[HN Gopher] Ask HN: What's more valuable: expert or broad knowle...
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       Ask HN: What's more valuable: expert or broad knowledge in
       different areas?
        
       What do you think is more valuable, being an expert for specific
       topics/stuff as security/database systems/performance engineers or
       maybe who have expert knowledge in one or two programming languages
       and perhaps a lot of frameworks and things like that or engineers
       who know a lot of languages a little bit, to maybe chose the right
       language for the right "smaller" project?  It certainly all depends
       if you do consulting/customer projects or have projects of your own
       with consulting on top, for instance. However, after ten years
       working extensively with Java and lately some Kotlin in the
       backend, I would like to know if I should have a much broader
       knowledge or the desire to learn everything (yeah, well, we all
       know a couple of languages a little bit). I'm currently learning
       TypeScript, and most languages, if they are not purely functional,
       are relatively easy to learn with some experience. But I'll sure
       lack some depth and to learn the major frontend concepts for
       instance underlying the frameworks, build tools, you name it will
       certainly need much more time than 2 or 3 months.  I think the most
       interesting from my perspective, however, is a much deeper
       knowledge of specific topics (for instance, lately, I'm all about
       reading latency/throughput-related stuff, as I'm extensively
       profiling my OSS database project and I'm reading books from
       experts as Brendan Gregg...).  What's your opinion on the topic?
       For example, be an expert in something or be able to use the right
       tool for the right project at hand, but maybe not be able to use it
       in the best idiomatic way or not know all the pitfalls and stuff
       you'd probably know if you're more specialized?
        
       Author : lichtenberger
       Score  : 13 points
       Date   : 2023-02-15 20:05 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
       | voidhorse wrote:
       | It depends on whether you want to optimize for stability or
       | magnitude.
       | 
       | If you want to make the most money possible, and are OK with a
       | much higher risk of being unemployable at some point, become a
       | specialist. The field is a lot narrower for specialists and it
       | can quickly become full, leaving you without work. As time
       | progresses, it's likely need for your area of expertise will
       | dissolve unless you are an expert in something abstract (e.g. one
       | day no one will care much about deep knowledge of the Java
       | language specifically, but knowledge of how a bytecode VM, JIT
       | capable OOP language works _in general_ will be valuable for a
       | long time).
       | 
       | If you are OK with taking some "losses" in terms of how much
       | money you'll eventually make, and prefer less risk of
       | unemployment become a generalist. You won't be paid as much
       | because you do not hold a scarce knowledge commodity, but you'll
       | have a much wider field of opportunity to find jobs that want to
       | leverage some of the knowledge you do posses.
       | 
       | Finally, this is all assuming you want to stay in a focused
       | technical role your whole life. If your goal is to eventually do
       | something else like run your own company, start becoming a
       | generalist immediately.
        
         | lichtenberger wrote:
         | Yes, I think what is always most valuable are the underlying
         | concepts :-)
        
       | wbarber wrote:
       | Depends a bit what your goals are. But I think generalist are
       | undervalued on average. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a
       | Specialized World by David Epstein is all about this and he says
       | it better than I can so it's easiest to just point you there.
        
         | NaOH wrote:
         | Epstein being interviewed on the Econtalk podcast provides a
         | good introduction to the book.
         | 
         | https://www.econtalk.org/david-epstein-on-mastery-specializa...
        
       | leobg wrote:
       | Cue the obligatory Heinlein quote:
       | 
       | A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an
       | invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a
       | sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the
       | dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve
       | equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a
       | computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.
       | Specialization is for insects. --Robert A. Heinlein
        
         | nadermx wrote:
         | So try and live life and partake in all its fascets
        
         | joejoesvk wrote:
         | love this quote
        
       | aprdm wrote:
       | Solving problems. Solving problems for a business is what's
       | valuable. Sometimes you need broad, sometimes you need expert,
       | sometimes you need to find an expert.
        
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       (page generated 2023-02-15 23:02 UTC)