Musings on Specialization and Self-Sufficiency in the Modern World
Every once in a while I come across a quote that makes so much sense I can’t get it out of my head. Sometimes it reveals a new truth or illuminates a long-held one. Other times it makes good and plain something so logical, so sensible, so obvious that it’s like a slap upside the head. Such was my impression of this Robert A. Heinlein quote mentioned by a commenter on Mike Eades blog: “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.”
I’m not intimately familiar with Mr. Heinlein’s work (although I read Stranger in a Strange Land and there is some dual meaning with my choice of Grok as our main character), but this quote has been on my mind for the last few months. It stands on its own, I think, for pondering the force of specialization in our society and individual lives.
The fact is, specialization is as much a product of the Neolithic Age as farming was. Ten thousand years ago we started eating new things but we also saw a major revamping of social structure and human labor. Hunter-gatherers (ancient and present) knew nothing of specialization. It’s inevitable that some folks in a band were better at certain things than others, but subsistence (and all the other basic necessities and pastimes of life) was the stuff of community obligation. Everyone contributed at some point or, well, you better go find yourself some other band to take advantage of.
As band oriented as hunter-gatherers were, they were uncompromising individualists of a unique sort. (This interest in personal autonomy is a common reason many current hunter-gatherers stick with their foraging lifestyle instead of joining the surrounding agricultural and urban settings.) There was flux in hunter-gatherer band structure. People often came and went with the formation or dissolution of mating relationships, a falling out with other members, or with the natural shifts of seasonal resources. Not everyone moved among groups, of course, but it happened. As long as you were fully and actively engaged in the band’s survival and community while you were there, it worked out for everyone.
This flux as well as the inherent risk of hunter-gatherer life meant no one could afford to put all his/her eggs in one basket. If a band had one person who made spearheads, they were pretty much screwed if that person up and left one day to marry the beauty in the next band over or if he got torn apart by a hungry predator. It was crucial that each individual know the skills of survival – hunting strategies, terrain familiarity, plant cataloging, shelter construction, weather reading, cooking, child rearing, etc. They knew it as necessity and embraced it as cultural value.
Enter the Neolithic Age, with its focus on settled life, stored supplies, and larger, denser communities, and you have the start of a whole new ball game. Suddenly they were feeding and protecting a pretty massive group of people (relatively speaking for their time). Human social structure needed roles it never did before. Enter specialization. As Matt Ridley writes in The Agile Gene, we’ve been in a spiral ever since – a continuing interdependent cycle “whereby specialization increases productivity, which increases prosperity, which allows technological invention, which further increases specialization.” Is the result progress? Yes and no – no and yes? Ridley quotes Robert Wright: “‘Human history involve[s] the playing of ever more numerous, ever larger and ever more elaborate non-zero-sum games.’” That’s one way to look at it.
Anthropologist Walter Goldschmidt suggests our shift from hunter-gatherer life and settlement in large communities has changed the way we fulfill our need for what he calls “affect hunger,” the genetically based instinct we have to seek and create connection with others. For adults, Goldschmidt suggests, this hunger plays out two ways – “by belonging and by performance.” The Neolithic Revolution and resulting specialization tipped the scale toward performance, he says. Our “peer group” is no longer our intimately known and reciprocally committed band members. It’s more our “occupational colleagues.” I enjoy and value my staff to be sure, but I don’t know how I feel about that idea….
Is all this a “zero sum game,” as Wright suggests? I don’t know about the sum totals themselves. On the one hand, I’m grateful for the innovation and variety that specialization has made possible. Yet, I also ponder what’s been lost.
The last two hundred years alone has ushered in mechanization and whole new layers of career specialization. We’re definitely rewarded these days for specializing – for finding (or creating) a niche so tight and rare – that we can soak it for all its worth. Sure, it’s good business practice – and for some lucky individuals their ultimate passion. I don’t begrudge people their innovation and right to earn a living the best way they know how. I do wonder if the larger cultural force, however, undermines something of individual well-being.
In the 19th Century, John Ruskin wrote about the difference between the traditional artisans who in part designed the structures they built and the “modern” masons whose job it was to lay bricks in the same uniform pattern. We’ve lost something of that autonomy – often on an individual basis and largely on a cultural level. Not to stand in the way of progress, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say something about it gives me pause.
It’s not just about our professional endeavors of course. Our ancestors and even grandparents practiced life skills and arts that are quickly going the way of specialization. For better and worse, we outsource many of the chores and talents that they did as routine. On the one hand, we can say it has freed us up to make other choices with our time. Except, I remember my older relatives having plenty of personal hobbies, and I’m not sure we really have (or at least recognize) much more free time than our grandparents did decades ago.
As for my own lifetime career picture, I’ve never designed and built a gothic church like Ruskin’s artisans, but I’ve had my share of variety. More than that, however, I’ve never felt hemmed in by my then-present job. Whatever I was doing for money at the time, I was always pursuing (by interest or flat-out necessity) other endeavors at home. I painted houses in my early days. I designed and made my own clothing for a while, made much of the furniture in my house at one point, acted as my own attorney (successfully), repaired my own cars, and built a restaurant (including the design and construction of a 60 foot salad bar that was refrigerated from underneath).
