From my (not-so-big) experience in IT, the sub-fields of this field are really tightly networked together (e.g. if you understand piping in bash, you can then l

From my (not-so-big) experience in IT, the sub-fields of this field are really tightly networked together (e.g. if you understand piping in bash, you can then learn about stdin and stdout concepts in your future C program, or the other way around). Therefore I really can't see how could one try to excel in one area and not touch the others. While you are learning about the area of your choice, you inevitably understand ideas that hold true for many other areas (provided you possess the perception to see them). Expanding on these ideas, in turn, may help you understand something new about your area of choice again. Not willing to do so feels like a wasted opportunity.