[ducktypegoose]

I think this point resonates. There are often a lot of commonalities between traits and having a breadth of understanding often affords more insight into a particular, but it will always be valuable to have a true mastery of a select few. at risk of alienating others in the conversation I'd like to make a point about a game called DotA. Extremely difficult with a high skill ceiling, the game pits teams of players against one another in asymmetrical battle with 126 characters, each with distinct abilities. There is a prevailing wisdom that the game is dauntingly unaccessible because, "to understand DotA you have to play a few games with every hero." On the other hand to play well you need to specialize on a particular hero and role. However every hero has a select group of counter-heroes, which have abilities that are particularly strong against a given. Therefore the best players in DotA have an understanding of all heroes, but they specialize in a small pool of 4 or 5. There are people who are very good at playing a single hero, but they can be completely shut-down with a counter. Maybe I'm just a little over-invested in a silly game, but I think it draws a powerful analogue to life.

[Konnstann]

In league of legends, there is a concept of "one-tricking", where you have a mastery of one champion, and use that mastery to win, rather than game knowledge and good macro play. Interestingly enough while the top ranks are full of these players, they very rarely make it into the professional scene.

[infinnity]

To be fair, the argument most often used for OTP-ing in LoL is not that you neglect developing game knowledge and macro play in favor of mastering that one champion, it's that OPT-ing eliminates all of the random barriers to entry that comes along with having to learn a wide array of champions which in turn allows for you to spend a far greater amount of time developing general game knowledge and understanding of macro play.

[pdimitar]

I know plenty of 18-25 y/o people and I am giggling when they use the term "one-trick pony" for their narrow-minded colleagues (or bosses). I am glad they are smart and are not easily impressed. Critical thinking is important.

Personally I feel that some of the gaming lingo fits really well in the real world but it might be just me.

[brummm]

To be fair, I think Dota has much harder counters for some heroes than LOL