For me, everything I have done work-wise (or otherwise) has been a lesson in self-sufficiency as well as self-improvement. Although I occasionally cursed a few of the projects at the time, I love to look at my life now with the knowledge that there’s very little I couldn’t do if I really put my mind to it.
Sure, I also learned that I don’t love doing some of these things even though I can do them. It’s helped me prioritize my life and finances. Would I rather use my limited spare time building or fixing something as an expression of self-sufficiency or creativity? Sometimes. Or would I rather buy it or pay someone to fix it and then be in a position to use my time to play or do nothing simply because I now value that higher? Oftentimes, yes. That said, I’m not going to pay $9 for a mediocre serving of paleo jerky. I’m going to make it myself because, well, I like the result better and appreciate the fact I can do it for a fraction of the cost. Sometimes it’s about principle. Other times, it’s about simple preference. Good jerky, after all, is nothing to shake a stick at.
However, there are bigger themes here, I think. What does self-sufficiency mean to us? Although few of us would choose to make our lives alone in the wilderness, what about the pride and self confidence that comes with being able to do a whole mess of things – being a Jack or Jane of many trades or talents? Is that one of the (many) things that is leaving us feeling empty or unfulfilled in this age? How important is it to feel we can handle any situation life throws at us? A flat tire? A broken circuit or blown fuse or stopped toilet or downed Internet connection? A garden full of vegetables to be stored? A home full of children who need to be fed and clothed and cared for on a shoestring? A roof that needs replaced or a door that needs to be hung? How about a broken marriage, a lost job, an empty bank account? I’m wandering here, but I like the idea of an inner peace and calm that comes from being confident that we can handle anything and knowing that we are wired to be self-sufficient. As with many of CW’s messages, we can too often get caught up in the pattern that tells us we should just give in and specialize, be content and productive within set roles. Maybe it’s just the contrarian part of me coming out.
I guess in my world, this underscores the value of a true “liberal arts” and life education – which can start from formal education (e.g. college) but can also begin – and in either case – most richly unfolds within living itself, the design of one’s personal efforts, followed interests, and creative initiative. For my part, I’d say this. One fine day when I have my own grandchildren, I want to have a whole host of tricks up my sleeve – never ending activities, stories, and how-tos. If they want a treehouse, I like the fact I’ll have the knowhow – and the energy – to build it for them.
Thanks for reading today, everyone! Let me know what you think about specialization. When you look back on the things you’ve done in life (for money or love), what thoughts/lessons come to mind? How have certain jobs or hobbies changed you in ways only they could have?
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Posted By: Mark Sisson
I am someone who HAS to know how things work. I have a curiosity that makes me climb the walls if I don’t satisfy it. I am also a person who tries to be as self sufficient as I can. I do historical re-enactment with an emphasis on the everyday skills and the arts. I can do most forms of needlework and spinning and weaving. I can do most forms of hand woodworking. I do basic stonecarving and bone carving. I practice plant indentification and woodslore. My job training is in Instrumentation which involves electronics, mechanics and some programming. I also backpack and am working on skills to learn ocean kayaking. I have way too many hobbies-LOL
You and I have a lot in common – including the nearly insatiable intellectual curiosity and way too many hobbies! LOL Would we actually have it any other way if we could?
Not on your life. It’s way too much fun. Even when I have trouble getting to sleep when my brain won’t stop spinning out new ideas. Life hasn’t always worked in my favor, so I’m hoping to get back to university when my son is in school full time and finish up my bachelors.
I relate to this. I needed a new carborator for my Chevy Nova when I was 16. I didn’t have the money for it, but I did have the money for a book. I successfully rebuilt the carborator in 3 days. I hate everyone’s cooking, so I do it myself. No one hates my cooking when I cook for them. I have a pair of socks that need to be darned. I’m going to ask my stepmother to show me how to do it myself instead of asking her to do it. I’m not very good for bolstering the economy. Heinlein is a big influence on how I think though.
“I will any rules that you feel necessary to you freedom. I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tollerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.”
Robert A. Heinlein
This includes darning socks and rebuilding carborators.
Quote from ‘The Moon is a Harsh Mistress?’
Yes, it is! I had forgotten about it until recently because I had read the book so long ago. It effected me for years, but I, sadly, lost perspective. I read it again six months ago around the time I had started the Primal Blueprint. I posted it on my wall by my computer to remind me daily.
Self sufficiency directly threatens centralised totalitarian power structures, specialisation doesn’t. The specialist is always dependent on another to meet some of his or her basic needs. He’s a collectivist. The self sufficient person is an individualist.
Totalitarians have always cracked down on self sufficient people – normally the rural class in most societies. Think of China and Russia (under communist collectivism) collectivisation of farms – couldn’t have them peasants living independently of the government! Nope they had to take their land, get them to farm food and then have the government hand it back to them.
Interesting story about Zen Buddhism in China. When religious persecution of Buddhists started in China many hundreds of years ago, and the ruling class started destroying monasteries, only Zen Buddhism flourished – eventually becoming the dominant form of Buddhism in China.
Why? Because they were self sufficient. They grew their own food, knew how to fight, build etc. Doing all of those things mindfully was seen as the route to self development.
