One of the most influential trends in the development of modern civilization was that of job specialization. Essentially, agricultural innovations resulted in a food surplus that rendered the need for the entirety of populations to perform the same task obsolete. The personnel at their disposal was identical either way; rather, this was a question of how to most effectively use a finite labor pool to meet society’s evolving needs. Utility, defined in its adjective form as “useful, especially through being able to perform several functions,” became a valuable trait to possess.
Now that, in conjunction with this article’s headline, you know where I’m going with this, [insert smooth as silk segue into discussing baseball in 2019].