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Deepen Your Specialization

5 min read

Cloud Arch

AI knows AWS docs. You know your org's cost structure, compliance constraints, and 'why we chose this.' That's the moat.

Data Arch

Schema design is automatable. Data governance, semantic meaning, and 'what does this column actually mean?' — that's human territory.

Sre

AI monitors. You define what matters. SLO design, error budget tradeoffs, and incident response judgment — go deep there.

Deepen Your Specialization

TL;DR

  • AI handles breadth. You handle depth. Generic knowledge is commoditizing; domain-specific judgment is not.
  • Pick one area — your stack, your domain, your system — and go deep enough that you're the person people ask.
  • "Full-stack" is fine. "Full-stack who owns X and everyone knows it" is better.

Marcus knows Node and Python. So does AI. The difference: Marcus knows his systems. The quirks. The failure modes. The "we tried that in 2021 and it bit us." That knowledge doesn't exist in training data.

Breadth vs. Depth

AI is great at breadth — it's seen thousands of codebases, countless patterns. It's bad at depth — the specific context of your org, your domain, your constraints.

Your move: own the depth. Be the person who knows:

  • Why this architecture decision was made
  • What breaks when X happens
  • Who to ask when Y is unclear

How to Go Deep

  • Own a system end-to-end. Not just "I work on it." Own its evolution, its docs, its runbooks. When it breaks, you're the one people call.
  • Build institutional memory. Write it down. When you learn something the hard way, document it. That becomes your moat.
  • Know the domain. If you're in fintech, understand the regulations. If you're in healthcare, understand HIPAA. AI knows the concepts; you know the consequences.

The "Go-To" Test

If someone asked "who knows the most about X in our org?" — would they say you? If not, pick X and make it true. One deep specialization beats five shallow ones.

Quick Check

AI knows Node and Python. So do you. How does a mid-level engineer build a moat AI can't cross?

You're full-stack. You touch everything. You're good at lots of things. So is AI. When someone asks 'who knows X?' — it's not you.

Click "Deep" to see the difference →

Do This Next

  1. Identify your current "deep" area — the thing you know better than most. Write down 3 things about it that aren't in docs. That's your moat.
  2. Pick one area to deepen in the next 6 months. Volunteer for the hard problems there. Build the reputation.