A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

I like this because it goes some way to illustrating the total philosophical difference I feel compared to some. I don’t want to partition my life into work and play, pleasure and displeasure. Might all my days and all my activities reflect the whole of myself and enrich me and others in the doing of them. Let those who must specialize, they rob the world of its soul that way but I cannot turn the tide.

— Robert A. Heinlein, Time Enough for Love, 1973