On 8/18/08, Richard Baker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 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.
I've never conned a ship or died gallantly, except in role-playing games. I've only ever planned invasions in role-playing games also, but I've used similar tactics in RL in navigating office politics. The only building I've ever designed (and built) was a rather elaborate 7-room treehouse, does that count? And as to how efficiently I have fought, I'll have to leave others to judge. But I've done the rest of these things. (The bone was a temporary setting of a shin bone until we could get back to a road where an ambulance could find us, and the EMT said I did a pretty good job, and both the pitching of manure and the butchering of a hog -- as well as helping butcher a cow -- were one summer on an uncle's ranch, and I wasn't as good at either as my uncle thought I should be). In the jobs I've had recently, the people who management most often called in crisis situations were the people who could adapt to quickly changing circumstances and learn new processes at the drop of a hat, who could grasp enough of the details involved in complex issues to make fast, independent, informed decisions. YMMV, of course. -- Mauro Diotallevi Alcohol and calculus don't mix. Don't drink and derive. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
