Your Weekly Dispatch

This week’s opinion: 1. Should you become a specialist? The Prestige of Specialisation (Handle With Care) Modern culture adores the specialist. Narrow mastery is paraded as seriousness, discipline, and adulthood. Pick a lane early, stay in it forever, and never look sideways. The generalist, meanwhile, is treated like someone who couldn’t sit still long enough to become respectable. This view survives mainly because it sounds tidy. Reality isn’t tidy. Reality doesn’t reward obedience to intellectual zoning laws. It rewards people who can see the whole mess and still make sense of it. ...

This week’s roundup: 1. Breaking smartphones’ hold over your brain chemistry Smartphone usage has been affecting you in multiple ways, whether you realise it or not. Micro level examples: Your nervous system, your brain chemistry, your emotions Macro level examples: Your worldview, your relationships with other people (in person and online) Umed Pratap Singh (@umedpratapsingh) on X/Twitter says: “Smartphone addiction is so real man. Use of smartphone in bathroom, during breakfast, lunch, dinner. Work for half an hour and then check smartphone. Scrolling before and after sleep. It seems as if there is no end to it. Brain fog, distraction, all at its peak.” ...