Specialization and Cities

For various reasons, we live together:

To make life more convenient for everyone, we decide to do things we’re better at and prefer more than everyone else:

We all become consistently better (and therefore less wasteful and ineffective) at whatever we keep doing, so the consequence of specialized work is that the group conserves resources. Anyone could theoretically do absolutely everything from rocket science to manure processing, but the separation of roles lets us do what we prefer, and do it well.

It’s worth noting that any particular specialization isn’t one thing, but more a collection of mini-skills that pile together to accomplish a general purpose. Very frequently, any rules that broadly define elements of the specialization are very inaccurate when zooming into the idiosyncrasies of that domain, though most people without experience in a specialization never realize it.

Grouping

As we find common interests with others with what we do, we associate with other people who share those values. Eventually, we find ourselves in a small group specialized toward something.

Since our purposes overlap, we converge them together and our roles naturally converge into a hierarchy, with everyone submitting to more powerful members.

But, the purposes don’t entirely overlap. Within that group, some people want to do some things more than others. Thus, they specialize in one direction or another, often separating into other groups or broadly expanding the collective group as a subgroup if enough people are associated with that specific interest.

Quality

Not all specializations are the same regarding the value they give society. Some of them don’t do much for anyone, but others are so profoundly necessary that we can’t imagine living without them.

There are two major ways to tell if they’re positively impacting society.

First, that group’s creations must be measurably better than an individual doing the same work. The easiest way to tell is whether educators are master workers or simply some other so-called “expert”.

Second, that niche should require investing time and energy that can’t be reproduced merely by observing others. Thus, it can’t be automated or delegated to low-skill workers.

Scaling

Thus, specialization ends up having a cyclical nature to it: we converge together from shared interest, then break into further specializations as needed. These niches can often form into a supply chain that travels from raw materials all the way to finished products.

The niche roles become even more niche-focused as population and technology increases. New techniques eventually become tradition as trends repeat themselves:

  • Large truck driving is a specific type of driving of a specific type of vehicle with a specific type of trailer.
  • Automobile manufacturing was once one job, but now someone can be a marketing coordinator for mid-size family SUVs.
  • Computers were once an esoteric engineer’s toy, but tens of thousands of jobs are devoted to only the software industry.

These specializations can apply to any task or purpose:

While war will broadly unite differing groups, the conflicts within niche domains are far more emotionally charged. Frequently, small niches can fight over their preferred main character in popular media.

One of the most important specialization concepts implements through technology with interchangeable parts. Each component of a sophisticated thing is mass-produced by one person or group, meaning thousands of people can produce millions of something, with each person or group only responsible for one small piece of the process. As more people are involved, this can be divided even further as needed.

The power to accomplish for each of these niches grows proportionally higher as the niche gets smaller, but it also becomes more specific. The opportunity cost of this is that master specialists at one thing can lose the larger picture of what they’re doing, and are often awful at almost everything else. Occasionally, they can be awful at almost any general task, including when they’re closely related to what they do all day.

Settlements

For the sake of convenience and comfort, we prefer to stay geographically near other people who share similar purposes. Those shared values create a unique collective culture through everyone generally identifying with their tasks:

We’ll also cluster near other groups that can serve other needs (e.g., food, water, shelter, electricity). Over time, multiple specialties come together as people move there or are born to form a village, and can eventually become a city the same way.

As the settlements group from a small to large community, the members have more anonymity, and human nature means some of them will abuse the freedom.

The geography and climate has a profound impact on the culture, starting from the individuals’ personalities and working outward through their modes of thought into the tasks required to survive and thrive.

As those groups became more aware of other regions’ trends, people will choose to move farther away to attain their purposes. Thus, various cities and regions can become increasingly specialized as information and transportation technology improves.

Individuals who transition inside their specialized groups have a unique advantage. If they want to do something different, they can shift around their specialty while pursuing a task that’s still inside the group:

  • Someone can migrate inside a company or trade to find the culture they prefer.
  • Many people migrate upward into management or large-scale leadership roles.
  • After enough experience, people often become consultants (e.g., independent contractors, political lobbyists, bounty hunters).
  • Frequently, if someone is influential enough, they can venture into a new area and build an entire subgroup for themselves!

Regions

Culture dominates how we behave relative to others, but population density has a “soft” effect because of specialization on the general disposition of a region.

Rural

  • Often governed by broad rules and honors the implications of those boundaries.
  • Most people get most of their news days, weeks, or months after the event happens.
  • The people value autonomy (self-determined decisions) over interdependence.
  • Most available services are very limited from how few specialists are competing for work, and most people have a plethora of general skills to take care of tasks themselves.
  • Everyone tends to speak more quietly and slower, and has a type of “free” disposition.
  • They tend to be very understanding and self-aware from having lots of time to think and observe.

