Aha, I bet nobody saw this one coming! Yes, today I am actually quoting from Sean 'Day9' Plott, an (ex?) professional Starcraft: Brood War player and currently the host of the Day 9 Daily, an online show about Starcraft 2 and how to become a better gamer. I have to say I'm a very big fan of his dailies, because he's a damn funny guy and his shows are always full of good Starcraft 2 advice, even though I cannot watch them live and have to download them because my internet is so slow. Day9, if you happen to read this: You are awesome.
Anyway, 'Depth beats breadth any day of the week'. I can't remember the exact daily in which he said this, but I do recall that when he said it, something just clicked in my head. In his daily (if I recall correctly) he was talking about not being too spread out when trying strategies. Instead one should try to master a few core strategies before moving onto others. And that personally, is what I think is the core of this quote.
Through our lifetimes, we will all learn a number of skills, some very useful, others not so useful. But essentially, we should aim to master those few key skills that will make the biggest difference in our lives. There will most definitely be a conflict as to which skills to concentrate on. And of course, many will give up, or feel like they should try working on another skill. But this quote I feel is dealing with that: We should not try to spread ourselves too far too fast, we should not bite off more than we can chew. Because not only is it a waste of time, but we end up having no real skill developed to the point of mastery, or at least to an advanced level.
So we should instead just concentrate on the development of a few things, rather than trying out many things in the hope that our diversification will cover our lack of mastery. Now, this is different from being competent at a number of skills. There is the saying 'Jack of all trades, master of none, though ofttimes better than master of one' And that is a good saying, basically saying that someone who can do a variety of things well is far better than someone who can only do one thing perfectly.
But that is different from today's quote. Today's quote is on development, stressing that instead of attempting to develop a hundred different skills, or do a multitude of different activities trying to get better in all of them, the concentration of our efforts on a few key skills/activities will yield far better results than spreading out our efforts.
I don't feel like I've done today's quote justice, or interpreted it very well. But considering I'm not a self-help expert, or a motivational guru, I think its okay. Once again, for anyone who does read this your comments would be appreciated. And I do hope that some people are reading...the stats page on my blog dashboard says some people from the US and Denmark have viewed this blog, though I wonder if they were drawn here by accident (maybe they were searching for information on Abraham Lincoln or Bruce Lee?) or if they thought this would be about Dentistry (the URL is so deceiving).
Nonetheless, if anyone DOES really read the posts, and isn't here by accident or for dentistry, it would be nice to hear from you, and to know what you think.
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i also love this quote, and cannot remember the exact daily it was in. however, he was quoting (which i happen to remember, amazingly, the context of) a book "the art of learning". it has stuck with me since that very daily. i think about it in most situations, where people are constantly focused on too much, not going into depth about any particular thing, and thereby sacrificing true mastery (usually due to seeing the consequence of this choice). bruce lee said the very same thing, just different words. "i fear not the man that has practiced a thousand kicks once. but, i do fear the man that has practiced a single kick a thousand times." i may have some of the words wrong, but it's definitely close enough. love it.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff, thank you!
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