Greetings good citizen, I have pointed to 'specialization' several times recently and I just wanted to 'drive home' WHY this is IMPORTANT.
IF 'you' were forced to do EVERYTHING yourself, there would be a long list of things you'd NEVER be able to do, not for lack of will but the inability to see what you were doing!
It takes YEARS of STUDY (nevermind practice) to become a 'competent surgeon' but performing surgery on yourself...and if we hadn't 'specialized' NOBODY would have had the time to write what they knew about anatomy or procedure down. So you wouldn't have anything to study!
If you DID have notes to look at it would be because you were the progeny of someone that took the time to leave that information behind.
Worse, if we had to be our own physician most of us would have died in childhood of relatively easy to cure diseases. As recently as a hundred years ago the leading cause of death was diarrhea!
But wait, that was the 'low hanging fruit'. What you can produce for yourself is governed by where you live! If you don't live in the right climate caffeine is a non-starter! If you live closer to the polar regions, your 'growing season is significantly abbreviated and you really can't tolerate 'crop failure' because the time between harvests increases!
So let's take another look at the 'rugged individualist' who really doesn't do very much for themselves at all.
Those who take pride in being 'self-made' really just lack 'humility'...they commit that most grievous of human crimes, the failure to appreciate the efforts of others.
[This is why the exiled are stripped of everything 'man-made' and turned loose into the wilderness in just what they were wearing when they arrived. People who do not APPRECIATE the efforts of others (and thereby refuse to live by the rules) DON'T DESERVE THEM!]
Not only is the 'rugged individual' a MYTH but it exemplifies the very pinnacle of hubris and conceit.
Imagine what your typical day would look like if your circumstances forced you to survive like Robinson Caruso?
Your crusty eyes crack open at daybreak. Your mind rebels, it's too early, let me go back to sleep BUT your full bladder says nothing doing Bub, wakey, wakey! Then you 'remember'. You're not in your clean comfortable bed, you went to sleep in a pile of leaves last night because there isn't any bedding material here...and the hard ground also sucks the heat out of your body, causing you to wake up shivering in the middle of the night.
You want to wash your face but first things first...and in order to wash you need to drag water back to you hidey hole and your bladder is telling you NONE OF THAT is going to happen before you drain it!
So you amble over to the edge of your 'camp' and let loose. History has taught you NOT to pee too close to the camp site, doesnt' matter if it's yours, it still STINKS.
Now it's time to get something to drink, you rubbed the crust away from your scratchy eyes and washing has taken a backseat to thirst.
It's been dry for the better part of a week so all your water caches are gone. Now you have to hunt down another water source because the nearest 'running water' is a couple of miles walk from the camp.
Water attracts both predators and prey so you ruled out camping close to the water source because you had to sleep sometime.
You wisely decided to make camp a good distance away because of what might happen if a 'minor predator' caught you asleep.
So you resolve to make the 'long walk' but you intend to bring some back with you to save footsteps, besides, you can't hunt AND haul water, it's just too awkward. [After you get the water back to camp you HAVE TO go hunting, you haven't eaten anything 'substantial' for days now either.]
You make a mental note that droughts suck and head off towards the river.
You get a quarter mile from the camp before you remember you were going to bring your bucket with you to save a repeat trip tomorrow...so you turn around and go back.
On your way back to the camp you swing by your 'field' and note some of your plants are wilted. There is no way you can haul enough water to revive them and you note once again that droughts suck. If it doesn't rain soon it's going to be a pretty meager harvest but there isn't much you can do about it.
You pick up the pace as daylight is wasting and you still have to go hunting (or at the very least, fishing...neither of which comforts you because you're DAMN hungry and trying NOT to think about it!) The quicker you get back with the water, the quicker you can go hunting (because you suddenly remember you lost your tackle on the last fishing trip and don't have time to MAKE more.)
Thinking about making fishing line reminds you your 'clothes' (such as they are) need repairs and you don't have any sewing materials. You mentally beat yourself up for letting your 'weaving' slide because you go through a ton of that stuff! (partly because you suck at making it and partly because GOOD weaving material is a real bitch to find! Time is the one thing there is never enough of!)
Not for the last time do you lament not having a squaw to help out with this growing mountain of 'sit down work'.
But he's also not in a position to take on more mouths to feed.
We end our 'slice of life' story there, with the realization by our central character that he'd be better off with someone to share the burden with.
Far too many fail to appreciate the level of hardship they are spared because others 'take up the slack' in the supply chain.
Without the 'specialization' money allows life would be very primitive indeed!
The puzzle remains, why do we allow a few to use money as a noose when we should be making these miscreants do their own 'dirty work'?
Is it because the ones with the guns decided it was easier to take it than to make it?
Yachtzee! Right in one!
Well, nothin' from nuthin' leaves NOTHIN!
If those of us who CAN refuse to do it for the clueless, where does that leave THEM?
They play a VERY dangerous game and come the 5th [of July], they are about to receive a 'wake up call'.
Few appreciate just how fragile the supply chain is, especially the criminals that consistently fail to appreciate the efforts of others...
Those who get things where they need to be, when they need to be there hold the future of our civilization in their hands.
