

Ask HN: Better to be pretty good at a few things or really good at one thing? - bennesvig


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maxdemarzi
If you want to be an entrepreneur you have to be good at as much as you can
handle. Not just your technology stack, but marketing, sales, design, finance,
recruitment, training, writing, etc.

If you want to be an employee, then by all means, be top 1% of whatever
technology you want and you'll always be able to find a job.

~~~
azal
Agreed. I have seem some really talented developers, but they sucked at
understanding business or etc. Again if you want to do a startup, you need to
be a Jack of all trades, or find a co-founder who is strong where you are
weak.

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philipthrasher
I think this really depends on your goal. Do you want to excel in a particular
field? If so, you should pick one thing, and focus on it. Do one thing well.

Being a jack of all trades, and master of none is more suitable for managers.

I wrote a blog post about being an expert at something, if you're interested:
[http://philipthrasher.com/2010/04/11/want-to-be-an-
expert.ht...](http://philipthrasher.com/2010/04/11/want-to-be-an-expert.html)

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md1515
I feel like I am a jack-of-all trades type of person too. Many people say that
is a disadvantage, but I recently read an article on entrepreneur.com about
some famous guru saying a CEO of a startup needs to be good at a lot of things
instead of great at one thing. Made me feel a lot better....

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kgc
Generalists succeed as entrepreneurs (a Stanford study):
[http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/entrep_lazear_gene...](http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/research/entrep_lazear_generalists.shtml)

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trafficlight
I'm definitely a jack-of-all-trades but a master-of-none. Sometimes I wish I
were much better at certain things, but for the most part, I enjoy having a
wide range of competencies.

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codeslush
This is entirely dependent on what you do and what your goals are.

Generally, I think it's better to be really good at one thing. However, this
wouldn't hold true in certain roles (think Enterprise Architect, Systems
Consultant, ...). In different roles, it can be extremely valuable to have a
broad, not necessarily deep, understanding of the various parts in play.

What are your objectives?

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glimcat
Being really good at one thing almost always involves being pretty good at a
few things.

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wmboy
Leonardo da Vinci has shown that it's possible to master more than one thing.

(mind you, how many Leonardo da Vinci's are there in the world?)

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waqf
The world has easily ten times the population it had in Leonardo's time, and
also is probably less than 100% effective at discovering such people.

So at a conservative estimate, I'd say there are hundreds.

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petervandijck
For an entrepreneur: M-shaped: really good at a few things, and not afraid of
many other things that need doing.

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eof
Depends on what you are really good at.

