I started writing this post a few weeks ago. In the meantime, I've started reading "Brave New World" which ties in perfectly with this topic. I hope to post another blog dedicated solely to that book.
The more successful we we are in our fields or career, the more we know about the area in which we are working. This sounds like common sense, but lets dig deeper.
In high school our knowledge and education is diverse- everyone learns about Science, English, and Math. Once we reach college, that field of study has been narrowed down, and by the time we graduate, we know what rather specific job we'll be diving into(well, we hope). As we work for a company our knowledge becomes so finely tuned into that specific area- it often becomes difficult to replace a person- they have a specific niche into which only they fit nicely.
Our life is a metaphorical pyramid. When we're young your knowledge base is vast. As we age, the subjects we learn about are increasingly slim(yet more focused). Maybe a pyramid with sides shaped as exponential curves would be a better illustration.
Our career goal is to understand one area specifically, and then if we're lucky, our company or position will grow. If we're reaaally lucky we'll go global- and then understand how our product interacts with the rest of the world.
The positive side of this is growth- by knowing your product inside and out- you have expanded it to huge proportions. Your knowledge has surpassed that of your rivals, and now you have succeeded.
The downside is that once you dive into your specific area, it becomes harder to see outside of it. How does your idea or product affect the rest of the world. Lets pretend that we just made a fantastic air-conditioner, that is sleek, aesthetically pleasing, and produces very few harmful by-products. When designing the unit, we are thinking, "how does my air conditioner benefit others", and "How will the design aid the ease of use", etc. But in reality should we be thinking "do people need this?" Really, what are the social, economic, moral, and religious views of what I'm doing. How do my actions influence others and what will they think of me in the end. Is this something that's going to leave me feeling empty, or will I feel like I've accomplished something by the end of the day. I mean, it's just an air conditioner. So what if it won "environmental standards" awards for emissions and energy usage. Humanity has survived without air conditioners for centuries- and most of us lived.(The ones who didn't died from far worse things than heat-stroke).
Once we specialize in a field, it's not our job to think of those things. We're so focused on our task at hand, that we can't or don't step back and look at the larger picture. And I mean the BIG picture.