Enough said.
Thanks once again for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
IF 'you' were forced to do EVERYTHING yourself, there would be a long list of things you'd NEVER be able to do, not for lack of will but the inability to see what you were doing!
It takes YEARS of STUDY (nevermind practice) to become a 'competent surgeon' but performing surgery on yourself...and if we hadn't 'specialized' NOBODY would have had the time to write what they knew about anatomy or procedure down. So you wouldn't have anything to study!
If you DID have notes to look at it would be because you were the progeny of someone that took the time to leave that information behind.
Worse, if we had to be our own physician most of us would have died in childhood of relatively easy to cure diseases. As recently as a hundred years ago the leading cause of death was diarrhea!
But wait, that was the 'low hanging fruit'. What you can produce for yourself is governed by where you live! If you don't live in the right climate caffeine is a non-starter! If you live closer to the polar regions, your 'growing season is significantly abbreviated and you really can't tolerate 'crop failure' because the time between harvests increases!
So let's take another look at the 'rugged individualist' who really doesn't do very much for themselves at all.
Those who take pride in being 'self-made' really just lack 'humility'...they commit that most grievous of human crimes, the failure to appreciate the efforts of others.
[This is why the exiled are stripped of everything 'man-made' and turned loose into the wilderness in just what they were wearing when they arrived. People who do not APPRECIATE the efforts of others (and thereby refuse to live by the rules) DON'T DESERVE THEM!]
Not only is the 'rugged individual' a MYTH but it exemplifies the very pinnacle of hubris and conceit.
Imagine what your typical day would look like if your circumstances forced you to survive like Robinson Caruso?
Your crusty eyes crack open at daybreak. Your mind rebels, it's too early, let me go back to sleep BUT your full bladder says nothing doing Bub, wakey, wakey! Then you 'remember'. You're not in your clean comfortable bed, you went to sleep in a pile of leaves last night because there isn't any bedding material here...and the hard ground also sucks the heat out of your body, causing you to wake up shivering in the middle of the night.
You want to wash your face but first things first...and in order to wash you need to drag water back to you hidey hole and your bladder is telling you NONE OF THAT is going to happen before you drain it!
So you amble over to the edge of your 'camp' and let loose. History has taught you NOT to pee too close to the camp site, doesnt' matter if it's yours, it still STINKS.
Now it's time to get something to drink, you rubbed the crust away from your scratchy eyes and washing has taken a backseat to thirst.
It's been dry for the better part of a week so all your water caches are gone. Now you have to hunt down another water source because the nearest 'running water' is a couple of miles walk from the camp.
Water attracts both predators and prey so you ruled out camping close to the water source because you had to sleep sometime.
You wisely decided to make camp a good distance away because of what might happen if a 'minor predator' caught you asleep.
So you resolve to make the 'long walk' but you intend to bring some back with you to save footsteps, besides, you can't hunt AND haul water, it's just too awkward. [After you get the water back to camp you HAVE TO go hunting, you haven't eaten anything 'substantial' for days now either.]
You make a mental note that droughts suck and head off towards the river.
You get a quarter mile from the camp before you remember you were going to bring your bucket with you to save a repeat trip tomorrow...so you turn around and go back.
On your way back to the camp you swing by your 'field' and note some of your plants are wilted. There is no way you can haul enough water to revive them and you note once again that droughts suck. If it doesn't rain soon it's going to be a pretty meager harvest but there isn't much you can do about it.
You pick up the pace as daylight is wasting and you still have to go hunting (or at the very least, fishing...neither of which comforts you because you're DAMN hungry and trying NOT to think about it!) The quicker you get back with the water, the quicker you can go hunting (because you suddenly remember you lost your tackle on the last fishing trip and don't have time to MAKE more.)
Thinking about making fishing line reminds you your 'clothes' (such as they are) need repairs and you don't have any sewing materials. You mentally beat yourself up for letting your 'weaving' slide because you go through a ton of that stuff! (partly because you suck at making it and partly because GOOD weaving material is a real bitch to find! Time is the one thing there is never enough of!)
Not for the last time do you lament not having a squaw to help out with this growing mountain of 'sit down work'.
But he's also not in a position to take on more mouths to feed.
We end our 'slice of life' story there, with the realization by our central character that he'd be better off with someone to share the burden with.
Far too many fail to appreciate the level of hardship they are spared because others 'take up the slack' in the supply chain.
Without the 'specialization' money allows life would be very primitive indeed!
The puzzle remains, why do we allow a few to use money as a noose when we should be making these miscreants do their own 'dirty work'?
Is it because the ones with the guns decided it was easier to take it than to make it?
Yachtzee! Right in one!
Well, nothin' from nuthin' leaves NOTHIN!
If those of us who CAN refuse to do it for the clueless, where does that leave THEM?
They play a VERY dangerous game and come the 5th [of July], they are about to receive a 'wake up call'.
Few appreciate just how fragile the supply chain is, especially the criminals that consistently fail to appreciate the efforts of others...
Those who get things where they need to be, when they need to be there hold the future of our civilization in their hands.
Enough said.
Thanks once again for letting me inside your head,
Gegner
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