reminds me of what Donald Knuth had to say about academic specialization in <i>Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About</i>:<p><pre><code>  There might be some light on the horizon, however.  I predict that in the not too distant
  future, people in acamedmic life are going to define themselves not by one specialty
  area, but by two sub-specialties that belong to two rather different main specialties.
  This means that we&#x27;ll have a web of interests, in which each person will serve as a
  bridge between different parts of the overall structure.  You can see that this is much
  better than having a tree hierarchy that branches out further and further, with nobody
  able to talk to the people on other sub-branches.  We&#x27;ll have people that each belong to
  two areas, in two different parts of the overall structure.  Then we&#x27;ll be able to have
  some hope of coping with new knowledge as it comes along.</code></pre>