Specialists versus generalists

Design is a specialisation, but viewing it properly requires going back a couple of centuries

A  human being, wrote sci-fi writer Robert A Heinlein, should be able to fight, write poetry and die gallantly, among 18 other things. Specialisation, he famously said, is for insects. This is typical of the scorn for specialisation shown by humanists. They romance generalism, specialisation’s antithetical shadow, extolling its unbounded roaming, its quest for wisdom, universality, and a life better lived. Specialisation argues back, albeit a touch defensively, stressing its efficacy and focus. 

Neither side is vanquished in the argument, in much of which the sides talk past each other. Further, the labels are relative, and overlap and/or interlock. 

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