Micro and macro knowledge

Once upon a time I knew everything. I built dynamically generated pages for a web application. My world was bounded by a magical combination of XML, XSLT, HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. Over time I added Java on the server. My world got a little more complicated, but figuring out how to turn a number into a string wasn’t much of a mental workout. And so it went. Today I’m an architect responsible for our product’s infrastructure, and my world has grown to include all those J2EE technologies and buzzwords.

I’ve forgotten how to write CSS selectors for classes and IDs, but I know they exist. I don’t remember exactly what the thread-safe map implementation with optimized reads is called, but I can look it up on request. I’ve never worked with JPA’s EntityManager, but I know it corresponds conceptually to Hibernate’s Session, so I can explain to anyone how to use it. I could go on, but that’s beside the point.

What I’m getting at is, “The more I learn, the less I know.” Or, “The more I know, the less I know it in detail.” There isn’t much left of the micro knowledge I once had. In exchange I have plenty of macro knowledge, and I can absorb the micro knowledge when I need it. Am I an oddball, or is it the same for you?

Related responses:

• Lukáš Křečan Knowledge and experience
• Vlasta Vávrů What counts?