This specialisation, the world of the expert, who’s specialisation gives him a sense of omniscience when it actually blinkers him the more specialised it becomes. It’s an ugly thing.
I don’t think, personally, that a more effective washing machine created by a more specialised society is a worthwhile sacrifice for freedom.
I do agree with you that self sufficiency is a threat to at least some power structures – from macro to micro levels of society. I have personally experienced exactly the punishment meted out to those who are challenging the status quo.
However, I don’t agree that the situation is as black or white – either/or – as you seem (to me) to suggest. In fact, IMO, its “either/or” thinking that is the basis of the disconnect/compartmentalization that underlies the trend toward specialization.
I tend to think in terms of “both/and” – as I (hopefully) demonstrate in my own life.
Mark -
Haven’t finished reading the comments yet – but I just gotta stop and say – I couldn’t agree with you more, Mark!
Seems like some of us here are kindred spirits when it comes to the “self-sufficency” and/or “renaissance man/woman” thing.
In fact, I had been thinking that I need to change my nickname here to one that is a bit more descriptive and less muddled by the text font. I was thinking of using a nickname that a friend dubbed me with – but, hesitated because it can be mis-interpreted in a number of ways.
My friend called me a “rarebird” largely because of my dedication to blending/balancing both generalist and specialist aspects throughout my life. That’s a major life theme for me. So, “rarebird” it is!
I insisted on my children all learning to be self-sufficient in gender neutral ways. They all – boys and girls – can cook, sew, clean, garden, do basic car mechanics, balance a check book, maintain a personal computer, and much more.
As adults, what they choose to do with their time and money is their business – and of course they each have personal preferences. As they get older, I see them returning more and more to their roots, in this regard. My daughter is now teaching her children – my only grandchildren to date – self-sufficiency as well. Its grand fun for me to mentor them in their various interests.
I’ll share examples of how I balanced generalist and specialist themes in my professional life. Anyone with a mind to can do something similar in their own lives – in whatever ways they enjoy.
As an undergraduate, I chose to pursue an honor’s degree that allowed me to design my own curriculum. While I knew that I was headed toward a science career – and my degree was a B.S. – my overall program included as many courses from the humanities as possible.
I had a second major in history with an emphases on intellectual history, history of science, and to a lessor extent medical history. I continued my formal study of history during my graduate studies as well – when I also added a minor in statistics. I packed in as many courses as I could to give me a broad perspective on my developing career path.
I also added in as many independent research credits as possible – including choosing to engage in an honor’s thesis involving lab based research. I was a published researcher and a member of “by invitation” scientific societies/communities before I completed my bachelor’s degree.
One of my research interests was about as highly specialized as things get. My colleagues numbered on two hands – in obscure labs around the world. Collaboration and publication of findings began in personal email.
In the lab, I was largely dependent on self-sufficieny, and the ability to generalize.
First of all, I was conducting basic research in an area that was a cutting edge frontier. My hypotheses challenged the status quo in that domain. The results eventually contributed to a paradigm shift that had implications in the field at large. Without the context of a broader, generalist’s perspective, I would never have been able to succeed intellectually as a specialist.
On a mundane, day to day basis self-sufficiency was critical to the lab functioning. I calibrated the lab equipment based on formulas that I derived mathematically as well as my own physical sensory “equipment”. I built equipment that I couldn’t buy and programed the computers to collect and to process data in specific/unique ways. Beta tested quite a few software programs in the process, providing feedback to the programers – all while conducting the ongoing research.
Much of the lab work was lonely, boring work so during certain times I worked on various crafts that were portable to the lab. At home, I had an art studio that I spent time in as well as my garden.
Its important to balance activities – and the more intense, focused, and specialized one’s professional activities are, the more necessary it is that one’s “leisure” activities balance them. There is an entire body of research on this topic, btw.
For example, Einstein played a violin. Churchill painted landscapes. They especially engaged in these “leisure” activities during the most demanding parts of their careers.
Anyway, long winded here again….sorry about that. The “Muse Affect” I guess
.
rarebird – formerly rrustad
Mark: Many great and salient points in in your post. But, then you go of course by saying: “I like …knowing that we are wired to be self-sufficient…”
Why did you say that? As you know, the evidence is overwhelming that we are actually “wired” and/or genetically-tuned to be collaborative, interdependent and inter-reliant. To my knowledge there is ZERO evidence of solitary pure hunter-gathers. The very concept of human individuality is a neolithic product. Linguists have shown that, most ancestral languages did not differentiate between men (the plural) and man (the singular). There was just man (singular and plural). The primal mind did (does) not truly recognize individuality. The hermitic lifestyle (living as a 100% individual) is also a product of the neolithic age as it is nearly impossible to survive as an individual within the hunter-gatherer template.
This is an important issue in the primal/paleo movement of today. I personally am troubled by the seemingly high numbers of young ‘Neo-Individualist’ Primal/Paleo youngsters who, by some erroneous logic, seem to associate Primal/Paleo/Ancestral with the likes of Ayn Rand and Ron Paul.
Love you buddy. You are a healer and you are helping so many people. Cheers.
