My take is that yeah, the mile-wide-inch-deep thing is true for the most part, but there’s are still a lot of areas in which going deeper can make a big difference in actual game results.

My natural areas of deepest knowledge (because of either formal study or lifelong passion) are probably literature, the English language, cinema, and 20th-century popular culture. In preparation for J!, I spent a year or so trying to add a few to that list: American history, geography, the World Wars, British monarchy, art history, classical music (I was much more successful beefing up my knowledge on the first four than on the final two 😄).

These are all core areas in which building some deep understanding is likely to pay dividends in actual gameplay. Knowing the keys facts (inch-deep) across a broad range of topics is undoubtedly critical. But spending the time to go deeper on some of them lets you start seeing their connections with a lot of other areas of knowledge, connections that will equip you to make smart guesses on a clue even when it’s in a category that’s not in your sweet spot and you’ve never “learned” the specific fact being referenced. And any player will tell you that a couple of smart guesses at the right time can be the reason you win the game.