Roger - 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.
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. 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". 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. - Steve On 3/6/19 3:59 PM, Roger Critchlow wrote: > 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 <sasm...@swcp.com > <mailto:sasm...@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 >> >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove