Weekly Reflection #36 - T-shaped skills
Each week, I share one insight. One piece of wisdom. One question to reflect on. (and a little Lagniappe)
Insight
The T-shaped pattern has been around since the seventies. It argues for going deep in your craft while maintaining broad knowledge across others. World-class knowledge of monolithic SQL databases won't inherently make you good at distributed systems or React websites. Though being broadly familiar with patterns and technologies in other domains makes you a richer database expert. One of the great benefits of going deep on a topic is that it teaches you what real understanding looks like. It should give you empathy and respect for the deep skills others have. If you decide to dive deep into another field, you know how hard you'll have to work to reach mastery.
Wisdom
I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.
Richard Feynman, What Do You Care What Other People Think?
Reflection
What have you gone deep enough on to know what depth costs?
Lagniappe
- I really enjoyed Don't Take the Black Pill, Andrew Kelley's talk from SSW 2026. It's important to hear principled voices on computing.
- This week on Book Overflow, we continue our discussion of We, Programmers by Robert Martin. This is Part 3.
- As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Reply and let me know what resonates.