Knowledge is depreciating faster than ever

Learn wide or learn deep? It’s a question that I struggle with frequently, and likely will wrestle with for quite a long time to come.

On the one hand, you have the idea that wider study helps, even in narrow fields.

On the other hand, you have thoughts like this one from the book “ Thank You For Being Late “, where author Thomas Friedman essentially states the opposite:

“As the world speeds up, stocks of knowledge depreciate at a faster rate.”

So who is right? They both might be. I think the angle to consider is what was shared in the post I mentioned above about wider study from the book “Range”. Even those that study wide generally have a specific field of expertise, and keeping up with that niche is the challenge. How deep should you go there?

The leads into another problem, which is understanding when to try to learn something versus when you can let it go and know that Google will provide the answer when you need it. For example, I study geography a good bit because I know it’s a weak spot of mine, but is that a solid use of my time? It’s a tough question.

Ultimately, I think the smartest people tend to have the greatest number of mental models about a given subject. Charlie Munger, long-time business partner of Warren Buffett, put it…