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

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

#71

Post by abeppu »

The threads in here about honestly confronting the finite time available and defining goals and understanding why you want expertise are both reasonable and important to think through.

But in terms of actually picking what to focus on, I'd suggest looking for under-explored intersections of domains that are interesting to you. This is for two reasons:

- If the particular intersection is not field with a large number of people doing real work in it, the "bar" for being an "expert" is lower. In a well-developed area, even after doing quite a lot of learning, one might not be an "expert".

- The intersection can give you a view on those adjacent fields which may reveal other interesting opportunities, and may make you at least fluent or productive in those areas.

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

#73

Post by boredemployee »

If you have the privilege of not having a shit day job I'd say to follow your instincts. My love and my passion is producing a niched genre of music, I'm very good at it, but it doesnt pay my bills so unfortonately I have to have a daily job. So I'm accepting that's my destiny as I get older and I don't really care about being an expert at it anymore.

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

#74

Post by fezfight »

reality_inspctr wrote: post #62

I built an app to model this out. It forecasts your future down to the millisecond. It's super simple right now, but has a "time machine" function to see where you'll be in 5 / 10 / 30 years -- and whole life. i.e. You might spend 20,000 hours in the bathroom and 10,000 hours writing novels. What's valuable to me and the people who have used it is to compare how much time you'll spend on type 1 hedonistic fun vs. typ…

I enjoyed messing around with that. I'm very old and your app helped reinforce that. I have a stupid question that is likely due to my age. Please feel free to ignore me. Why is this called an app and not a webpage? Is it just modern parlance or is there some functional difference?

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

#75

Post by lcall »

This can be guided by knowing one's purpose in life, and by knowing that life does not end when this mortal lifetime ends, but we will actually continue to exist; and it is possible, based on our individual choices, that our learning, service, and growth can continue. For me, this helps take the pressure off. I wrote how I know this, at my simple web site (in profile).

There are ways to use our time that brings happiness in things that last and are not transient. A scripture says: men are that that they might have joy. Another says that what we learn by our diligence in this life will remain with us in the world to come. So it's definitely not a waste, to learn, and serve others with our time.

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

#76

Post by groffee »

"It is a painful thing to say to oneself: by choosing one road I am turning my back on a thousand others. Everything is interesting; everything might be useful; everything attracts and charms a noble mind; but death is before us; mind and matter make their demands; willy-nilly we must submit and rest content as to things that time and wisdom deny us, with a glance of sympathy which is another act of our homage to the truth." - Antonin Sertillanges, The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods

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

#78

Post by Aeolun »

maire wrote: post #26
komadori wrote: post #12

In that case, first become an expert in life-span extension!

If new things to be expert in proliferate faster than you can become an expert then life-span extension will not work. You would need to duplicate yourself each time there is a new thing you want to pursue. One you would be a concert violinist and the other you could cure the common cold.

That is a problem best solved after you don’t have to worry about the time involved any more.

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

#80

Post by mattlondon »

pfkurtz wrote: post #61
mattlondon wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you want to be "book smart" and only know a lot about what someone else thinks and tells you, or actually learn something yourself and gain the intuition and detailed understanding that you get from forming your own knowledge? You can read books till the cows come home, but don't expect to become an expert from reading alone. I can't imagine anyone on their deathbed wishing they'd spent more time reading on the to…

Lol. Read my first line. I'm a software engineer posting on Hacker news. I know how to learn a skill. This is something else, that you can have, if you read lots of books and learn more languages. Becoming smart is, in part, about being exposed to lots of others thoughts, and lots of facts, and discussing those things and thinking through them yourself.

I think you are conflating knowledge with being "smart"/intelligent.

One does not beget the other.

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