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Not all skills can be indefinitely refined and often having more than one skill can make you better in some jobs. For instance programmers often complain about

Not all skills can be indefinitely refined and often having more than one skill can make you better in some jobs. For instance programmers often complain about managers without programming skills.

js8 9y ago
Yes, there is a balance in skills. But I disagree about the skill. Every skill can be refined infinitely. It can seem obvious that if somebody is expert programmer in one narrow application, he reached his "peak". It is however less obvious that a product manager of the same thing has reached the very same peak, yet the product obviously needs the work of both. There is an interesting dichotomy in thinking, which again points to the social status game. People who we deem to have low social status (e.g. blue collar workers) we relegate to this taylorist idea that they must be super-specialized, otherwise they are useless. On the other hand, people who we think should have high social status (e.g. managers) we categorize that they need to be flexible and have broad (rather than deep) skill set, and indeed, we consider being deep a disadvantage. But in reality, both sides benefit from the mix of skills, both sides often have the mix of skills (especially the productive people), and it has not much to do with their actual day-to-day jobs.
alkonaut 9y ago
I'm on 13 straight years in the same C# code base and I still learn things about the fine details of the platform (CLR, the language). My peers that switch from ruby to js like they change underwear can't fathom how I can be doing the same thing for years - and I can't fathom how you can be programming in a platform where you - for example - don't know the time and memoryt complexity of every call you make, and sort of "see" the underlying code under your high level abstractions. So I think the question is how refined you want your skill to be in that long tail of refinement approaching 100% but never getting there.
- marktangotango 9y ago
  Sorry but it's really rare for someone to spend that kind of time on app and not be laughably out of date. I walk into engagements all the time and solve trivial performance issues and bugs that have befuddled the old hands for years, because they just haven't seen any variety or fought any hard bugs. Maybe you're the exception.

Not all skills can be indefinitely refined and often having more than one skill can make you better in some jobs. For instance programmers often complain about managers without programming skills.

js8 9y ago

Yes, there is a balance in skills. But I disagree about the skill. Every skill can be refined infinitely. It can seem obvious that if somebody is expert programmer in one narrow application, he reached his "peak". It is however less obvious that a product manager of the same thing has reached the very same peak, yet the product obviously needs the work of both. There is an interesting dichotomy in thinking, which again points to the social status game. People who we deem to have low social status (e.g. blue collar workers) we relegate to this taylorist idea that they must be super-specialized, otherwise they are useless. On the other hand, people who we think should have high social status (e.g. managers) we categorize that they need to be flexible and have broad (rather than deep) skill set, and indeed, we consider being deep a disadvantage. But in reality, both sides benefit from the mix of skills, both sides often have the mix of skills (especially the productive people), and it has not much to do with their actual day-to-day jobs.

alkonaut 9y ago

I'm on 13 straight years in the same C# code base and I still learn things about the fine details of the platform (CLR, the language). My peers that switch from ruby to js like they change underwear can't fathom how I can be doing the same thing for years - and I can't fathom how you can be programming in a platform where you - for example - don't know the time and memoryt complexity of every call you make, and sort of "see" the underlying code under your high level abstractions. So I think the question is how refined you want your skill to be in that long tail of refinement approaching 100% but never getting there.

marktangotango 9y ago
Sorry but it's really rare for someone to spend that kind of time on app and not be laughably out of date. I walk into engagements all the time and solve trivial performance issues and bugs that have befuddled the old hands for years, because they just haven't seen any variety or fought any hard bugs. Maybe you're the exception.