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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

#61

Post by pfkurtz »

mattlondon wrote: post #37
pfkurtz wrote: post #21

A lot of people here are going to talk negatives and prioritization and purpose, but I personally also want to be practically omniscient, and you should strive for it too. You need strategies if you want to know a lot. Certainly focused things like classes and intensive study are necessary from time to time (and especially early in life), but we can't do that our whole lives, nor do we want to. What we need is to dev…

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.

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

#62

Post by reality_inspctr »

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. type 2 accretive fun.

Free / easy. https://app.sundialcalendar.com/

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

#63

Post by testcase_delta »

slmjkdbtl wrote: post #45

Pick one field and start practicing everyday, you'll be amazed what you can achieve on one thing in one year with even only 2hr daily practice.

I second this. It's really stunning what you can learn by logging an hour or two a day. I really like to add Anki to my daily practice routine. I take advantage of screenshotting and jot my notes in Anki in a questions/answer format instead of in a notebook. It's great for learning the core concepts or vocabulary of a new skill.

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

#64

Post by pfkurtz »

echelon wrote: post #32
pfkurtz wrote: post #21

A lot of people here are going to talk negatives and prioritization and purpose, but I personally also want to be practically omniscient, and you should strive for it too. You need strategies if you want to know a lot. Certainly focused things like classes and intensive study are necessary from time to time (and especially early in life), but we can't do that our whole lives, nor do we want to. What we need is to dev…

Back in college, I wanted this too. I triple majored in CS, biology, and chemistry. But when I looked at the impact I wanted to have and the resources I wanted at my disposal and compared them to an academic lifestyle, I saw a pretty glaring disparity. The best way to actually command subjects is to work on them. Spend some time at companies doing the things you want - preferably in high paying jobs - and then start…

If you triple majored in 3 technical subjects, I submit that your aim was not what I am talking about.

I am talking about how you fit in learning the real knowledge of our collective culture over a lifetime, no matter what else you do.

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

#65

Post by gchamonlive »

Victerius wrote: post #23
gduzan wrote: post #6

First, have you asked yourself why you want to be an expert in many things? If it is just to know things, then it doesn't matter; just keep learning until you can't anymore. If it is to apply the knowledge to something, then you can use that fact to determine how much utility over time the knowledge of each thing would have, and focus on the greatest first.

> First, have you asked yourself why you want to be an expert in many things? Not the OP, but here's my answer. I want to be able to win arguments. If I debate the merits of an economic proposal with you, and you say, "Sure, and what are your qualifications, exactly? Do you have a PhD in economics?", I want to be able to say, "Yes, I do have a PhD in economics, actually", or "I have read over 490 books about economic…

> I want to be able to win arguments.

You just need to master rhetoric. No need to be a master of a specific subject to be able to twist arguments in your favor.

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

#66

Post by Ken_At_EM »

mattlondon wrote: post #37
pfkurtz wrote: post #21

A lot of people here are going to talk negatives and prioritization and purpose, but I personally also want to be practically omniscient, and you should strive for it too. You need strategies if you want to know a lot. Certainly focused things like classes and intensive study are necessary from time to time (and especially early in life), but we can't do that our whole lives, nor do we want to. What we need is to dev…

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…

Every time I hear someone bring up the “book smart” versus “street smart” false dichotomy it often comes off as someone trying to justify their own inadequacies.

I am not calling out the previous reply.

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

#67

Post by jasonkester »

SoftTalker wrote: post #51

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. Ecclesiastes 9:10 Basically, do the best work you can at whatever it is you need to do. In the end none of it matters.

Good advice, and it can be quoted from dozens of places throughout history. A few...

Confucius: "Wherever you go, go with all your heart"

Sinatra: "If you're going to do it, it's no good unless you do it all the way"

Snowboarder: "Go Big."

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

#68

Post by madiator »

Do you want to become an expert in very many different things? Just becoming an expert in one field can take a good fraction of your lifetime, so you may want to consider that.

A useful mental model is to already see what you are good at, and draw (mentally) curves of your competence (I wrote about it in https://newsletter.smarter.blog/p/curves-of-competence). And then use it to figure out where to amplify.

Also note that becoming an expert is a lot of hard work.

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

#69

Post by orasis »

What brings you joy on a daily basis? I’m a black belt in Jiu Jitsu and as my mastery continues to deepen it just becomes even more fun and rewarding and I now have a global network of extraordinary people. It’s been well with the thousands of hours.

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

#70

Post by rc_mob »

I don't lol. I just try know my physical and mental limits (know thyself). then I try to do things one at a time, and go until I'm satisfied or tired or hit my limits. Its just life you do what you want on your 80 years.

Annoying thing is that my limits have changed as I got older and had children. So I often had to reassess the time that I can put into my interests. And ok that is life we all get old.

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