“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.”
— Robert Heinlein
“Time Enough for Love”
Welcome to US Army Special Forces!
In the old days, I used this quote as the epigraph on my resume. It also hung outside my office door when I worked as a principal engineer at a startup. Back when we were still training to fight the recently collapsed Soviet Union, I was a combat engineer. Eight years. Five of those years I worked at a very small unit doing things that had little to do with combat engineering. While I was an average soldier, at best, I think I lived up to this. I hope I continue to. I am and always have been “…the man who was too lazy to fail”.
This should hang in a lot more places. It’s as important to soldiering as Shakespeare’s St Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V.
Literally my favorite quote of all time. This would be an interesting article (to talk about the who/how/why of implementing this philosophy. Also Heinlein is my favorite author, more Heinlein quotes is good good