. A lot of those just combine knowledge from different domains in a new way.