Is Specialization Good for the Soul?

This idea has been sploshing around in my head for a while now and as a knee-jerk reaction to Matt's "Bug Theory" post I've decided I am going to type up some semblance of an idea.

Modern economic theory teaches us that specialization is good.  If there are two nations that each make guns and butter and nation one is better at making both guns AND butter than nation two, nation one should nonetheless specialize in making the product in which they have the comparative advantage and buy the other product from nation two, which presumably will specialize in the other product.  Sorry if I have done an abysmal job of trying to explain this, but if you are confused then email Hyde, I am sure he can explain it better than I can.

Regardless, the point is that modern economic theory teaches us that nations, states, corportations, etc. are better off specializing.  Through out our society today we find people being herded into specializing in a specific career at a very young point.  Think about your high school guidance counselor sitting you down when you were 17 years old and asking you where you would like to go to college and what for, "What do you want to do?"  Frankly, my response was always something vague:  I wanted to be a lawyer, a stock broker, etc.  I figured reading and business both interested me, but my main interest was getting smarter, getting a good job, and meeting cute girls- and really, what does one expect to dominate the mind of a 17 year old.

The result in my own case was to attend a liberal arts college, which following my time at Loomis, a place that pretty much screams to the world that it follows a liberal (and I stress the liberal) arts doctrine, means that pretty much my entire education up to this point has been liberal arts.  Certainly there were people at each of these two institutions that were specializers, people interested in getting into their parents diamond business and going to business administration classes or people interested in majoring in french or biology.  However, I think a lot of people were more like myself.  I often look back and think, "What the hell do I actually know about?"  The answer is a little bit about a lot of different stuff.  I suppose this disqualifies me from work as a surgeon, a mathematician, or in some instances even a lawyer.  In my experience, the modern work place basically stresses a worker's ability to perform a set of highly specialized tasks and abilities and intelligence outside these tasks is essentially of little or no value to the employer.

Thus, I contend that the modern workplace has taken an unfortunate turn into the realm of specialization.  While in the past I believe this "factory" style ethic had little application to the professional world, I think a quick glance at the rise of massive corporate style law firms and hospitals ought to signal that this no longer is quite so much the case.

The the question I have is:  perhaps this ethos is good for production, for the bottom line, GDP, and overall profits-- but is it good for the soul?  Matt's recent post about the "Bug Theory," while a perfectly good theory, presumes that the best overall purpose of humanity is production, to achieve "great things" etc.  Personally, I disagree.  This may sound ridiculous but, look at going to the moon.  It was pretty cool right?  But what exactly did that do for my overall enjoyment of life?  Not a whole lot, except seeing Tom Hanks in a pretty good movie about a poorly produced rocket.  Which is not to demean the achievements of the National Air and Space Administration, but I do think it is important to make the point-- what is this all about?  Is the end goal to have the most efficient law firm that bills the most hours at the cost of making the attorneys involved people with little or no outside life? 

Studies by the ABA have shown that the switch to hourly billing in the last twenty or so years has had highly negative effects on the lives of attorneys.  Now days a new associate at a large fim is often expected to bill around 2300 hours a year.  The ABA's recommendation is about 1900 of these hours are dedicated strictly to hours billable to the client, the rest being dedicated to pro bono and professional education, etc.  Most people do the math and realize that these 1900 hours comes out to about 40 hours a week and end up saying, "Oh well, that's not too much."  No it isn't except that the assumption is that those are all completely productive hours- that means no time to deal with administration, education, new business development, etc.  What's ironic is that this fairly oppressive suggestion by the ABA was made in response to a study that showed that many firms were (are) requiring associates to bill far in excess of this amount and that the results were highly detrimental results in the non-professional lives of attorneys: increased complaints of depresson and mental illness including alcohol and substance abuse, increased divorce rates, etc.  I would extrapalate that this probably also results in plenty of other less quantifiable negative effects. 

I submit to you that the purpose of life is to do great things if possible, but I think more likely than not those great things come at us incidentally.  Billing 2500 hours is not really that great, if you ask me, but hour culture seems to be shifting towards saying that it is.  But I ask-- at what cost?  The obvious costs to me seem to be the demise of the family, the demise of culture other than mass media culture, and the loss of personal identity. 

Comments

[Matt]

Actually, the trips to the moon have done a lot for your overall enjoyment of life as the following things were derived directly from technology developed for the moon missions
1. All season tires
2. Scratch resistant sunglasses
3. Advancements in remote control technology
4. Cordless tools such as drills and vacuums
5. Hospital equipment that monitors vital signs
6. Domed sports stadiums
7. Modern running shoes
8. Hotplates
9. MRIs
10. Vacuum packaged food storage
11. Water purification devices
12. Better golf balls
13. Flat panel monitors
14. FOGGLESS SKI GOGGLES
15. Fire resistant materials
16. And about 1000 others.