That saying is kind of ambiguous.
Lets say, 1940s Germany?
Anyway, yes, do what you can do for your country. But the key word
is 'can'. do your specialisation, bugger it. and i am not
supporting anarchy, or anything like that, because thats not really
helping your country, or the world for that matter. Unless of
course the government is totally corrupt...
if you are good at (A), yet they bug you to do (B) which you suck
at, and quote you that saying.... its counterproductive, right?