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... would be good. But it's been a decade and I think we're further from a society of polymaths now than we were then. I'm lucky enough to have been able to af

... would be good. But it's been a decade and I think we're further from a society of polymaths now than we were then. I'm lucky enough to have been able to afford a constant trickle of college classes for the last 20 years. It's awesome. I get so much more out of it than my younger full-time classmates are. But it requires a lot of sacrifice. I probably wouldn't be on this path if I had had kids, for instance. So as nice as it feels to get excited about polymathy, I'd rather we take steps to make it normal.

deleted 2y ago
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staticautomatic 2y ago
I think there may always be too much socioeconomic pressure against it in modern industrial society for it to become normalized.
- __MatrixMan__ 2y ago
  I see what you mean, but I'm reluctant to agree with "always." As technology gets better at eliminating jobs, we may see a socioeconomic pressure towards remaining pivot-ready by constantly broadening one's capabilities... A world where as soon as you have a job you start training for your next one on the side because they just don't last that long. Making such a lifestyle broadly accessible would mean some significant changes from where we are now, but in the long run paying for all that school and tolerating all that time-off to attend it might end up being cheaper than the cost of the unrest associated with resisting change.
  - quasse 2y ago
    > we may see a socioeconomic pressure towards remaining pivot-ready by constantly broadening one's capabilities... If this isn't already a line out of a dystopic speculative fiction short story someone should crib it for that purpose.
    - __MatrixMan__ 2y ago
      In Accelerando it was necessary to make drastic alterations to oneself in order to keep up with that pressure (or an analogous one). Those who decided not to had to flee the planet because they just weren't nimble enough to participate in Economics 2.0 It sounds outlandish but I think the path away from scarcity based economics must eventually traverse a zone where the only scarcity-driven careers left aren't substantial enough to commit a lifetime to, so being dual- or triple-specialized will be a necessity. And as much of a hassle that may be, letting scarcity continue to drive despite its inability to avoid hazards seems much worse.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

staticautomatic 2y ago

I think there may always be too much socioeconomic pressure against it in modern industrial society for it to become normalized.

__MatrixMan__ 2y ago
I see what you mean, but I'm reluctant to agree with "always." As technology gets better at eliminating jobs, we may see a socioeconomic pressure towards remaining pivot-ready by constantly broadening one's capabilities... A world where as soon as you have a job you start training for your next one on the side because they just don't last that long. Making such a lifestyle broadly accessible would mean some significant changes from where we are now, but in the long run paying for all that school and tolerating all that time-off to attend it might end up being cheaper than the cost of the unrest associated with resisting change.
- quasse 2y ago
  > we may see a socioeconomic pressure towards remaining pivot-ready by constantly broadening one's capabilities... If this isn't already a line out of a dystopic speculative fiction short story someone should crib it for that purpose.
  - __MatrixMan__ 2y ago
    In Accelerando it was necessary to make drastic alterations to oneself in order to keep up with that pressure (or an analogous one). Those who decided not to had to flee the planet because they just weren't nimble enough to participate in Economics 2.0 It sounds outlandish but I think the path away from scarcity based economics must eventually traverse a zone where the only scarcity-driven careers left aren't substantial enough to commit a lifetime to, so being dual- or triple-specialized will be a necessity. And as much of a hassle that may be, letting scarcity continue to drive despite its inability to avoid hazards seems much worse.