Open the Flood Gates
One of the legacies of the Industrial Age is the ideal of standardization: creating products of consistent quality that can be mass-produced. Coming out of the Agricultural Age, this was a huge step forward; without standardization much of what was accomplished in the twentieth century could not have been attained.Along with standardization came specialization, as specific standards of quality had to be met by specific experts. On any assembly line each worker knows expertly his or her one piece of the whole standardized assembly process. It serves its purpose well in manufacturing.
An intriguing concept in specialization is the notion of compartmentalizing: to separate into distinct, discrete parts of a whole product. By compartmentalizing, we are able to isolate specific processes and problems and focus on solutions without being distracted or overwhelmed by the bigger picture. There’s a safety in compartments. When people
