Always Be Learning - The Daily Gwei #466
Learning is something you do until the day you die.
The main thing that keeps me so engaged with the Ethereum ecosystem is the fact that I can wake up every single day and learn something new. Take the below as an example - I consider myself quite well-versed in all things Ethereum protocol development (especially around the Beacon Chain) but I was not aware of the fact that Terence outlined below - and I was actually excited about this!
I’m sure many of you feel overwhelmed at times due to the sheer amount of things there are to learn about in the Ethereum ecosystem. I mean, just trying to wrap your head around layer 2’s alone will take you weeks if not months of study and research all while the entire field is changing beneath your feet. Though I don’t consider this a bad thing - the fact that the Ethereum ecosystem is ever-changing and overwhelming is a huge positive - it acts as a forcing function to keep recruiting more and more people into our community in order to scale up our collective knowledge.
What makes the crypto ecosystem even crazier to keep up with is the sheer amount of noise that we all have to sift through to get to the signal. I’m sure you’re all aware of the big “crypto influencers” who spend much of their time spreading bad information that educators like myself have to correct - the most egregious being straight out lies such as stating that The Merge reduces gas fees. And the worst part is that a lot of people believe this bad information for a very long time - some people still believe that no one can run a full Ethereum node!
Lastly, I would make the argument that trying to keep up with everything will actually lead someone to become a “jack of all trades, master of none” which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but does have negative effects. For example, specializing in one particular field allows one to hone their craft and deliver outsized value rather than only delivering half or a quarter of the value because their focus is on too many things. I’ve personally experienced this a lot over the years and have had to accept that I can no longer keep up with everything in Ethereum so I may as well specialize in a few different fields that I’m most interested in (core dev, layer 2’s, public goods and DeFi).
I think it’s only going to get much harder from here to keep up with everything happening on Ethereum - and this is okay. I mean, would you even want to try and keep up with everything? Just filtering out the noise from the signal in Ethereum is time-consuming enough - let alone trying to do that for everything in crypto. It’s probably best just to stick with what you’re most passionate about and keep learning as much as you can about that - the return on investment for doing that will be more than enough!
Have a great day everyone,
Anthony Sassano
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All information presented above is for educational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice.
Thank you!
I consider myself the "wanting to be everywhere - learning about everything" guy. I observe myself more and more underwater in shitloads of shilling noise - as well as quality signal but in sheer indigestible quantities.
The more you know the more doors open - a vicious circle.
Your words of wisdom resonate well with me - less may be more. Focus. Marathon. Structure.
Keep up the nice work.
Jan