Hacker News Reader

The amazing thing is that there is a lot of repetition even at 10 paragraphs. Some of the other comments here sum it up in twitter-sized chunks.

The missing piece is how to identify over-specialization, and it's missing because it can't be usefully generalized.

View on HN

"The missing piece is how to identify over-specialization, and it's missing because it can't be usefully generalized."

If you read the literature on selective breeding they have extensive methodologies for avoiding genetic problems. If you just want a quick overview, Temple Grandin's book "Animals in Translation" has a couple of really entertaining chapters on the subject.

That book looks hugely interesting--thanks for the recommendation!

We've been using biological metaphors in this discussion, but I'm not sure we can extend them this far.

Didn't Andy Grove say something like this? However he couched it in terms of paranoia.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com