I took the wired for self-sufficiency to allude back to the Earlier mentioned hunter-gatherer need for a wide variety of survival skills to be held by all in the group. It’s not about the practice of living alone but the ability to fulfill all the basic survival functions within the band. You never know when most of the group could be decimated by starvation, disease, war, etc.
That’s how I took it too. Self sufficient is a separate concept from hermit
I mostly took the article that way, but I have to admit, a lot of these comments sound a lot like, “If the apocalypse happens, I can survive on my own and the rest of y’all are SCREWED!” Or a bit holier-than-thou because you knew how to change a tire when you were 16. Great.
It’s not about the actual act of being able to change a tire, Deanna. It’s the concept of learning to do things yourself instead of paying someone else to do it AND in preparation for a time when having someone else do it may not be an option. I don’t think most people here are being “holier-than-thou”, just trying to share the gospel of self-sufficiency. God bless . . .
About half the things on his list wouldn’t be possible without specialization. I sympathize with the message of enriching one’s life through means other than consumption, but to bash specialization on a blog, using computers, over the internet, all of which exist and function thanks to systems of systems of systems … of systems of specialized individuals working together is beyond ridiculous.
I do see the irony implicit in your comments
. However, I’m not sure that Mark is “bashing specialization” in toto. In my subjective perception, he is mostly pointing out the down side of specialization. As someone who has functioned as both a specialist and a generalist, I would agree with him.
Great post Mark!!
The Primal Blueprint touches on a lot more than simply diet, when comparing our modern day living to how paleolithic ancestors, but this post takes it one step further.
Our motivation to “specialize” has made us less able in more ways than I’d care to admit. You can’t ignore how specialization has helped move society forward in many ways, but for me, I admire the renaissance man/woman who is capable and accomplished in many skills.
Mark, I do believe you sound like a real socialist (and I mean that in a good way)! It reminds me a bit of the communal living I experienced on a kibbutz in Israel. Everyone held their own and did a bit of everything. I’m also grateful for the specialization that has brought us here today – especially for the development of arts, music, and all things beautiful. However, I don’t love the class stratification and hierarchies that go along with it. Nice food for thought.
After years in high tech, I am now an artist. I think the arts provide an outlet for the need to do something from start to finish. I come from a long line of jacks of all trades. I find that I am no longer interested in the do-it-yourself thing, but I really appreciate the people who can do the things I would rather pay for. My collection of business cards is a treasure house. And I have more time to do my thing–from start to finish.
Epic stuff, Mark. Well done.
I like the idea of an inner peace and calm that comes from being confident that we can handle anything and knowing that we are wired to be self-sufficient.
Wouldn’t that go along with the Primal Blueprint guideline that suggests we limit stress?
There are some things I do for myself and there are some things I leave for others. I am not very good at gardening, though I try my best every spring. This doesn’t stop me from taking out a share in a local CSA. It eliminates the stress of having to produce my own vegetables, enough to survive on for a full year. If my garden grows well, I have extra that I can store. If it doesn’t grow well, I don’t go hungry.
I leave the raising and butchering of my meat to people that are better at it than I. I don’t starve, and at the same time I have the freedom to pursue activities where I have far more success.
I think a good rule of thumb is, if you can perform the task well enough to make a living, it’s a specialization. If you can’t make a living doing that task, it’s a hobby. I like woodworking and have built furniture and other things out of wood, but I’m no carpenter. I like gardening, but I’m no farmer. I can sew, knit, and cook, but I am not a tailor or chef. When I do these things, I do them because I enjoy them or because the tasks are small enough that is easier to do them on my own than to hire a professional, not because my survival depends on them. So they are stress relief, in which case they do help contribute to my survival, but not so much in the way they did for our ancestors.
Mark:
I love this post. I’ve just come from Twitter, where I my eyes glossed over what must have been the millionth link I’ve seen to a post about FINDING YOUR PASSION.
It occurred to me to tweet that the world has enough tweets and posts about this boring-already cliche. The message seems to be that once you find your passion, all will be fine, and everything will flow from there. Sounds good, but how can it be that simple? And what’s a “passion” anyway?
Mihalyi’s Czikszentmihaly’s decades of research demonstrates the opposite. We humans love learning new things and stretching ourselves. That’s how we find flow, happiness, and meaning in life.
We can’t very well do those things, it seems to me, by chasing a singular passion.
Great post!
Susan
Happy to see that this post brought Czikszentmihaly to mind for someone besides me
. I basically agree with what you are saying. However, consider this possiblity – “chasing a singular (implies left brain, sequential reasoning) passion” in such as way as draws on a holistic, right brain simultaneous/contextual reasoning.
IMO, and in my experience, it CAN be done. That’s what the corpus callosum supports.
In fact, to place this notion in the context of hunter/gatherer “theory” – women tend to have a more highly developed corpus callosum.
Caveat – the following is a simplification and no one suggests that there were no exceptions to the general rule…..
One hypothesis is that women evolved to have a more complex corpus callosum due to their roles in hunter/gatherer society emphasizing generalization over specialization. Male roles tended to emphasize specialization. Women’s roles as generalists supported the male specialization roles and vice versa.
One basis for this hypothesis is biology – and survival of the species. Women bore and nursed the offspring. Their hormonal systems were geared toward nurture and cooperation. Male hormonal systems were in relation to men being larger, stronger, more impervious to pain…in other words great hunters/warriors while women were great gatherers/organizers.
