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.
It’s probably all the lead, asbestos and other shit they breathed.
It may not be much better for us 😅
Angel Michael Sex Cult
(But no gays allowed tho)
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
Realism is racist. Reality is a colonial construct created by rich old white men.
For me, 🗸✗🗸🗸🗸✗🗸🗸✗✗🗸🗸🗸🗸🗸🗸🗸🗸✗ and ?, respectively.
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.
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
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
Plus, you get to write not just a boring book with Ms word, I literally make a website out of my book with interactive stuff, and I can write it in neovim, which I also use to code.
Heck yes! That’s so cool!
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.
Jack of many Master of none But better than A master of one
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”.
The manga is not bad.
Favorite meme of the day.
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.
Is this loss?
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.
I’ve read the Postgres Manual from cover to cover, and now understand SQL, but I still hate it for its weird inconsistencies. I wish ALPHA had an implementation.
I’m sorry
I have a vast array of knowledge in a lot of dumb stuff. I get paid jack shit.
Did you know swans can be gay?
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.
