Broad Knowledge Vs Specific Knowledge?

[MarkusR]

What do you guys think is better? My view at the moment is leaning toward the deep penetrative specific knowledge. Basically mastering one specific field. I find that in todays society that may hold the most leverage.

At the moment I am in university, and also pursuing music. Music being my main passion, but I thought I could maybe do both, and somehow become proficient in physics and also become a really good musician. This was my vision at the beginning of university. Now going on to my second year Ive realised how much its really going to take to pursue either, and that trying to pursue both may only result in mediocre results for either.

Of course we are all inspired by people like Leonardo Divinci who managed to become masters in many fields, and thats one thing we all look up to. But that requires so much work and focus I don't know how practice it would be.

Would love to hear peoples opinions on this. What fields of mastery do you pursue? How do you divide them up into an order of importance? Do you have one main thing that you do, and want to do for a living and other things as hobbies, or do you just follow whatever feels important in the moment?  Any thoughts and ideas would be lovely to hear

[Rilles]

Try to know everything about something and something about everything. 

[Tim R]

4 minutes ago, MarkusR said:

Now going on to my second year Ive realised how much its really going to take to pursue either, and that trying to pursue both may only result in mediocre results for either.

Very good? there's a Russian saying "за двумя зайцами погонишься, ни одного не поймаешь", which translates to "if you chase after two rabbits, you won't catch either one". 

Your capacity to focus/concentrate is limited. so you need to decide what to invest your capacities in. You don't necessarily have to focus on just one thing and neglect everything else, but you do need to distribute your focus depending on what you think is more important. 

You can focus on university / spirituality, nobody said you have to do 50/50 for both and then only get 50/50 results, you can do 90/10 and get 90/10 results.

When I first got into university, I focused more on spirituality and big picture understanding of reality - though not consciously, it was spiritual bypassing. Which eventually caught up with me at the end of my studies (I still managed to get a somewhat decent degree in science, but it could have been better). These days I'm trying to make up for what I spiritually bypassed in my late youth, I don't regret beginning with spirituality early on, but I do think that it would probably have been better the other way round, first survival, then spirituality. 

[LastThursday]

Your knowledge should be like a mountain range, wide and impressive with some high peaks. The high peaks are there because you were interested in climbing them. 

To come back down to earth. It's useful to get a basic grounding in many different areas of knowledge. This allows you to get a more informed feel for what interests you so you can look into certain areas in more depth. Also you start noticing connections between different areas such as music and mathematics, biology and spirituality, art and chemistry and so on. Those connections themselves are interesting for their own sakes. 

Behind it all is just plain curiosity about how the world works.

[itachi uchiha]

Read the book one thing by gary kellar and jay papasan.your problem is very well explained.and read the book for me was very eye opening

[MarkusR]

@LastThursday I really love this answer! great analogy

 

[MarkusR]

@itachi uchiha Thanks for the suggestion I'll order the book now!

 

[MarkusR]

@Tim R But why not just choose one and get 100% results ?

[Danioover9000]

@MarkusR

On 12/8/2021 at 8:59 AM, MarkusR said:

What do you guys think is better? My view at the moment is leaning toward the deep penetrative specific knowledge. Basically mastering one specific field. I find that in todays society that may hold the most leverage.

At the moment I am in university, and also pursuing music. Music being my main passion, but I thought I could maybe do both, and somehow become proficient in physics and also become a really good musician. This was my vision at the beginning of university. Now going on to my second year Ive realised how much its really going to take to pursue either, and that trying to pursue both may only result in mediocre results for either.

Of course we are all inspired by people like Leonardo Divinci who managed to become masters in many fields, and thats one thing we all look up to. But that requires so much work and focus I don't know how practice it would be.

Would love to hear peoples opinions on this. What fields of mastery do you pursue? How do you divide them up into an order of importance? Do you have one main thing that you do, and want to do for a living and other things as hobbies, or do you just follow whatever feels important in the moment?  Any thoughts and ideas would be lovely to hear

   Which one you value and do first, do the other as well. Ultimately, having both broad and specific knowledge is great.