As the title suggest, this is a topic that I have been thinking about a lot lately.  I tend to be a jack of all trades, but in my case being a jack of all trades means that I never have the time to really get good at one thing.  For me this has become a serious problem that I plan on resolving soon.  I started looking at my life in general and I am this way across the board, not just at work.  I decided that I would try and figure out when I started to spread out and I narrowed it down to my Sophmore year in High School. 

My family moved from Vegas to a small town in Southern Missouri (Branson).  Las Vegas had a huge music program in the school district, there I really did a good job of being one of the top young violinist in the city.  I held first chair in the cities youth orchestra a couple years in a row, I was on my way of really being a Master at something (so I was told). 

When we moved, unfortunately there wasn't a orchestra program, so I started playing the French Horn in Band and my violin started taking second in terms of my focus.  At this time in my life is when I started doing all sorts of things, Track, Football, Band, Jazz Band, Violin and Choir.  You could say I was really good at Music, but I wasn't a master... I think doing all those things really helped me become the person I am, however that tendency to do it all stuck with me and frankly it's now become quite annoying and even a hinderance in some cases.  As I have become older I want to be really good at a couple things or at least one.  I want to lead, go the distance, you know what I mean right?  Do it better than others!

At work, I work mostly alone or with one other person who has similiar skill sets, unfortunately because of this I don't get to work with a UX guy, CF guru, Flex master, Flash animator, etc... I have to figure it out myself and get it done.  I also don't get the opportunity to bounce ideas off more than one person, something I really believe is extremely valuable in learning and expanding your knowledge on a technology. I know there are Pros and Con's to this, you could argue there are more Pro's, but a really Big Con that seriously bothers me... is the lack of being a Master.

So I have decided that I want to get more specialized in what I do for a living, I have about 3 choices-

• Flex/AIR


• UX


• Coldfusion

I see a lot of great things coming out of the community from people who are really focused in a skill set and because of that they are producing some awesome work. 

So, back to why I posted this, I am curious what the community thinks about this, do others struggle with this same issue?  How do you deal with it?  Also, what focus do you think is more needed than others (UX, Flex, AIR, CF, LC, Other)?  Let me know!