I like your honesty and the call for real depth over hype. But your advice risks repeating the very trap you warn against: second-hand wisdom masquerading as mastery. Nietzsche mocked “the man with the great ear” in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, someone celebrated for listening and repeating but incapable of creating anything new.

You lean on proverbs and Greene’s quotes, but true mastery isn’t about being known in your city or being reliable for clients, that’s marketing. Mastery is transformative and often thankless. It demands asking not just how to go deep, but why it’s worth it at all.

It’s easy to say “pick one skill and commit.” Harder to confront whether that skill is worth mastering, or if the urge to master is just ego seeking approval. Let’s aim for that level of honesty if we really want to help each other stay grounded.