Very interesting article:  "The reason is very simple: Capacity. There’s a limit to how much information an individual can process and I think that by now, Microsoft managed to push the feature depth to the point where I can’t fit Visual Studio and related technologies into my head all at once any longer....."

Visual Studio Overload And The Specialization Gamble

Of course Clemens calls himself a generalist, when in actuality it's all relative. For me as an IT operations manager type, Clemens looks like a real specialist.

While I am no programmer, I do dabble, but I try to keep up (a little), in all the camps, .NET and J2EE (MS vs Linux). It's bad when you have to support customers in either camp or some who have projects in both. I work with/for the Department of Defense who has .NET and J2EE systems not to mention a ton of other technology old and new.

I have to keep conversationally aware of issues around DB2 and SQL2005, not to mention some who use MySqL or Oracle. And issues like Oracle's recent raid (purchase) of MySql contract teaming partner. It's enough to make your head spin. I would love to focus just on MS products.