I don’t think this is limited to software engineers. I feel like change is happening more rapidly, and there is more being created than ever before. That make

I don’t think this is limited to software engineers. I feel like change is happening more rapidly, and there is more being created than ever before. That makes it difficult for anyone to go deep on anything. We are spread thin across vast landscape of languages, tools, and platforms - with new ones being added every day. On a similar note, I sometimes think about what it takes to be a movie or music “buff” these days. I was born in the 80s. Being a movie or music buff back then meant gaining deep knowledge in a much smaller catalogue of work. Thanks to advancement in audio production technology and access to affordable software for home studio producers (plus the rise of streaming and sharing platforms), the catalogue of music in the world exploded. The same applies for TV and movies. As a kid, it was possible for me to listen to pretty much the majority of my favorite genre (metal) available to me and be a “buff” with deep knowledge of that genre. If I was a kid today that would be much harder, I might have to stick to certain sub genres or focus on only the most successful artists. To come back on topic, I used to have deep knowledge of a certain type of software - Flash actionscript. Who remembers that? These days I just get by with what I need to get the job done.