Thread by @ID_AA_Carmack

I get asked for career advice a lot, and while my "learn deeply" pitch may be good long term advice, it doesn't help breaking in -- being able to write your own tool chain with a hex editor is great and all, but it doesn't add value at most companies. \

I suspect there is a useful path that I think of as the "tool master". Modern art and programming tools are enormously complex systems, and the typical user only touches a tiny fraction of their features. Picking a path of study that revolves around deeply learning a tool rather\

than building works is potentially backwards, but if you learn why every feature exists, you actually learn a lot about the craft the tool is used for, and you are very likely to be able to add value to a team almost immediately by teaching tricks to the existing developers, \

or at least hit the ground running if you were selected for tool compatibility. The "Unix guru" is a tool master, and so is the "language lawyer". Presumable Photoshop and Maya have similar roles. It would be critical for someone following this path to not become opinionated, \

because they don't have the broader experience to justify it, but as a store of knowledge and skills it seems a useful distinguishing mark at an entry level for those inclined that way.

This is a random thought at this point, does anyone involved in hiring want to comment?