If you specialize in something that has elastic demand while consuming inelastic goods you put yourself at the mercy of the producers of those goods, or whoever controls their flow.

Look at states. States often specialize with regard to exports. But the most successful states diversify; they attempt to accomplish food security. The specializers are at the mercy of those that can sustain themselves.

Self sustainability is very important, markets are also very important. At the very least you should be capable of providing the basic things you need to stay alive.

It's amazing, once you understand capital and wealth creation, and you see that you can create real wealth yourself, for yourself, using mud, without any middleman or government taxing you, without a counterparty, you'll realize you didn't quite understand it as well as you thought. You experience feeling numinous and epiphany at the same time.