[jasey]

While I agree with you I think its equally, and if not more important to have a broad high level knowledge of topics.

I taught myself recursion, threading, bit manipulation, design patterns etc as I needed them. I knew what problems they solved at a high level and only learnt the implementation when I needed to.

For example, I only knew about where you might use the decorator pattern before I had a programming test for a job which required you to "create a plugin system". A few hours learning how to actually apply it and I was good to go.

Also if you surround yourself with people smarter than you, you always have someone to point you in the right direction.

This is why I love HN, even though my background is engineering. I get a high level understanding on marketing, design, sales, hireing, product development etc etc

Its cliché, but "learning how to learn" is whats important to me.