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Another view on this is that being exposed to different concepts and ways of thinking increases perspective and creativity. All of the things you mentioned as e

Another view on this is that being exposed to different concepts and ways of thinking increases perspective and creativity. All of the things you mentioned as examples (football, playing piano and learning a language) all use very different modes of thought and activate different parts of the brain. It seems like the majority of people would really benefit from that diversity of experience.

ThomPete 11y ago
I hear what you are saying but I actually think this is the wrong way to think about it. The point I was trying to make is that if you just learn a little bit of music, a little bit of football, a little bit of french you are still only learning the same and getting the same perspective no matter how many different things you learn. The trick IMO is to dig deep into something as this will teach you how to dig deep into other things later. I.e. you are actually gaining perspective on other areas even before you learn about them.
- nikatwork 11y ago
  There is a big push at the moment for "T shaped people", ie with a broad range of experience with one or two specialities. By exposing a wide range of activities to kids, they gain breadth. They can then choose what to explore in depth - that is their call. "Overspecialize, and you breed in weakness. It's slow death."
  - ThomPete 11y ago
    I am not talking about specializing I am talking about mastering. Thats a very different thing. You can specialize in playing a sweeping technique on your guitar that does not make you a good musician. And again. No I simply don't believe you gain breadth by being exposed to many different things. It's the other way around. Learning a lot of different things superficially is not going to teach you the real lessons. It's not about acquiring a specific set of skills it's about acquiring an ability to learn how to learn.

ThomPete 11y ago

I hear what you are saying but I actually think this is the wrong way to think about it. The point I was trying to make is that if you just learn a little bit of music, a little bit of football, a little bit of french you are still only learning the same and getting the same perspective no matter how many different things you learn. The trick IMO is to dig deep into something as this will teach you how to dig deep into other things later. I.e. you are actually gaining perspective on other areas even before you learn about them.

nikatwork 11y ago
There is a big push at the moment for "T shaped people", ie with a broad range of experience with one or two specialities. By exposing a wide range of activities to kids, they gain breadth. They can then choose what to explore in depth - that is their call. "Overspecialize, and you breed in weakness. It's slow death."
- ThomPete 11y ago
  I am not talking about specializing I am talking about mastering. Thats a very different thing. You can specialize in playing a sweeping technique on your guitar that does not make you a good musician. And again. No I simply don't believe you gain breadth by being exposed to many different things. It's the other way around. Learning a lot of different things superficially is not going to teach you the real lessons. It's not about acquiring a specific set of skills it's about acquiring an ability to learn how to learn.