My friend is a back-end programmer, specialised in the GO language. 20 years ago programmers were programmers, writing scripts, knowing all the programming languaes (there were only a couple). Nowadays they don’t even write codes anymore. They use a vast library to assemble working software.

In the Stone Age people were multitalented. Everybody knew how to make spear and fire, which berry and mushroom is poisionous and where to find water. With the advent of agriculture people split by professions. There were farmers, herders, blacksmiths and potters. Then came the teachers, priests and soldiers.

There were teachers in the past. Then maths teachers. Then maths teachers specialized in talent management. And it will go on and on. I tried to find out how many occupations are at the present, but it is impossible. I found a list of over 12 thousand careers. Specialisation is speeding up. I guess we will end up with hundred thousands of occupations.

As the common knowledge expands, it is impossible to know everything. We all know only a tiny little segment of our field. We are all gear wheels in the machine of our society. Every gear knows well what to do in its domain so that the great machine works smoothly.

Obviously we can’t specialise to this degree at school, even at colleges. We have to top up our knowledge in two ways: doing micro courses or just keep up with literature in our field. Life long learning is unavoidable.