Hyper-specialization vs. Knowing stuff
I am half way through Joel Salatin’s “Folks, this ain’t normal” and if it continues the way it’s been so far, I might have to add it to my…
I am half way through Joel Salatin’s “Folks, this ain’t normal” and if it continues the way it’s been so far, I might have to add it to my most influential book list. The overall theme discusses how far we’ve disconnected from our food supply and how the current food system has become the new normal.
Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World
From farmer Joel Salatin's point of view, life in the 21st century just ain't normal. In FOLKS, THIS AIN'T NORMAL, he…www.amazon.com
Speaking of new norms, Joel mentions something called a “larder” which was quite common before refrigeration but fell out of favour in more modern times. To be honest, I’ve never heard of that term and had to turn to Google to help me decipher it. Clearly, the question of how people kept food before modern refrigerators didn’t come up in my mind very frequently.
If you are comfortable not knowing what a larder is because it’s an obsolete concept since the invention of the refrigerator, try to answer one of the following questions instead:
What is a carburetor in relation to a car?
What is the difference between a seed and a nut?
What would hurt more, 220 watts or 220 volts of electricity?
What is lactose in reference to lactose intolerance? Is it a protein or a carb or something else?
What part of the animal is a tenderloin. Follow up question, what animal is it?
I’ll be very surprised to find anyone born any time after 1980 who didn’t have to Google at least some of these [every day] concepts.
If you made it this far, you’re probably thinking one of two things.
The education system is dropping the ball on us. The world is going to shit.
Whatever. Who cares what a carburetor is anyway? I drive a Tesla.
I’d like to address each of these separately. First, if you agree that this knowledge is good to have, it’s very tempting to find a reason why we are missing it. Blaming it on some sort of institution is the easy way out. Unfortunately, I am not convinced it’s always an education problem.
For example, I didn’t know what a carburetor was because I never owned a car myself. I heard others talk about it because their car broke down and it was identified as a possible cause. However, unless you’re into cars or bikes, or you have some fascination with fixing motors, you probably didn’t know what a carburetor was either. It’s very possible you never even heard of this part.
There’s a good reason for that. It’s because of how we address problems. If smoke is coming out of the front hood of my car on the highway, instead of stopping by the side of the road, popping the hood and trying to identify the problem, I am going to pick up my phone and call a tow truck to take it to nearest mechanic. Once the work is complete, I’ll swipe my plastic and drive home. Transaction complete. Where was my opportunity to learn about the internals of an engine?
From an economic point of view, this is a great story. Imagine if this wasn’t the case. What if you didn’t have access to qualified people in different fields. Instead you had to learn how to do everything yourself. It becomes impossible to be a good mechanic, electrician, plumber, programmer and dietician at the same time. There just isn’t enough time (and skill). Through specialization, you are able to gain access to experts in many fields for an affordable price. The mechanic has mastery in her field so you don’t have to. You are now free to concentrate on enterprises that you are more productive in.
Of course it comes at a price. As our society becomes increasingly specialized, our breadth of knowledge becomes more narrow. This is natural since we are outsourcing so much of the “other” work to experts in their own fields. That’s why I don’t know much (anything) about electricity or plumbing but I know a thing or two about web development. You can take this to a not so unimaginable extreme where your average nuclear astrophysicist is unable to make herself breakfast because she doesn’t know how to boil an egg.
A second position one could take is that this information is useless anyway. A larder is useless because you have a fridge. A carburetor is useless because you have an electric car. Seeds and nuts are useless because you can always get your fruits from Costco and so on. This is also a flawed argument for a very similar reason.
It is unlikely that knowing the answer to any of the 5 questions posed earlier would directly impact your life in any way. It could, but it’s very unlikely. However, there’s a certain knowledge base that is significantly common within regular life. Things that come up frequently. This is a sign that you should be familiar with them. For example, it is likely that you were familiar with most, if not all the terms in the questions even if you were unable to answer them without Googling. That’s because volts and lactose are quite common in everyday life.
Once you spend enough time learning about the basics, life becomes easier. Changing a light switch in the house isn’t a big deal anymore. If the toilet isn’t flushing the way you’d like, no need to call a plumber. If you’re told you are eating a tenderloin, you don’t need to wonder if it’s white meat or dark meat. All sorts of options open up for you.
Another advantage to knowing your basics well is that others can’t feed you lies, or if they are trying, you have a good radar calibrated to detect just that. In a world where flexible truth prances around masquerading as facts on every corner, this is an incredibly helpful skill to have. For example, it would be much harder for a mechanic to over charge you if you had at least a basic understanding of what could be wrong.
By hyper-specializing in a certain space you are potentially robbing yourself of these opportunities. Why shouldn’t a web a developer know how to garden? For that matter, why shouldn’t a gardener know how a website works. This isn’t proprietary information and the lessons could be invaluable for all. I would personally love to pick my own tomatoes while I’m sure my gardener would love to update the pricing on his website without my involvement.