Some tribal societies that we can study in the historical records demonstrate this organization. For example, the Cherokee Nation. Women were highly regarded within the clan as leaders, organizers, communicators – and were often peace chiefs. The early European settlers refused to do business with a woman so Cherokee men were forced to assume the roles normally held by women in order to communicate with the European males.
I am seeing a perfect example of this right now. My Mom was a librarian all her life. She was an incredible one, and went all over fixing up libraries that were disasters. But that was what she did. Now, she is old and has absolutely no hobbies or interests. She is in a care center and just sits there. She won’t go to the million activities there because she doesn’t like games, everything is boring, etc. The lady next to her, much older and really probably on her last leg, is cheerful, has hobbies all over her half of the room, is willing to teach them to people, does crossword puzzles, jigsaw puzzles, word games, and goes all over the facility in her wheelchair. We take our crafts to show her and she’s all excited. But my Mom won’t try new things — she never got in the habit of it. She didn’t have friends and doesn’t want to meet people. I’d like to think if I can’t work with horses or sheep or goats, I’d still have a million things I could do. Gives one pause. I think specializing is great. I can go from sheep to sweater, wild horse to trained horse (specialities), but I can cook, sew, clean, repair, paint, grow things, etc. and take care of myself in general (well, electrical and plymbing might be issues)! Yep, Heinlein said a lot of really good stuff! Be fun to see how much stuff in the quote we could come close too:-)
I know elderly women – and men – like that, too. Does not bode well for their health.
Their entire self-image is invested in their occupations. Like Mark mentioned, colleagues become our family/significant others. Makes retirement very difficult for these people. It often comes as a shock to discover that we ARE replaceable and the world DOES continue on without us and how soon we are forgotten by former co-workers. Depression, suicide, major health issues/crises, return to full time work…..
For me, retirement was a chance to make my former vocation into an avocation and to place hobbies/avocations higher up on my activities list. Same interests just with a reversal of emphasis – and not tied to any major commitments. Freedom!
By becoming primal aren’t we taking the responsibility of our health out of the ‘specialized doctors’ hands?
I’m much more thoughtful about what I eat, how I exercise, sleep. I no longer look at the cooking, pickling, canning and gardening skills I learned from my mother and grandmothers as obsolete (although some ingredients may differ).
And while others look at our constant remodeling (20+years) of our home as too hard and not worth doing themselves, my husband and I get great satisfaction from hearing how professional it looks. (I design and then we figure how to implement.) Except for a structural engineer check, we do it all by ourselves and it sure beats sitting around drinking and eating ourselves into the grave like so many of our peers.
We are sooo much healthier for it, mentally and physically while entering our mid sixties. Never stop learning, never stop trying!
While others at our age (60+) just drive around in their motorhomes, eating, drinking and sitting, my husband and I hike, kayak and would love to get back into sailing. Yes, it is wonderful to “see America” but I want to experience it too!
Sounds like first world problems to me. My grandfather built his house from the ground up, grew all his food, grew cotton, turned the cotton into string, and used a loom to make fabric and his bedding. He’s 92 and still has muscle definition in his arms and legs under his sagging skin. I would say the majority of the citizens in developing countries that primarily live off of the land can and must know a variety of different ways to survive.
this. I work with ladies in rural villages who regularly kick my ass.
Matt Ridley in his book “The Rational Optimist” says that self-sufficiency has always been equated with poverty. If the economy tanks, we naturally revert to self-sufficiency as a fallback position but the impact on individual wealth is huge. It is simply impossible to imagine modern life as we know it and be self-sufficient. I’m not saying I like it – self-sufficiency sounds so much better than dependent. But perhaps our genetics have not yet completely caught up to our economic genome. Which reminds me – I’ve been meaning to read Freud’s “Civilization and Its Discontents”!
I think that’s all so very true. Everyone needs to have a variety of skills. I know people who wouldn’t live 1/2 a day in the wild. Or fix the dishwasher for that matter. Men and women both, need to know a variety of things to make life better for themselves, and the world in general.
Dan Ariely in his book “The Upside of Irrationality” discusses sociological experiments that demonstrate how and why humans are far more satisfied when they have a hand in the entire process of something, rather than specializing in one part. It’s true for me, for sure. Doing something from scratch–whether it’s mastering a sport climb, cooking and home canning, making fabric with batik techniques and then sewing stuff out of it, home improvement and construction, training to improve my race times in the pool, raising a child to adulthood, designing a positive learning environment in my classroom and more–it’s all about the process. There’s so much satisfaction in learning and creating–sometimes with collaboration from others and sometimes as solitary pursuits. It’s what I love about being middle-aged: At almost 50, I notice how my many past hobbies, pursuits and projects merge and parallel, the skills acquired from the earlier pursuits being borrowed and built upon to develop or enhance new skills. It’s great to feel accomplished and have that to share, which is I think what Mark’s saying when he talks about how it will be with grandchildren someday. Sometimes I look around my house at all the accoutrements of my hobbies, interests and sports and it’s a little overwhelming–I like so many different things and there’s never time to enjoy them all on the level I’d like to. I wander back and forth, returning to my buried bin of yarn to take on a knitting project or seting aside the drill and route-setting plans to train for a big wall climb. I’m always zig zagging like that, never focusing on one thing entirely. But it keeps things interesting.
