Breadth and depth
What’s better?
“The wider and deeper your skills are, the more you can achieve.”
Breadth is the span of your knowledge, similar to how wide a bird can span across when its wings are out.
Depth is how much you know of something, this is what you need to be a subject matter expert.
Neither breadth nor depth is better than the other, they both provide important perspectives in one’s training.
- The more breadth that you have, the more topics you know
- The more depth you know of one particular subject, the better you are at it
In my opinion, breadth and depth always go together.
Just like a bird, the bigger its wings, the better its stamina, and the higher it can soar. A little bird can fly well, but can’t go too high, but an eagle with its wide wings can fly well and soar high.
While both are birds and practice the same bird characteristics (e.g. eating, building nests, mating, flying), one can go further than the other due to its natural, inherited, traits. Luckily for us humans, we have the option to choose how much breadth and depth you want to have. The wider and deeper your skills are, the more you can achieve.