Reflections on Depth vs. Breadth in Learning

Introduction

Here goes the final episode of our podcast.

We did this podcast almost a year ago. The podcast is in Tamil; people who are familiar with Tamil can go ahead with the podcast.

Learning Experiences

During my initial days of work, the tasks assigned to me were mostly integrations and scripts and systems that supported those integrations for our product functionalities.

It was a good learning experience where I learned to authorize and use all the UI-facing features of that particular application from just backend APIs.

I would term the learnings from integrating these third-party/open-source tools into our product as breadth-wise learning.

I was also assigned tasks from our Core HRIS modules like leave, attendance, and reports, which were our legacy codes with deliverables from day one.

Depth vs. Breadth

My question to TamizhVendan S was, given a choice at work which one should I prefer? Should it be breadth or depth?

His answer was: 'In the early days of your career, don't put a lot of thought into all these things. Do the best in whatever comes your way. Analyze what suits you best. See which makes you enjoy the work more. Give yourself some time. Minimum 1 year and maximum 2 years. Then ask yourself the same question; you will be able to answer it.'

Reflection

Today when I reflect on the same question while hearing this podcast, I seem to have stumbled upon some opinions on my questions a year ago.

What do you think we should focus on? Depth-wise learning or breadth-wise learning?