I think what Jason is saying is don't FOCUS on being an expert, and don't obsess over it. I know that I personally feel like I never know enough, and often thi

I think what Jason is saying is don't FOCUS on being an expert, and don't obsess over it. I know that I personally feel like I never know enough, and often think things like "well, I'd like to do x or y, but I should probably learn more about z first". I think the important thing to realize is that there is always more to learn, and you shouldn't be killing yourself over not feeling like an expert. Of course there's lots you don't know; there always will be. You just have to accept that and realize that there's plenty you DO know, and taking on challenges that seem just a bit above where you're at is one of the greatest ways to grow and continue learning. As a semi-related side note, when I first started reading HN (almost a year ago), I felt like 95% of the stuff that was on the front page didn't even MAKE SENSE to me (some would probably argue that HN has changed over the last year, and I think I came in to HN during one of those "let's push Erlang articles to the top to scare off the incoming swarm of n00bs" phases...didn't work on this n00b though :) ). Over the last year, I find that I at least have a general idea what most of the posts are about, even if I still don't totally grok everything that gets posted, and I've learned a ton. I'm happy with that, since I still feel like I learn something new everyday.