Knowledge Work

Thinking about the similarities in what every knowledge worker does, it seems that we all do the same things, just in different realms. We all think, create, examine, refine, over and over. How does one, then, break into a different application area? How is managing the state of world politics any different than writing good software? Good software is robust in a changing environment, considers a functional set of requirements, delivers demonstrable value to the stake-holders. Are these not all qualities of a foreign affairs official, a sociologist modeling the world, a medical researcher, etc?