From the opposite side of the spectrum consider these facts…
1. Studies have shown it becomes harder for your brain to learn as you age. So there is some logic to burying yourself in your chosen profession when you are young and learning as much as you possibly can.
2. Thanks to the beauty of compound interest the money you make in your 20s and 30s is worth several times more than the money you’ll make in the entire rest of your life. So it make sense to get as good as you can at what you do, make a decent amount of money and sock it away when you’re young
3. When you’re young your body is generally in the best shape it will ever be. I personally think everyone should have the experience of partying all night or picking up potential mates at a bar. That’s really only possible when you’re young (or at least it gets harder the older you get).
4. You’re more useful to society if you take the skills you do well and find a way to contribute with them. What’s better, a programmer spending his day hammering nails badly or a programmer who donates a day’s wages and hires 3 guys who have worked construction and know what they’re doing?
I’m not against public service. But if you focus on yourself until you’re say…40…you’ll still have a good 50 to 60 years to go out and do as much public service as you want. There’s nothing wrong with using your youth to establish yourself in the world and then turning your attention to bettering the world once you’re settled in.
On the other hand, being highly specialized can be a bad thing. Look at all of the skilled laborers that went straight from highschool to working on the assembly line making $70k. Now that all of that work has been undercut by outsourcing to Mexico or China, what options do they have? (other than dropping their profession and learning a new one)
I think it's reasonable to ask, philosophically, whether the kind of values society and the socioeconomic system as it is configured encourages us to express are the kinds we really want to have as a species, etc.
But, as you in effect point out: From a capitalistic perspective, total, narrow commitment of the sort being chastised here is much more desirable and stands a higher chance of being amply rewarded than being a jack of all trades and a master of absolutely none.
Whether we want that kind of world is one question. But there is no question as to whether hackers participating in this world and structuring their lives to follow its built-in incentives are doing the best they can for themselves, in terms of the parameters of "success" as espoused by this system. They are.
1. Studies have shown it becomes harder for your brain to learn as you age. So there is some logic to burying yourself in your chosen profession when you are young and learning as much as you possibly can.
2. Thanks to the beauty of compound interest the money you make in your 20s and 30s is worth several times more than the money you’ll make in the entire rest of your life. So it make sense to get as good as you can at what you do, make a decent amount of money and sock it away when you’re young
3. When you’re young your body is generally in the best shape it will ever be. I personally think everyone should have the experience of partying all night or picking up potential mates at a bar. That’s really only possible when you’re young (or at least it gets harder the older you get).
4. You’re more useful to society if you take the skills you do well and find a way to contribute with them. What’s better, a programmer spending his day hammering nails badly or a programmer who donates a day’s wages and hires 3 guys who have worked construction and know what they’re doing?
I’m not against public service. But if you focus on yourself until you’re say…40…you’ll still have a good 50 to 60 years to go out and do as much public service as you want. There’s nothing wrong with using your youth to establish yourself in the world and then turning your attention to bettering the world once you’re settled in.