Rabbit Holes: The Secret to Technical Expertise
The trick is knowing how deep 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).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 fundamentally, 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!