[iamwil]

Like everything, it's a balance, right? All study and no practice is just as bad as all practice with no study. And sometimes, if you internalize something that you read, you won't often remember where you read it from, so you think you came up with it yourself.

That said, I think it's good to keep yourself in check, since we all probably are pretty voracious readers, and will keep reading, even if it's stuff we already know, just because it's a new article. My recent motto is to produce more than you consume (if it's quality stuff).

[xx]

Maybe. But maybe the opposite of all you said is true.

Balance might be not good to be "beating the averages". Practice to the extreme might be better. How do you know that balance is better?

[veritas]

Not true. Practicing incessantly will make you excellent in one category. Reading, learning and continually evolving will make you better across several.

I can stick my head in the sand and keep programming PHP, but thanks to the web and reading, I have an interest in design, AJAX, and most of all Ruby on Rails. You can choose to be insanely good at one thing, or just good at several. I'll take the latter since its more flexible.

[xx]

Being excellent in one thing is often cited as a key factor to success. For example by Google: www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html "It's best to do one thing really, really well"

What insights do you have to proove the makers of the most successful tech startup wrong?