2. Specialize in one thing and never touch anything else again.
There's a bit of a middle ground. Have one (or two, or three) things you specialize in and develop great depth, coupled with a tremendous breadth of general knowledge of related things.
You could strive to be a "generalizing specialist" as they say[1] or a person with "t-shaped skills"[2].
"T people" are very highly valued, in at least some contexts[3].
I agree. I heard Donald Knuth endorse in an interview the notion of Thomas Huxley that one should "try to learn something about everything and everything about something".
Comments
The choice isn't necessarily between:
1. dabble in everything and master nothing
OR
2. Specialize in one thing and never touch anything else again.
There's a bit of a middle ground. Have one (or two, or three) things you specialize in and develop great depth, coupled with a tremendous breadth of general knowledge of related things.
You could strive to be a "generalizing specialist" as they say[1] or a person with "t-shaped skills"[2].
"T people" are very highly valued, in at least some contexts[3].
[1]: http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/generalizingSpecialists....
[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-shaped_skills
[3]: http://chiefexecutive.net/ideo-ceo-tim-brown-t-shaped-stars-...
I agree. I heard Donald Knuth endorse in an interview the notion of Thomas Huxley that one should "try to learn something about everything and everything about something".