Kevin Martin Jose
Jul 24, 2017 · 2 min read

TL;DR:

The article seems to be the author’s personal opinion rather than the result of research. I respect the intentions, but sorry I don’t buy it.

I disagree. What if an abundance of choice lets you “dabble” in 10 different things and then later you come up with something tremendous that actually spans all these things you had earlier “dabbled” in? If success means a decent pay, big house and a fast car, yes specialize in a niche skill set and milk it to fatten your purse. But heck, what if you specialized in the “wrong” skill? Life is sorta indeterministic. You can’t say “do these things and you will end up here”.

Also, I read this article about Shannon which mentions that Shannon did not limit himself to information theory. He made toys, rode unicycles and other weird stuff. Yes, Shannon was a genius and rest of us mortal men should not probably try to be Shannon. Nevertheless, the article seem to be well researched and gives evidence that Shannon was all these things and yet he changed the world in ways he might not have imagined.

My point is, do you have any data to back up your claims that dabbling in too many things can result in a person not being “successful”? If 3 friends who dabbled in many things did not become rich/happy/famous/your-definition-of-success yet, it doesn’t mean that they failed. It simply means that they haven’t succeeded yet. Do what you love, love what you do, even if it’s a gazillion things (yes, that’s unsolicited advice not backed by research/data. Yes, I do see my double standards :p )

Kevin Martin Jose

Written by

The 'blah' in blah blah black sheep. Indifferent to mortals, strongly opinionated about computers

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