Professional development, is wide or deep knowledge better?

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2022-08-13 17:00:06

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Obviously this will depend greatly on a large number of factors, but at least for some industries, there may be a general consensus on which choice future employers will find the most interesting.

My own concrete example: I'm a software developer with some years of experience, and feel confident saying that I've gotten rather good at what I'm doing. I'm considering pickup up skills in Information Architecture. Since IA is, from my point of view, rather different from what I regularly practice, I wonder if I should keep focusing on what is already my strength(s) instead.

Well the correct answer is both! If you could be very broad and very deep, and know everything wouldn't you? Alas though, even geniuses have their limits. So we have to chose what skills we are going to grow vs those we're going to sacrifice.