The future favors dot connectors over perfectors. Dot connectors are going to have a better time. They always have because the fact of the matter is, arcane mastery of anything to an AI is just “perfecting calligraphy.”

What are you doing? If you’re not going up, you’re going nowhere. And the best way up is to go out.

Specialization has been a reliable path to reaching par with best practices. Cross-pollination is the key to creating next practices.

—Mike Bechtel, during the “Breadth is the New Depth: Why the Future Favors Learn-it-alls Over Know-it-alls” presentation at SXSW 2025