“Sometimes I look around my house at all the accoutrements of my hobbies, interests and sports and it’s a little overwhelming–I like so many different things and there’s never time to enjoy them all on the level I’d like to.”
This is how it is for me! I feel overwhelmed. Right now, I have a 7, 5 and 1 year old, so I am practicing patience instead of one of the many things I’d like to learn. And having a family does give me incentive to learn more about cooking, which I’ve come to enjoy more and more. I just wish I had more time for planning and preparing meals!
I don’t think I did much of anything other than cook and clean and haul my daughter around in the bike trailer when she was little–and we only had the one! She’s about to turn 19, off at college now. So I AM relishing my (relative) freedom, as much as I miss her. You have your hands full; it’ll get easier
Very thought-provoking post! When I chose to major in Liberal Arts (History) in college I knew it would mean I would need to go to graduate school. My Masters degree in Business meant I could go on to support myself very well. (a form of specialization) But the broader education I received has helped me tremendously both in my career and in my current endeavors. I would agree with some of the other commenters that being a well-rounded person is something to strive for. But there is also a place and strong need in society for “specialists”.
I personally find that developing my “specialist” aspect as well as my “generalist” aspect is what made me a well rounded person in today’s world.
My natural tendency – first love if you will – is generalizing. I had to work harder at the specialist part. And, the specialist part was always within the context of the generalist or I did find myself losing balance/wellness.
Maybe some other people would find it more natural the other way around, specializing easier than generalizing. Which takes us to Jung’s theory about the personality having weaker aspects that need to be developed so that individuation could take place as a person matured. Jung was a keen anthropologist, btw.
My dad, though a medical specialist, abhorred specialists in life. Thanks to him, while I was at home and self-teaching after I left home, I can:
Hunt with a firearm, bow and arrow, or a piece of string. I can fish using a pole or net. I can start a fire using several methods. I’ve used a home-made slingshot to kill rabbits.
I’ve never actually built a bow but I know how it’s done. I do reload my own ammunition. I built a knife from a file I stole from Dad. I know how to lash a pack to a horse with one piece of rope.
I can cook using a skillet, a stick, or a piece of string. I know how to break a horse or train a dog to carry a pack. I know how to butcher a deer, a steer, or a bucketful of quail. I make pemmican almost year ’round.
I can weld, build a barbed-wire fence, and have used a variety of traps for catching small animals. I’m even enough of a carpenter to have built a quite nice small building and I did the electrical wiring and plumbing also.
I can chop a tree down with a double-bit axe or chainsaw and have it fall where I wish. I know how to sharpen that axe or my knives to the point I can literally shave with them.
I brag about all this stuff for a reason: I am amazed at the number of people that cannot do anything. The sum of their life knowledge is the shortest route to the office, how long it takes to get to the nearest Starbucks, and what an actor wore to the Oscars.
Good for you! Hope you said “thanks” to Dad.
I know PhD’s who can’t boil water (the majority) and other PhD’s who are gourmet cooks (the rare minority).
There is a term – and a body of research (naturally!) on this topic. Key term – “protracted adolescence”. The younger generations are married less often, later in life – same for child bearing – have a restricted range of life skills – and maintain their adolescent interests later into life.
Increasingly, women are choosing a career over marriage. Increasingly, children are being raised on fast food, one of my votes for causes for the obesity epidemic. They have NO idea what real food tastes like let alone where it comes from – or how to expend energy procuring it for themselves.
If I wanted to stress myself out over the future of society, not to mention the planet as a whole, it would be real easy to do. Just not going there.
Maybe it’s the circles I travel in, but the young people I hang out with (OK, they are mostly climbers) are very much into the jack of all trades thing. They are versatile in their skills. What has really surprised me is how much they value some of the traditional skills of mine, like sewing and canning. Coming of age in the 70s and 80s, these things were seen in a negative light as homemaker activities–women were supposed to pursue careers and use their brains. I did that, too, but I always saw usefulness in those “housewifey” pursuits and even more importantly–I liked them. So what’s cool is how much my younger climbing buddies and my teenaged daughter and her peers appreciate the sewing etc. yeah the stuff can be purchased for less at WalMart, but they want to know how to make it.
Thank you for this perspective. You are so right!
I was just asking myself how I got into such a funk today – and reminding myself about how I used to go on about “dying and lost arts” when I was coming of age in the ’60′s and ’70′s. Now, I laugh about how some of these skills are experiencing a rebirth – so I was worried over nothing.
Knitting and similar ‘needle/fiber arts” are very popular pastimes with some young people – just do an Internet search sometime and see how even knitting socks has a following. it may be a hobby not a necessity but those socks will still keep feet warm.
Canning and otherwise preserving food has had a huge upsurge in interest in the last few years. Same for sewing. Even cloth diapers have become fashionable in some circles – including special types of hand sewn covers/pants. Probably can thank the poor economy for that in part – but only part.
I have had a few young – and not so young – people ask me to teach them to do various things lately. I am considering starting classes again like I did many years ago.
