Adam Smith and the Pin Factory

One final thought before I bring this all together. In 1776 Adam Smith published his landmark book entitled The Wealth of Nations. It was a landmark book because it introduced the field of economics. In it, Smith gave an example of good economic behavior in an example that is now know widely at the pin factory example.

In the pin factory example, Smith argues that economic prosperity comes from specialization. In the pin factory, he explains, there should be one person for each task. One to cut the wire. One to sharpen it. On to put on the pin heads. And one to stick the pins in the paper rolls in which they were sold.

This idea of specialization caught on in many professions over the next two centuries increasing their effectiveness and economic productivity. For example, you don't go to divorce lawyer to do your taxes, and you don't go to a cardiologist when you have a stabbing pain in your stomach. There are endless examples in other areas such as engineering where we have civil, mechanical and many other specialties and academia where faculty are often defined by their departments regardless of frequent calls for interdisciplinary research. The effect of specialization even reaches into creative professions such as creating comics or films. For example, it is rare that someone writes and draws their own comics. And even among artists there are many specialties.

But, what about white collar work? What if you work for a government agency or a large corporation? Chance are that being a generalist it considered preferable to being a specialist. And that is one of the many reasons why things don't work very well in the government and large corporations. There are exceptions of course. But, it is fair to say that the average white collar worker does not really know what they do and, if asked what they do will resort to an answer that indicates who they work for rather than what they actually do. And this, is a problem.