Michael Pollan

I can probably earn more in an hour of writing or even teaching than I could save in a whole week of cooking. Specialization is undeniably a powerful social and economic force. And yet it is also debilitating. It breeds helplessness, dependence, and ignorance and, eventually, it undermines any sense of responsibility.

American Educator

Gabe Newell

People who are constantly looking for the opportunity to do something new are also people who are not going to be helped by having job titles - job titles create expectations of specialization and focus which don't map really well to creating the best possible experience for your customers.

American Businessman

Brendan Myers

I earned my Ph.D. in philosophy, and one of my specializations was the logic and mathematics of game theory. I've also got a degree in drama, so I know about stories, characterizations, plot arcs, and the like. Lots of game designers can do one or the other: I've got the skills for both.

Canadian Philosopher

Max Weber

Only by strict specialization can the scientific worker become fully conscious, for once and perhaps never again in his lifetime, that he has achieved something that will endure. A really definitive and good accomplishment is today always a specialized act.

German Economist

P. J. O'Rourke

Adam Smith pointed out that there were three things that make us more prosperous, in a general sort of way: freedom to pursue our own self-interest; specialization, which he called division of labor; and freedom of trade.

American Comedian

Virginia Postrel

Rising living standards - whether in a village, a region, a nation, or the world - depend first on specialization: on letting people concentrate on what they do best and trade with others who specialize in other things.

American Writer

John Kenneth Galbraith

Much literary criticism comes from people for whom extreme specialization is a cover for either grave cerebral inadequacy or terminal laziness, the latter being a much cherished aspect of academic freedom.

American Economist

Keith Gessen

The government, as a rule, discourages specialization: Military officers and diplomats are constantly transferred from one post to another, from one region to the next. Still, specialists do emerge.

American Novelist

Roberto Unger

In a world of democracies, the most deserving basis of national differences is that the different states of the world should represent a form of moral specialisation within humanity.

Brazilian Politician

Samuel E. Morison

Too rigid specialization is almost as bad for a historian's mind, and for his ultimate reputation, as too early an indulgence in broad generalization and synthesis.

American Historian

Specialization can lead to better job opportunities and advancements in a chosen field.

Career Advancement

Choosing a specialization means narrowing your focus to become an expert in one area.

Narrow Focus

Specialization reflects deep knowledge and skills in a specific subject or profession.

Deep Knowledge

In biology, specialization allows organisms to perform specific functions more efficiently.

Biological Efficiency

Specialization in species often leads to evolutionary advantages and survival benefits.

Evolution Advantages

In business, companies may specialize to cater to a specific market niche.

Market Niche

Specialization can help a business build a strong brand identity and reputation.

Brand Identity

 And that's what we've done, because we're all working for each other. We're able to draw upon specialization and exchange to raise each other's living standards. Now, you do get other animals working for each other too. Ants are a classic example; workers work for queens and queens work for workers. But there's a big difference,

When ideas have sex PIPE...

 So I started to wonder about other domains that we associate with obligatory, early specialization, like music. Turns out the pattern's often similar. This is research from a world-class music academy, and what I want to draw your attention to is the exceptional musicians didn't start spending more time in deliberate practice

Why specializing early...

 so how exactly is this happening one of the earliest observations of hemispheric specialization was for language some researchers think that while the left hemisphere is dominant in processing words that you see you're here the right hemisphere plays an important role in interpreting their meaning when

The Gibberish Game PIPE...

 which carry oxygen from the lungs to all tissues, platelets, which help stop bleeding by sticking to damaged blood vessels, and white blood cells, which patrol the body, destroying potentially harmful invaders. Every once in a while, something goes wrong during a stem cell's specialization process

What is leukemia? -...

 Because in most of the life of the brain this is under control of behavioral context. It's what you pay attention to. It's what's rewarding to you. It's what the brain regards, itself, as positive and important to you. It's all about cortical processing and forebrain specialization.

Michael Merzenich:...

 and what's up with that? Well, I'm wondering about that too, and we're running a bunch of experiments in my lab right now to try to find a number of other possible specializations in the brain for other very specific mental functions. But importantly, I don't think we have

Nancy Kanwisher: A...

 But figuring out how and when to wield these tools is still a process of trial and error. It needs deep expertise, years of specialization. And experimental protocols are difficult to discover and all too often, difficult to reproduce.

The next software...

 But the vertical specialization was also important to prevent all kinds of empathy with the object of observation. The agent who shadowed me didn't know who I was or why I was surveyed. In fact, I smuggled forbidden books

Hubertus Knabe: The dark...

 The volume of surgery had spread around the world, but the safety of surgery had not. Now our usual tactics for tackling problems like these are to do more training, give people more specialization

How do we heal medicine?...

 So I'm beginning to suspect that our specialization is beginning to impede our progress at best, and at worst, is leading us astray. That's because life on this planet and its history