Robert A. Heinlein wrote:

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.

21 things, of which:

I love this list. Heinlein sentences:

Specialization is for insects.

Along the same lines, polymath Buckminster Fuller wrote—I’m paraphrasing:

Specialization precludes comprehensive thinking, harms man’s adaptive capacities, and makes us weaker.

The Renaissance Man are the ideals set out by the Da Vincis and Franklins: people driven by insaciable curiosity, willing to explore every corner of knowledge and to build a hollistic view of this world that allows them to see through it.

More recently Tim Ferris writes about the perks of being a generalist:

Generalists are efficient learners
they get to run the show,
never get bored,
they develop strong self-confidence and
have generally more fun.

There has never been a better time to be a generalist…

And yet…

Mastery

There’s something about being pulled in many different directions. Scattered mind, never really diving deep into any topic, only reaching a superficial understanding.

Excellence and mastery calls us.

Mastery requires the strength to ignore the siren songs.

Mastery requires the commitment to press on, despite the plateau.

Mastery rewards you with a deeper sense of achievement.

Where generalists develop inner confidence, specialists cultivate deep humility. They are more aware of their limits than of their progress.

Balance

Maybe we’re living in a time where we don’t need to choose between depth and breadth. At least that’s what they think at Valve, the videogame company. Their Employee Handbook – of all places – may be the most resonant proposition of what to expect from a 21st century educated human being.

We value “T-shaped” people.

That is, people who are both generalists (highly skilled at a broad set of valuable things – the top of the T) and also experts (among the best in their field within a narrow discipline – the vertical leg of the T).

A T-shaped person is what I'd like to become: to enjoy the excitement of exploration while I develop a deep expertise in something… if only I could choose where to rest my leg and start digging!

But I live in a paradox of choice.
Too many interesting problems.
And not enough courage.
Existential FOMO.

Purpose Deficit Disorder.

Finding Inspiration

When I look for references, I think of Donald Knuth.

At the beginning of his career, Knuth realised computer science was

a totally new field with no real identity. And the standard of available publications was not that high. A lot of the papers coming out were quite simply wrong. So one of my motivations was to put straight a story that had been very badly told.

Knuth addressed the problem by writing The Art of Computer Programming, the seminal work of computer science, the constitutional text of the field, the ultimate nerd’s Bible.

The story of the writing of the book is even more illuminating than the book itself.

Knuth started writing it in 1962. He is still working on it.
The elegance of the content and the attention to detail is unparalleled. Knuth will send a 2.56$ check (an hexadecimal dollar) to anyone who finds a mistake in his books.

The book production spanned so many years that Knuth became a direct witness of the evolution of the typesetting technology. At a certain point, frustrated by quality of existing methods, he decided to develop his own digital typesetting framework, TeX.

And if you are creating a digital typesetting system, why not go on and design your own font? Knuth created Computer Modern to bring the look of classic mathematical works printed in metal types into the digital era.

And if you are designing your own font, why not generalize the solution and create a font definition language? And Knuth created METAFONT.

And because TeX and METAFONT are significant bodies of code, he went and articulated a programming methodology – literate programming – and implemented it in the WEB system.

Donald Knuth found a very specialized problem to solve, to dive in.

In the process of solving it, he questioned the available means and built his own tools, taking him down a rabbit hole that forced him to become literate on a number of different horizontal topics.

The result is a work of art, a work of love.

Donald Knuth is a legend.

I’m inspired by his commitment, his humility and his nerdiness.

So in this last post of the series, I distill his lessons in my very own Heinlein list, the things a man should be able to do,

the things I aspire to: