>The idea is generalists know a lot about everything and when to pass it off to a subject matter expert.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eW6Eagr9XA

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_competence

It's all about history repeating; or better yet understanding when it's something new and often forcing that.

They say 10,000 hours to become an expert, but that's brute forced learning. When you actually learn how to learn, what universities USED TO teach and have since stopped teaching, you can do it much quicker. People who know how to learn can become an expert in under 1000 hours.

>In 2025, with everything in tech changing by the minute, I’m realizing I need to set boundaries about how deep I go on any particular topic. But I’m unsure how. Particularly if I don’t want to get left behind as things continue to evolve.

that's the wrong way to approach it; or perhaps definition of depth? Depth to me is about a subject that cant be understood until certain other learning milestones have been learnt. Which is perhaps a depth, but also something you can force as something new. A new pattern that will as above be part of the learning.

It's fine to go deep, so long as you're seeing a new pattern you cant predict. The limit isnt about depth, it's about seeing something new.