Breadth vs. Depth

I’ve been a breadth person for most of my life because my philosophy has always been to keep my options open. I am now learning to be a depth person.

In University I switched from Computer Engineering to Electrical Engineering just because I wanted my options open. Electrical Engineering would have allowed me to do either as I already had many programming courses and projects, even though I liked computer engineering more and that's where I ended up after school.

I started working at Microsoft 3 years ago when I was 21 and I have jumped technology areas 3 times in 3 years, not counting the smaller projects I’ve taken up on the side. During my first 2 years, I wanted to get into consulting. I’d get bored too quickly. 6-8 months of doing the same thing and I’d be itching to try something new, and I thought consulting was the answer. I’ve now realized it generally takes doing the same thing for much longer to accomplish something meaningful.

Observing and talking with many professionals at various stages in their careers, from Vice Presidents to entry level professionals, I’ve recently started to realize the importance of having depth. The importance of just picking a technology, industry, business, whatever, and just beating the shit out of it. Going at it for years and years and becoming the best in the world at it. Even successful serial entrepreneurs spend years in each of their businesses before cashing in and trying something else.

One of the areas I’ve put this into practice in the past year is in activities outside work. 2-3 years ago I was all over the place. I remember there would be weeks in which I’d work 70 hours, go to acting class once a week, boxing class 3 times a week, guitar lessons once a week, going out with friends 2-4 nights a week and golfing (I’m not used to sleeping much, thanks to the University of Toronto. And I mean that in a good way). Such a lifestyle meant I didn’t accomplish much in each of the areas. I never acted in small theatre, I never had an amateur boxing match, I never played at golf tournaments.

A year ago, I decided to cut my plethora of activities and just focus on guitar. I began to realize how much more passionate I was about guitar compared to everything else I was doing. And that decision paid off. I started playing guitar 10-20 hours a week. Sometimes I start at 10pm after I am done with work and keep playing till 3-4AM (I have headphones connected to my amplifier which is why I still have neighbours). My guitar skill level began to improve exponentially. In May, I performed live in a band at the Experience Music Project museum for a small audience of about 50 people. Within guitar-playing, I am passionate about lead guitar work. I was only doing simple lead guitar work for a couple of songs at EMP. Since then, my skill level has gone up even further. In November, I will be playing at a bar in Woodinville WA (Details still to be confirmed), and I will be the lead guitarist in all the songs and will be doing some Metallica solos.

So the point I am trying to make is that with the same amount of effort and energy, I’d get nowhere in 5 endeavors, or somewhere in one endeavor. And I’m now trying to figure how to apply this to my professional life.

However, for depth, you need passion. You need passion that will get you going late in the night on the most minute details, for YEARS. I’ve done that for months because I am a passionate person, but I find it hard to continue to work on the same technology for years. And I’ve realized I just haven’t found something I can work on for years and years without getting bored. I’m working to change that in the upcoming 6 months and hopefully will be blogging about it then.
Case in point, Bill Gates. He found that thing he could work on for years and years, at a very early age: operating systems. I also think the earlier you find that passion, the more likely you are to succeed. And by succeed, I mean financial and personal success.

Breadth on the other hand is good to have to augment your depth. Most successful executives and managers I see at Microsoft picked an area they were passionate about, beat the shit out of it by spending long hours for years and years which is what got them promoted to senior levels, and at the same time kept some level of breadth to know what’s going on in other areas. Anytime you talk to them about any industry, they will know at least something about it. An advice my former manager gave me was that anytime you read anything, think about how it affects what you are working on. So even if you are in technology, and reading about the stock market or business, (or even Us weekly :) ), think about how it affects you.

People with much more breadth than depth have very interesting experiences. For example, I’ve seen people who have done very unorthodox career switches. Some have been in the army for 10+ years before starting as entry level engineers at Microsoft. Such experiences mean they have so many stories to share, so many interesting life experiences to talk about. And they grow fast, but in most cases, a person who spends 20 years in industry will be at a level higher in his/her career than an identical person who spends 10 years in the army and 10 years in industry. At least in my observations.

In the end it comes down to what you want. An interesting life with many different experiences, finding and fulfilling smaller passions, or a much more accomplished life where you find your one big passion… and beat the shit out of it.