I just get kinda bummed out sometimes. But, I won’t get myself into a funk again. There are positives to focus on and that’s why I came here to this blog in the first place.
I love Heinlein. His books will really make you think. Stretching the mind is always good. To the point….one of the things that really stretched my abilities was buying a house when I was a young divorced mother. I learned how to do everything but electrical stuff. There are some things I don’t want to do anymore but I do know how.
There is a lot of reward that comes with self sufficiency. Its unfortunate that many born to in more privileged settings never get to dive into doing it for yourself. To me, if there was a choice, I would choose to live the life that provides me the chances to learn & grow more as those experiences are the backbone of your life. The more you experience, then, one can argue, the more you truly live.
Well, maybe no one will agree with me, but I think Mark’s post (while articulate and thought provoking, as always) is goofy. Nothing in life is self-sufficient. The language we speak, the ideas we have (including the idea of “self-sufficiency”), the way we sit and move, how we experience pleasures and pain, what we consider normal or abnormal, are all products of culture and history.
Grok had culture too. No doubt his culture had advantages and disadvantages compared to others, but it was culture all the same. There is nothing “natural” about tanning hides, farming, running long distances, lifting heavy things, etc. They are things that some cultures consider important and others don’t consider at all.
Self-sufficiency is a fundamentally bizarre idea in any case. Any infant human left alone will die; we are completely un-self-sufficient beings, and we receive culture from the moment we are born, thank goodness. I think we should embrace interdependence and strengthen it, not pretend that there is some imaginary “self-sufficient individual” beneath culture, history, and the division of labor.
bizarre comment “any infant left alone will die” from that you extrapolate that adults can’t be self sufficient. Also postulating that because we are part of a culture or society that this somehow means we can’t have the ability to provide for ourselves. Self sufficiency isn’t an imaginary state, it is an admirable goal.
Not understanding the crux of your point here. Of course we evolved to cooperate and be part of a group. Mark said exactly that. The ability of a person to perform any needed function in the band society to both contribute to the group and to ensure his/her own survival should he/she leave the group or be separated from the group for some reason makes complete evolutionary sense. Specializing to the point that we have no ability to support ourselves or contribute to the basic survival needs of the group doesn’t make evolutionary sense.
I think there’s a difference between basic life skills and work specialization. I’m keen on bridges built by engineers and medicine and dentistry by trained doctors… and so on.
I’d rather spend my time doing research that improves the human race than in simply maintining my own organism, which is what a lot of these almost ‘survivalist’ skills entail.
‘The simple life’ is not that simple all of these activities take time, effort and skills. Ultimately it’s about balance. I’ve already spent a big chunk of my life on this stuff – that’s what stay-at-home mothers do. We are cooks, cleaners, educators, artists, drivers, planners, communicators, menders of broken computers and broken hearts. Now I’d like to spend some time doing other stuff.
Exactly, Helen. But the difference is you know how to do it all! I’m in the same boat (also stay at home right now). Can’t wait to have more time to devote to my chosen profession. Nonetheless, I’ll go back to it a more well-rounded, wiser person!
I totally agree with you. I just did it backward: I spent a ton of time in college focusing on my craft so that I could have a successful career in my chosen field. Now I’m in, I’m working my way up, and I’m taking on other interests: cooking, working out, reading, etc. Kids will come along the way, eventually.
Helen, I agree with you.
Of course agriculture, the industrial revolution, and other shifts in human existence have their down side. Big time. I’d prefer to learn the lessons from the past – including all about our ancestors and the hunter/gatherer lifestyle, and most importantly how our bodies work based on our evolution. I’d not care to return to the past – but to continue to evolve and to correct the mistakes made to this point. Technology has gotten us into some ugly messes, but I believe that technology can also get us out of them if we care to use it that way. I guess only time will tell.
Very much so, rarebird – it’s about learning and applying those lessons. Figuring out how to get the good stuff and leave out the bad.
When I was young and wanted something done that was physically hard or took specialized knowledge, I was told I had to wait for one of the men in my family to do it. It really torqued my screws to be helpless and at the mercy of others. So, I joined the Navy as an electrician. I wasn’t really good at it, but I learned some skills to care for my own needs.
I had a water line in my house break and refused to call a plumber to fix such a simple thing. I went to the nice man at the hardware store and asked for instruction.
The wind did damage to my roof, so I fixed it.
I can change my car oil and flat tires. I can garden and even designed and built a successful hydroponics setup.
I believe that if I don’t know how to do something the first time, I can find someone to show me how it’s done.
I believe capable, competent people are the most valuable resource America possesses and that raising helpless children should be illegal. Give yourself every advantage you can by learning all you can.
+1 very well said “capable, competent people are a valuable resource”
+2: raising helpless children should be illegal!!
“When I was young and wanted something done that was physically hard or took specialized knowledge, I was told I had to wait for one of the men in my family to do it. It really torqued my screws to be helpless and at the mercy of others.”
LOL! Yep! On a larger scale that’s what “torques my screws” today – knowing that the majority of the population is dependent on such a small percentage that produce the food supply. The loss of the family farm to Big AgriBusiness makes me feel helpless sometimes.
