The modern knowledge worker uses an all-purpose tool called a computer, and office tasks often bleed into each other like a watercolour. Highly skilled specialists noodle around making their own slides or filing expenses.
Specialisation boosts output, said Smith, because
1) We perfect our skills;
2) We avoid the distraction of task-switching;
3) We use, and even invent, specialised equipment.
But modern office work fits uneasily into this picture.