Roger, Almost every time I ask a lawyer a question he refers me to someone who is a specialist. Same with doctors.
Frank On Wed, Mar 6, 2019 at 4:00 PM Roger Critchlow <[email protected]> wrote: > When you ask people to be well rounded, aren't you assuming that you know > the convex hull of the knowledge they need? > > But as Hamming pointed out in Learning to Learn ( > https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2FF649D0C4407B30), they knew in > the 50's that most of the scientists who had ever lived were alive right > then, that the scientific literature was growing exponentially, and that no > one would ever review it all. And those things have been true in every > decade since then. > > So who's got their finger on the pulse of knowledge? We've all been > becoming absolutely and relatively more ignorant all through our lives. > Experts rule over ever shrinking domains. Laboratories are organized gangs > of specialists competing to recast problems into nails for their hammers. > Narrow specialists dominate because it's the only safe thing to profess. > Spread out and some specialist will rip you a new one. > > -- rec -- > > On Wed, Mar 6, 2019 at 4:47 PM Steven A Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Marcus - >> >> Marcus - >> >> My quote of Heinlein the renowned "Human Chauvanist" was somewhat >> tongue-in-cheek. I applaud the general spirit of the polymath, always >> seeking, never-say-die he implies here, but as you point out, there is no >> clear boundary around how much one can learn. >> >> And in the spirit of your last response characterizing polyculture over >> monoculture somewhat as the "foam" Glen referenced earlier, I cannot but >> agree with you. >> >> The richness obtained and experienced by being *an individual* in the >> context of a (multi?)culture is not only that everyone else "has so much to >> teach you" but also that "there is so much you can defer to others". This >> doesn't have to be an either-or between depth/breadth, but maybe more of an >> appreciation for being (more) able to choose a subset of what breadth/depth >> one will seek to explore/cover? >> >> - Steve >> >> >> On 3/6/19 2:29 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote: >> >> Steve writes: >> >> “Reminds me of the (in)famous Robert Heinlein quote so (s?)favored by >> Libertarians and other strong Individualists: >> >> *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.* >> >> >> >> Life has finite length and the rate of learning is finite. Individuals >> aren’t going to learn how to do everything. It isn’t even helpful to >> write down a list of `everything’ and say go learn that. Because it just >> insults the vastness of everything, and assumes that collectively we see >> even a little of it. Why not throw “become a world class violinist” or >> “become the top cited researcher in string theory” or “break the two hour >> barrier on the marathon” into the mix too? >> >> >> >> Marcus >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >> > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove > -- Frank Wimberly 140 Calle Ojo Feliz Santa Fe, NM 87505 505 670-9918
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
