Excellence or Quality

In the book "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance", Robert Pirsig discusses how the ancient Greeks believed in excellence. Excellence in a person wasn't defined as someone that could do one thing really well, but someone who could do many things well. He goes on to discuss how our modern society has lost this value of excellence.
From talking to people, it seems that most people in our modern society don't know how to do much really well. Usually they focus on their careers, or watching TV or halo 3 or some other specialty. What does a person lose when he/she focuses on just one or 2 things? Everything else. It's great to be able to do one thing really well. But to be able to do many things even moderately well is better. It makes you a more well rounded person. It exposes you to different types of people and cultures. It gives you varied life experiences. But in our culture, there is a definite push to do a lot of one thing, and not do much of anything else.
One particular problem I see with this is that people are becoming less adaptable. If the world you live in drastically changes tomorrow, and you can't do your job any more, what would you do? I think that is happening to people in the areas affected by the oil spill. Fishermen have lost their source of income. The ones that never did anything besides fish will have serious problems gaining employment. They either have to learn something new fast, or move. Either way, their lives are turned upside down.
The Greek quality of excellence has been lost, but can be regained. If our institutions and media aren't teaching people to be skilled at multiple tasks, it's up to people individually or collectively to start teaching themselves. The internet is a useful tool in getting people interested in new activities and learning new skills. The more that people value this ancient quality, the more adaptable our lives will be, and more enjoyable.

(As a side note, television watching actively keeps people from learning to do new things; another reason to turn it off).