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 A. Heinlein
Yeah I don’t agree 100% with this author or anyone, really, but I always return to this quote when I watch the world attempting to corral the magnificent potential wonder-beings that are humans, into hyper-specialized hive-pod roles.
All the jobs out there that actually pay seem to want people who were bred and raised their entire lives for that stupidly specific role to the exclusion of all else. Humanity’s versatility is our strength, and once again, the rich want to covet it while making the rest of us into specialized parts for their machines.
So my answer is “learning.” A lot of people don’t know how to learn new things, and stop trying, probably because their schooling failed them.
They are then frustrated easily by inconvenience, and incapable of solving problems or finding help. This is a brain gone to waste.
A lot of people pick one specialization and decide to just not learn anything else and that’s the most depressing thing in the world to witness. (I met a lot of older people who just stopped learning things after what must’ve been highschool. Huge yikes…)
Fix things. Make things. Fail a lot. Troubleshoot. PLAY.
Try whistling. Can you snap your fingers yet? How about training your way up to a handstand, maybe? Hey, yo-yos are fun.
Don’t like guns? Go learn how to safely use one anyway just for perspective. Cars? Try learning your own (simple!) repairs. Never learned to ride a bike? Best time is now!
Try planning a hangout. Join a meetup that sounds vaguely interesting. Learn how to tie knots. Learn how to stop trauma bleeding. Sew a cloak or something maybe. Teach somebody else things you know!
Don’t limit yourself by your first impressions of things you’ve never experienced. So many people look at something and just say “I can’t. I’m not that person. I won’t like it probably.”
Our modernization led by ruling classes has stripped us of so many experiences and then sold them back to us with admission fees. So much human potential and knowledge has been siloed away and sold back to us as “goods and services”, while we’re relegated to being “consumers.”
Human beings were made to do a multitude of tasks, and use their strengths to cooperate to the betterment of all, not to be alienated and separated by specific specializations they aren’t allowed to stray from.
Seriously, enjoy how much absolute potential you have instead of doing one thing you felt good at and being scared to try anything else.
–Robert A. Heinlein
Yeah I don’t agree 100% with this author or anyone, really, but I always return to this quote when I watch the world attempting to corral the magnificent potential wonder-beings that are humans, into hyper-specialized hive-pod roles.
All the jobs out there that actually pay seem to want people who were bred and raised their entire lives for that stupidly specific role to the exclusion of all else. Humanity’s versatility is our strength, and once again, the rich want to covet it while making the rest of us into specialized parts for their machines.
So my answer is “learning.” A lot of people don’t know how to learn new things, and stop trying, probably because their schooling failed them.
They are then frustrated easily by inconvenience, and incapable of solving problems or finding help. This is a brain gone to waste.
A lot of people pick one specialization and decide to just not learn anything else and that’s the most depressing thing in the world to witness. (I met a lot of older people who just stopped learning things after what must’ve been highschool. Huge yikes…)
Fix things. Make things. Fail a lot. Troubleshoot. PLAY.
Try whistling. Can you snap your fingers yet? How about training your way up to a handstand, maybe? Hey, yo-yos are fun.
Don’t like guns? Go learn how to safely use one anyway just for perspective. Cars? Try learning your own (simple!) repairs. Never learned to ride a bike? Best time is now!
Try planning a hangout. Join a meetup that sounds vaguely interesting. Learn how to tie knots. Learn how to stop trauma bleeding. Sew a cloak or something maybe. Teach somebody else things you know!
Don’t limit yourself by your first impressions of things you’ve never experienced. So many people look at something and just say “I can’t. I’m not that person. I won’t like it probably.”
Our modernization led by ruling classes has stripped us of so many experiences and then sold them back to us with admission fees. So much human potential and knowledge has been siloed away and sold back to us as “goods and services”, while we’re relegated to being “consumers.”
Human beings were made to do a multitude of tasks, and use their strengths to cooperate to the betterment of all, not to be alienated and separated by specific specializations they aren’t allowed to stray from.
Seriously, enjoy how much absolute potential you have instead of doing one thing you felt good at and being scared to try anything else.