On well-roundedness

[chipotle]

A quote from Arthur Hlavaty by way of Electrolite:

I get more and more tired of the apotheosis of well-roundedness, whether it's Heinlein's list of all the things a person should be able to do to be considered human, or saying that people who are "too" interested in something "have too much free time." The British Pocket Essentials Guide to Conspiracy Theories says, "Trainspotter and anorak are terms media representatives use for people who have a longer attention span than they do." Geekery is a form of division of labor, which is what got humanity to the moderate amount of civilization we have now; it's a negentropic factor that is as natural as entropy.

Interesting observation. I don't think I'd argue against the virtues of being well-rounded, per se, but "jack of all trades, master of none" comes to mind about myself on occasion. Now, while I do have stories to work on and an increasingly overdue letter to an artist to get out, I have to get back to working on learning Apple's Cocoa API, because... ooh, shiny!...

Comments

Well-roundedness

[varjohaltia.livejournal.com]

Well, there's a difference between not concentrating on any one thing, and being well-rounded. Some occupations, especially in the sciences, arts and sports don't allow for much diversification. However, I feel that most people, and people in most occupations, would be well served to glean more skills and knowledge outside of their immediate needs. When you know how and why things and people work, you're more likely to work better with them. Unless a person has knowledge of history, society, current events and politics, they cannot effectively function as part of a democratic society--indeed, a certain level of attention paid to politics is the civic duty of a citizen living in a democratic system.

On another note, economies of western countries have gone through transitions from agricultural to industrial to knowledge economies. There's no reason to believe that there will be no further changes. Statistics suggest that if anything, the changes in people's work life have become more rapid, with an individual very unlikely to keep the same occupation and skillset for more than a decade at the most. To survive in this kind of a world it is very difficult to be a specialist, and rudimentary knowledge about many things is very helpful.

Most of the above is just my gut feeling. Personally I feel that I have been extraordinarily well served by having some skill in many fields. Even with the fanciest new office programs you still need to know about things like content vs. presentation, basics of layout, basics of color printing/theory etc. in order to be effective.

[kareem.livejournal.com]

The mob encourage ridicule of those who have a longer attention span and use it to focus on objectively useless hobbies. I don't see them whamming air traffic controllers.