Rod,
>>we need to be specialists and generalists as well. General skills must include XML, SQL, COM, UML, database design, Architecture, not to mention specialized skills in products (Fox, VB.NET, C#, SQL Server, Oracle, etc.)
Of course. Even the most specialist lawyer or physician trains as a generalist before becoming a specialist. They maintain capability in a broader area for very good reasons. but in a mature industry it is no longer possible for an individual to be master of all. IT is becoming a mature industry.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
