Ask HN: I want to be an expert in many things but my lifetime won't be enough

Don't decide which things to work on and risk analysis paralysis along with a string of other negative feelings.

Let curiosity guide you, explore as many domains as you're able and willing to and become competent with most of them. The more domains you weave into the web of knowledge, notwithstanding the lack of expertise, the higher the probability you'll find links across the ever expanding network. Maybe delve deep into the foundation, occasionally or frequently, for you could stumble into something new. Consider teaching or talking about your knowledge; open a blog, write a book, whatever. It'll help others as well as you, now and later.

In the end, whether through our descendants, works or knowledge, we're all child of that instinct to leave something after our death, of which your post is yet another manifestation.

>What makes you think you can be an expert in even one thing?

That's what I was thinking.

For an interesting approach, pick things which are unusual in the way you can clearly see that the established experts are wrong.

Then you would be misguided if you tried to do it like they do anyway.

I feel like the more things I learn, the faster I get at learning new things, and so the number of things I am able to get good at increases at a superlinear rate.

So, I don't think it's really an either get good at A or get good at B. It feels more like either get good at A and B, or neither.

This is my thesis, anyhow, for how polymaths emerge.

Becoming an expert in one thing takes a lot of time and effort, and this must be maintained even after reaching the goal. But getting a reasonable understanding of many things is not too bad. E.g. working through a freshman level physics text will give you a pretty good (or above average, at least) understanding of the field of physics, and this could be done in a span of months. Maybe try something like this for one subject after another. It could be that this amount of knowledge satisfies you for a given subject and you don't need to go further. But if it doesn't satisfy you, move on to more material. If there really are things you want to spend the time and energy on to reach expert level, you will naturally find them this way. And I suspect that list of things will be a lot smaller than when you started.

You might want to examine the _expert_ part of that statement. What exactly does that mean to you?

I have a great many interests, and I shift to focusing between them pretty regularly (and have for many years).

I enjoy all of them, but I likely won’t make any meaningful impact or win an award or have people ask my opinion in any of them. I only do them because I enjoy them.

If you’re truely honest, your lifetime isn’t enough to truly know anything - one subject or many subjects. You’ll pass away, and all your work will be forgotten in time eventually - no matter what. Life is impermanent.

So, my random internet advice: if you find one subject you really like, go deep. If you have a lot of interests, go wide. If you want a fancy job and people to fawn over how intelligent you are, be born rich.