july

Making peace with the fact that there are areas/markets/subjects/tech I’m not going to understand deeply

I have an inability to deeply focus and understand everything - because there isn’t enough time to do so

Essentially, by saying no to many areas, you have time to dive deep in areas that matter to you

creating and destroying; built flying cars & autonomous vehicles, now building roc.camera, writings: july.rocks

One way to think of understanding, shallow versus deep:

The former is about solving a problem using a tool like an oscilloscope to test circuits. It requires some basic knowledge of circuits. 

The latter is about being able to understand fully the theory behind how and why oscilloscopes work, and how to improve them

Let’s take a step back and think about human life. Avg age is about 70 to 80 years in the industrialized world. The first 20 years is used for becoming a fully functional human. The last 20 years is slowing down, retirement etc (for most) 

You have between the years of 20 and 60

Optimistically you have 40 yrs

So let’s say that you have about 40 years. And let’s say that to understand something deeply into be able to do it really well, it takes about five, maybe 10 years. So realistically if you are lucky you have about three, maybe four chances to do something really well in your life

That’s it

So you really have about three or four shots in your entire life, to do something that utilizes this deep knowledge and understanding that you’ve gained

On one hand I feel like that’s it? Life feels limited, Limited opportunities. On the other hand, how often do you get to do things that matter in the world?

I don’t think it’s for a lack of ability, in other words it’s not that I’m in capable of learning things deeply. I really do think that when you need to learn something deeply, it takes years and years of learning and thinking and doing. 

It takes a long time to learn things deeply and be able to do them well