

Ask HN: How to approach the problem of general curiosity and attaining mastery? - neymar_

All my life I have been enamored with the idea of mastering a certain field, but the problem with attaining mastery is that I have too many interests. For example, I am interested in not only mastering subject X but also Y &amp; Z. In this day and age, with rapidly evolving domains it seems too wasteful to sacrifice your brain power to multiple fields. Why waste your time--especially if the subjects of interest do not overlap--to only achieve rudimentary knowledge in X, Y &amp; Z? Anyone who has experienced this type of dilemma willing to share their words of wisdom?
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mod
I could have written that, and I've just succumbed to who I am.

I'm interested in so many things, and I can't really devote myself to one
thing at the expense of the others.

I admire those who can, but I just don't think it's me--at least not with any
of my "things" currently.

That said, I did happen to temporarily "master" a certain niche (heads-up)_of
a difficult & widely varied field (poker), but mostly because it was in its
infancy at the time and it was easy to reach the forefront and become an
expert. I've since quit playing and I'm certain that my level went from
something like top 0.5% to top 5%. The knowledge gap between myself and a
current top player would be quite large, as the theory is progressing and I'm
not keeping up.

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Isamu
I have the same "problem". I am interested in everything ... and I also want
to get the bottom of everything.

But there is no speed limit! Don't hold back from doing a deep dive into each
thing in turn. Promise yourself to do each subject justice, don't use your
broad interests as an excuse to become bored quickly and remain shallow.

I have found that many of my weaknesses (like this one) are also strengths.
This one is obvious - it leads toward becoming a generalist. Broad interests
are a powerful thing to wield, if you don't let them become an inability to
focus. One important thing that comes with generalization is the ability to
apply lessons from one domain to another.

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coralreef
Perhaps an important question to ask yourself is _why_ you want to master
something.

