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The problem we face is being a culture of many specialists, with few generalists. Generalists are capable of managing a wide range of information and have the a

The problem we face is being a culture of many specialists, with few generalists. Generalists are capable of managing a wide range of information and have the ability to transfer skills and knowledge between domains. You don't have to model an entire system in your head to understand the dynamics. That's a specialist, systematic point of view. The technology will only help if we change the culture and change how we educate and incentivize the next generation of humans.

com2kid 3y ago
> The problem we face is being a culture of many specialists, with few generalists. Generalists are capable of managing a wide range of information and have the ability to transfer skills and knowledge between domains. Sadly different fields of science can each take a lifetime to master, and even closely related fields use different jargon[1] internally, meaning that a person can be an expert in something, read a journal article about that topic but written by an expert in another field, and not fully understand what is being said w/o significant mental work translating concepts from how one field talks about them vs the language and terms the reader is used to from their own field of study. [1] Defined as specialized language to make communication within the field easier
- growingkittens 3y ago
  You're describing a procedural problem - different words for the same concepts. This is one way science is not systemic. As a result, experts end up solving the same problems in different silos. Generalists can spend time "translating" between subjects, find the common threads, and find missing pieces from other domains. Most domains have developed independently from each other, and there are a lot of missing pieces. Specialists are important, but specialists without generalists gets us to where we are today.

com2kid 3y ago

> The problem we face is being a culture of many specialists, with few generalists. Generalists are capable of managing a wide range of information and have the ability to transfer skills and knowledge between domains. Sadly different fields of science can each take a lifetime to master, and even closely related fields use different jargon[1] internally, meaning that a person can be an expert in something, read a journal article about that topic but written by an expert in another field, and not fully understand what is being said w/o significant mental work translating concepts from how one field talks about them vs the language and terms the reader is used to from their own field of study. [1] Defined as specialized language to make communication within the field easier

growingkittens 3y ago
You're describing a procedural problem - different words for the same concepts. This is one way science is not systemic. As a result, experts end up solving the same problems in different silos. Generalists can spend time "translating" between subjects, find the common threads, and find missing pieces from other domains. Most domains have developed independently from each other, and there are a lot of missing pieces. Specialists are important, but specialists without generalists gets us to where we are today.