The Shape Debate
I've come to realize a thematic principle that repeatedly gets tested throughout one's life. Breadth vs. Depth . The choice between devoting a lot of resources to succeed at a specific thing or spreading out your success across many things. It's a tradeoff that has enormous impact. Whether we realize it or not, everyday is a struggle between these two forces; at every granularity, the principle is tested. Although the principle is simple in retrospect, its analysis and understanding can provide more meaning and direction in life. To clarify the problem, every person has a finite amount of resources to use for an infinite amount of things to do. The goal is to strike the right balance between the number of things to devote yourself to, while maintaining a level of success that keeps you happy. It's still up in the air which approach to life is better. There are many views and examples that can be made for either side, so I will try to provide the pros and cons of both w...