Rabbit Holes: The Secret to Technical Expertise
The trick is knowing <i>how deep</i> to go, which depends a lot on your goals.  If you just want to learn for your own curiosity, rabbit hole forever!  If you want to build useful, applicable knowledge, there’a a peak of usefulness after which there are diminishing returns.  So being self-aware enough to know when to pull the plug on your rabbit hole is pretty important (professionally).<p>Also certain kinds of rabbit holes are way more useful than others.  If you’re rabbit holing into some obscure, arcane system, and the stuff you’re learning isn’t challenging you <i>fundamentally</i>, you’re probably wasting your time (I call these “rat holes”).  If your rabbit hole will yield new fundamental insights into something important...now that’s a good rabbit hole!