You learn by doing things and getting prompt feedback on how well you’re doing them. The longer the time you have to utilize an increasing set of specialized skills, the better you’re able to take advantage of them.
Getting good at things often cross-pollinates with other things. For instance, when I got good at sparring in Tae kwon do, I started to see the next several moves as a field where I could advance by making effective plays. When I took the time to get better at debate and deeply understand the rules, the same was true there.
I’m no longer trying to be good at debate or political activism, opting instead to learn more professional skills. Skills in technology often have lots of different dimensions, and they often scale up as you learn complementary technologies or how to leverage other people.
I’m still figuring out how to integrate my skills across fields, but being able to do so often leads to rapid increases in overall skills as you start to see how to put things together better.
Isadore Johnson's Website 