The greatest gift we gave our kids wasnraising them in the country. They learnt about providing our own water, dealing with livestock, fencing, and fixing a host of little things that need attention on a farm. Practical skills and common sense are taught, and as parents we have an obligation to eqip our children with skills they need to live independent lives.
I also feel that out current world of ridiculus consumption has been part of the fuel of discontent felt by so many people. It’s true here in Australia that there is a generation of young people now who would list their favorite past time as shopping, which is kinda sad.
Cheers
It seems normal to me to be interested in and able to do a wide range of things. I grow a lot of my own food, make all my own clothes, homeschooled two kids; I spin, knit, and weave; I’m a fine artist, and I draw as well as photograph. I’m a good enough cook to work as a caterer from time to time. I’ve made money as a writer and an editor, and as a teacher. I’ve memorized a lot of songs and jokes, so I’m an entertainer of sorts. When I’m in a group of new people, and these abilities emerge, I’m surprised that other people are surprised. They say, “Is there anything you CAN’T do?” Of course! I don’t play tennis or basketball, and I’ve never shot a deer (although once I shot a dove, and I’ve butchered domestic animals). But it seems that most people do one or two things only. This seems really weird to me. Aren’t they bored? Also, why are they surprised I know how to do a lot of things? I’m almost 60 years old! What else would I be doing besides learning new things all this time?
like!
Yep. I’ve had the same experience with the reactions of others. And, my feelings about it are like yours. Exactly.
IIRC that quote comes from Time Enough For Love. The Lives, Loves of Lazarus Long
Wow, I never disagreed so much in my life, and I’m honestly surprised by how many people here have jumped on the bandwagon. I always hated all the extra garbage I had to learn when I wanted to spend time immersing myself in my craft. I was surrounded by friends who thought the same way. There is nothing less satisfying than being mediocre at everything and a master of nothing.
Don’t get me wrong, I know how to cook. Nobody really taught me, I just figured it out on my own and now my dad and I exchange ideas. I’ll pick up a sport here or there if I’m interested, but who cares if I don’t know all the rules of baseball or football?
My brother has a particularly smart friend who had a plumbing problem. He tried to fix it on his own by reading up on it. He failed and ended up calling a plumber. His dad said, “You thought that since you were so smart, you could figure out how to do it on your own, right? And then you figured out why there are people who get paid to do this.”
Yeah, I suppose it’s nice to be able to to everything, but it’s insulting to the person who put in all that time and effort to think you could do it as well as the person who specialized.
If we didn’t have specialization, we wouldn’t have art and sports and culture. Think about how much training goes into making the football players we watch every Sunday with our primal treats laid out on the table. How much training goes into those actors, actresses, dancers, and musicians on Broadway and in Hollywood so we can be entertained either live or on TV. Without specialization, there is none of that.
While I understand the effort, one of the worst ways someone can converse with me is by saying, “Oh, yeah, I played clarinet when I was in high school.” Yeah, good for you. You don’t have a clue what it takes to be a professional.
Okay, and now that my blood is done boiling, I do agree that adults and kids need hobbies and interests. I think adults should be able to take care of their home. But some people have taken this to a post-apocalyptic level, and I think that’s excessive. I’m a primal girl living in a modern world, not a primal girl wishing she were living in prehistoric times!
I sympathize with your view a great deal — specialization gives us lots of important stuff that improves our quality of life. After all, if we were literally living like Grok? We’d be getting picked off by predators and our kids wouldn’t survive nearly as often as they do now.
I am a reasonably smart person and I will sometimes try to fix things myself. However, I don’t think that because I’m “so smart” I can fix it, usually it’s more I think that I can try and maybe learn something new, and if I screw up, I’ll just call somebody. I replastered the ceiling in my bathroom after some research — if I’d failed, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. When my car needs a new muffler, though? I’ll pay somebody else.
Well said Deanna. I think there are quite a few people agreeing (though perhaps less vehemently) that specialization is useful, while we do need to be able to manage some basic life skills.
I think part of the problem is that modern life is so complicated. The technology that makes our lives comfortable doesn’t lend itself well to ‘DIY’ as your brother discovered! I’d suggest that this does in fact apply to hunter-gatherer societies too, with many, many hours spent learning to track, hunt, identify plants and so on.
I did learn clarinet in college, so I have some slight inkling of what it takes to be a professional – there’s a good reason that I’m not one! I don’t have the capacity for such single-minded dedication. I’m very much a ‘jack of all trades’ and it does have a huge downside in that one really is a ‘master of none’.
Helen,
You are likely right about there being specialization among hunter/gatherer societies. There are many hypothesis about this period -”pre-historical” means that we have no written record so there is only speculation about and various interpretations of the evidence that we do have.
Some hypotheses do suggest various types of specialization. I think that its possible that some members of the clan had specific “professional” level skills while the rest of the clan had an “amateurs’s” version of those same skills.
Redundancy, as Mark suggested, does have survival value. If the clan “expert” were to leave the clan or die, etc one of the more talented amateurs might be pressed into service and thus develop finer skills.
Every year I try to learn something new (or revisit old skills). If you’ve got time and a little money, take a Wilderness First Aid class. Hands down, the most intensely useful set of information I’ve gotten in a weekend, ever.