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 Heinlein
I like Robert Heinlein, though I have yet to read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress in its entirety, but I don’t like this quote. I never have. Most of what he lists are doable for any adult with basic life skills, so I wouldn’t consider them specializations. Even if one never changed a diaper, a functioning adult with fine motor skills could figure it out after a few tries. After a dozen, with some careful observatons of results (and a good carpet cleaner), he’d be a master.
Some other things are specializations in themselves because they involve deep technical knowledge and learning, unless Heinlein cares if the human in question does a terrible job. I could butcher a hog but you wouldn’t want the results.
It’s like the myth of the full-stack developer. If you hire for that position, you can be sure of one of these things: your project will go over schedule, your project will go over budget, your new hire will quit because he’s working 80 hour weeks, or there will be at least one critical defect in every level of the application when regression testing comes after code freeze. Being a specialized insect in a highly technical job market is a good thing.
2 Comments
Yes, Heinlein gets it backwards. The biblical economic attitude is to maximize human employment to provide for as many as possible, not some cut-throat efficiency. The latter never works, but cultural mythology makes people blind to that.
“Dabbling” with many different things is a bourgeoisie sentiment; most folks don’t have the resources to learn things like that.
It’s like when Mark Twain said travel is good for dispelling ignorance. Might be true (according to his standards), but folks–especially in his time–could afford no such luxury. The poor ignoramuses!