“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 this quote. A lot of people criticize it because there are a lot of advantages to specialization. As Adam Smith observes, specialization creates wealth. And there are some things you want to leave to specialists. Take brain surgery. If you need it, you would not prefer that someone who is simply a doctor does it, but want someone who is a surgeon, preferably one who specializes in brain surgery, and preferably the best brain surgeon around.
I personally have been a specialist of one kind or another throughout my career, and have benefited financially as a result. And yet, I agree with Robert Heinlein.
Note how the quote starts. It does not say you should do all those things. It says you should be able to do them. Over the course of my life, I have done most of the things he lists. (I am have never set a bone, but I know how. I am also trying to put off dying gallantly for as long as possible.)
There is nothing wrong with specializing as long as you can do stuff outside your specialty. I have had some really wonky specializations over the years. I was not just a space navigation, I was a Shuttle space navigator, and specialized in onboard space rendezvous navigation software. Not just rendezvous navigation, but rendezvous navigation software. The software that runs aboard the Shuttle. Cannot get more specialized than that.
It was a great gig while the Shuttle was flying. Paid well. When the Shuttle program ended that specialization was worthless. If I had been an insect, unable to change my specialized behavior, I would have starved. Instead, I shed my old skin and emerged as a different kind of specialist — a technical writer. Not just a tech writer, but one who specialized in high-end software documentation, APIs, interface tables, really wonky stuff.
And, yeah, I have changed specializations since then. Because other things offered better opportunities.
Heinlein is right. As long as you have a broad range of things you can do, you can (temporarily) afford the luxury of specializing in one of them. But if all you can do is specialize in one thing, you will likely suffer the same fate as an insect.
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