In the eighteenth century, economist and philosopher Adam Smith wrote the groundbreaking economic treatise “The Wealth of Nations.” In it, he extolled the virtues of specialization calling it the one of the most important causes of productivity and economic progress resulting in goods and services costing far less than if we had to do everything ourselves.
For an object lesson in just how impactful specialization can be, Andy George in his YouTube series “How to Make Everything” explores just how complex it is to make a chicken sandwich if you had to produce all the ingredients yourself. This 3.5-minute video summarizes the process but before you click on the link, see if you can answer this question. How much would it cost you to make a chicken sandwich from scratch and how long would it take? (This video is just a summary. Mr. George offers 12 deep dive videos (each 2 to 3 mins) on each of the steps required to complete this task).
You’ll appreciate the convenience of your world in a whole new way….and how dependent we really are on each other.
