{"id":9759,"date":"2019-05-08T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T18:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=9759"},"modified":"2020-01-31T04:03:01","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T12:03:01","slug":"wedge-and-knife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2019\/05\/08\/wedge-and-knife\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Mastery More Like a Wedge or a Knife?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s two main ways to think about becoming really good at something.<\/p>\n

The first I call the knife model. This is where you get better and better at a very narrow range of skills, movements and patterns. Olympic sprinters, archers and many artisans master like a knife\u2014getting extremely good at one thing.<\/p>\n

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The second I call the wedge model. This is where getting better requires learning an increasingly broad array of subskills. Programmers, composers and entrepreneurs master like a wedge\u2014getting better overall, by having a huge library of patterns and skills.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019d like to argue that the wedge model matters more for most of us. To get better at our work, we need to pick up more and and more adjacent skills to flesh out and support the work that we do.<\/p>\n

Why Wedges Beat Knives<\/h2>\n
\nListen to this article<\/small>
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