On Mon, 18 Aug 2008, Richard Baker wrote:
> Bruce quoted:
>
>> "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." --
>> attributed to Lazarus Long by Robert A. Heinlein
>
> Can anyone non-fictional do all of those things adequately well? I
> think it's much better to do a few of them very well and rely on
> others to do different subsets and trade skills or goods and so forth.
> It seems to me that all the people who've done most to advance human
> civilisation have specialised in one or at most several fields, and
> it's becoming increasingly important to specialise as human
> civilisation becomes ever more complex and our collective knowledge
> ever vaster.
Well, I can't butcher a hog, conn a ship or set a bone, and I don't know
how I'd do on the fighting or the dying. None of my plannings of
buildings have ever been executed, either.
On the wall, well, about all I've really done there is mended one a bit,
and I have a decent gut feeling for Frost's poem.
I'll quit analyzing it in the light of my own life now....
Julia
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