I disagree - unless you are talking about becoming an expert. But I prefer to become an expert in the course of using things in the real world. This applies to

I disagree - unless you are talking about becoming an expert. But I prefer to become an expert in the course of using things in the real world. This applies to the theoretical knowledge as well - you can easily learn new data structures or algorithms in two weeks. Then you can master them when you have a problem that requires you to use them.