[FRIAM] are we how we behave?

[Roger Critchlow]

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 <sasmyth at swcp.com> 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
>
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