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<p>Roger -</p>
<p>If your point is that it is not my place (or within my ability)
to determine the (desired) shape of said Pareto Frontier for
anyone else, I can't argue a bit. <br>
</p>
<p>My position is that I favor each and every one of us taking
whatever responsibility for understanding our own "convex hull" of
capability/knowledge/intuition as we are capable of and "managing"
it to the best of our ability. <br>
</p>
<p>On one extreme, that might mean just joining a harsh cult and
managing one's own "convex hull" by "picking a good cult" and
subsuming oneself well into it. On the other is some (not quite
so caricatured, perhaps) version of Heinlein's near-belligerent
"Human Chauvanist".</p>
<p>If I can attain proper non-attachment, even enlightenment
(whatever that actually means), I might well "manage" said "convex
hull" merely by observing it as it evolves into whatever it is
becoming as I stumble (or float or charge or careen) through life.</p>
<p>- Steve<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 3/6/19 3:59 PM, Roger Critchlow
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAGayqosRn3VKtQS2SDkPDzfrt55F4+sXSh_6V-z26GhN5mJ7Dw@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">When you ask people to be well rounded, aren't you
assuming that you know the convex hull of the knowledge they
need?
<div><br>
</div>
<div>But as Hamming pointed out in Learning to Learn (<a
href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2FF649D0C4407B30"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2FF649D0C4407B30</a>),
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.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>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.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>-- rec --</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Mar 6, 2019 at 4:47 PM
Steven A Smith <<a href="mailto:sasmyth@swcp.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">sasmyth@swcp.com</a>> wrote:<br>
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<p>Marcus -</p>
<p>Marcus -</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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?</p>
<p>- Steve<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="gmail-m_8665704168316899739moz-cite-prefix">On
3/6/19 2:29 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:<br>
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<div class="gmail-m_8665704168316899739WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt"><span
style="color:black;background:white">Steve writes:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:12pt"><span
style="color:black;background:white">“Reminds me of
the (in)famous Robert Heinlein quote so (s?)favored
by Libertarians and other strong Individualists: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span
style="color:black;background:white">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.</span></i><i><span
style="background:white"></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">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?</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Marcus</p>
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