This is a quote I stumbled more than 10 years ago and that stuck with me since. Then I read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, where he unequivocally explains how

This is a quote I stumbled more than 10 years ago and that stuck with me since. Then I read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, where he unequivocally explains how skill/job specialization is simply a product of demography. I still agree with the sentiment of Heinlein as a personal ethic, but I have made my peace with specialization. In the last few centuries, we have reached a critical mass of scientific and technical knowledge where any further advances require a tremendous amount of specialization. There's no way or point in fighting tthat.