system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How do detergents and soaps work differently? Aren't both of them designed to remove dirt?
gpt
This is sorta like adhesives. Sticky things are sticky, but once you realize exactly what goes on on a molecular level, you can specially formulate adhesives that are really really good at sticking to wood. This might or might not make them really good at sticking to metals or plastics because they have a different molecular structure. And so you can end up with some general purpose adhesives and some hyper specific adhesives 

Detergents use man-made chemicals so they can be tuned to particular jobs. Besides the fact that not all cleaning jobs involve dirt, dirt itself is not just one type of substance. In a bathroom, water marks and calcification from hard water are often a target. In a kitchen, oil and grease. In a carpet, dust and dirt probably trod in from outside, heavier particles. On elevated surfaces you get dust from shedding skin and airborne, lighter particles. These are all subtly different and if you know the molecular structure, then you can design chemicals to specifically help in cleaning those particles.