Urban

  • Tightly managed rules with many, many exceptions and clarifications.
  • Most people receive news almost as soon as it happens.
  • The people value interdependence and dependence over autonomy.
  • Generally, there are many people competing for services, but individuals don’t often have the means or skill to do things themselves, and must often trust everyone else.
  • Everyone tends to speak very loud and fast, and has a certain “caged” disposition.
  • Their strength is in setting priorities well, but they’re awful at managing the competing flows of information.

Suburban

  • Clear-cut rules of urban with the implications of rural.
  • Most people get all the news within a day or two.
  • Interdependence and autonomy are balanced out.
  • Services are frequent, but individuals can do many things themselves as well.
  • Everyone speaks moderately fast with a varying volume, and gives the most variety of disposition.

Our preference of population density comes from how much we value privacy versus convenience. Most of these preferences express as rituals involving physical and emotional distance.

The cultural mix of a city is difficult to measure, but most people can feel it. Each person is contributing to that city proportional to the power they possess, so the city has a “heartbeat” of its style based on how everyone acts out the collective values everyone believes.

Multi-Region

Generally, trends move outward from denser areas. In a well-connected society with lots of communication technology, each city’s specialization will house the leadership of specific multi-nation groups.

The most legitimately powerful people live in or near the capital city of a country, so the culture (and, when applicable, the selection) of that capital city has a profound impact on the rest of the nation’s trends.

Frequently, trends will move across many regions at once, often jumping between them as rapidly as leaders become aware of and adopt them. In a sense, those trends will give power to the original creator of the trend, which will ripple outward to that person’s specialized group and the surrounding people that the creator contacts.

Once the technology of a group becomes large enough, the group can connect and meet across an extremely vast region. However, it never entirely removes the need for geographical closeness.

Application

Many of the highest-paid people in the world have found and completely mastered extremely specific niches. They also frequently suck at most other things.

Most success is defined by expertise in a specialization, which means that more success comes from knowing the right specialists than in knowledge or performance.

Specializations are groups of mini-skills, so it’s much easier to migrate around related specializations. Therefore, nobody else really has the excuse that they’re stuck in a complete dead-end job.

If someone is excellent at one thing (e.g., doctor), they’re often awful at another (e.g., psychotherapy). Since people frequently desire to wield power beyond their niche, closely consider where they do have power before trusting them outright.

The fastest way to appear to be an expert is to get a few very specific people to imagine you as an expert.

People who lead societies statistically come from smaller towns because they have to learn a wider range of skills to survive and have a stronger sense of responsibility.

The freedom to have privacy frequently comes with no immediate consequences of bad decisions. The results of this in large societies are absolutely disastrous to living well.

Civilizations are maintained because some people took tremendous care and devotion to build it. Most people take it for granted as part of their culture and don’t realize the work it took to make it, until they have to maintain it themselves.

People cluster toward what they like, so some cities’ majority specializations are profoundly different from others. Thus, opportunities in Dubai are far different from those in London, and the thriving industries of a city dictate more about them than their size or popularity.

When we look back in history, everyone was more broadly capable. They were far less educated on specific knowledge, since they had to endure way more hardship with their lesser technology and education opportunities.

Population density profoundly changes how we behave and see the world. Often, this brings people to severe culture shock when they move to a larger city or smaller town.

The climate of a region defines more than almost anything else. Unbearable weather requires people to be tenacious, and easily accessible resources make a happy and relaxed group.

The three population density groups have irreconcilable differences in value systems:

  • Above a certain threshold, everyone must depend on others, but below a certain threshold, everyone must be self-sufficient.
  • More population creates more trends and conflicts of opinion, so bigger cities are far more liberal than the countryside.

Every time society suffers a massive decline in population, technology moves backward by a few hundred years from all its required specializations. It catches up again rather quickly, but is frequently difficult for people to adapt for at least a few generations.

People in ancient (and small) societies are the equivalent of a spoke in a wheel they believe they don’t understand, but people in modern (and large) societies are the equivalent of a cog in a vast automobile they imagine they do understand.

Civilization means more people. Follow where the streets get quieter to find the “natural” state of a region, then keep going until you’re far away from the city center.

Creative people and for people willing to take large-scale social risks thrive in large cities because they can revitalize social voids (i.e., ravaged by criminal elements or unfulfilled needs). Then, other people follow that trend and new communities arise from the derelict remains of a long-forgotten relic.

Some of the most influential people to change a city have either had a poor background or are foreign to the region, though they’ll often connect more with the people who they’re similar with than their immediate neighbors.

Institutions do not create civilization. They are a product of it. Highly influential individuals create order, which develops into institutions and enforced via tradition. Over time, the trends across many years makes it less effective, which opens the way for another individual to form an institution to do a better job at enforcing and building civilization.

A “developed” society is simply a society that has extremely high specializations compared to its neighbors. This is mostly a product of technology and population, though the political system plays a massive role in how much innovation continues that development. “Developed” societies tend to view other societies with either disdain or disregard, but they can always stand to learn from them.