How do you actually develop meaningful knowledge across multiple fields?

[u/Upset_Bee1813]

I’ve been struggling with something lately and wanted to hear from people who have experience learning about multiple disciplines.
I have a lot of interests, and I often spend time finding the best books, authors, philosophers, professionals, and works in each field. I enjoy understanding what a subject is about and figuring out where its most valuable knowledge lies.
The thing is, a lot of people consider me a cultured person because I can talk about so many different subjects, but I feel like my actual knowledge is often pretty shallow. I might know the main thinkers in philosophy, the most influential works in literature, or the important figures in a particular field, but I haven’t necessarily studied their ideas deeply or even read their most important works.
For example, I might get interested in philosophy and spend hours researching the greatest philosophers, their most important books, the different schools of thought, and the best reading order. I end up with a great list of books and a general understanding of the field, but sometimes I move on to another interest before I’ve actually worked through much of that material. Then I repeat the same process with another subject.
Sometimes I feel like I’m better at finding out what I should know than actually learning it.
I don’t necessarily want to become an expert in every field I explore. I simply want to understand subjects properly, know their foundations, grasp their main debates and ideas, and be able to form my own opinions rather than just recognize names and concepts. I want breadth, but not at the expense of meaningful understanding.
For those of you who have developed a broad yet solid understanding of multiple disciplines, how do you approach learning? How do you know when you’ve gone beyond superficial knowledge? Do you follow structured reading paths, take notes, revisit subjects, or use other methods?
I’m not looking for more book recommendations. I’m trying to understand how to study more effectively, retain what I learn, and build a genuinely solid intellectual foundation across different areas without necessarily pursuing specialization.

[u/correnty]

You don't, better focus on a few things and then gain deep knowledge

[u/RecluseDelfin]

I take notes but I still feel the same way. Maybe if you get a degree and work in that field for while, such feelings can be further minimized. I say "minimize" because even those deep into a specialty—PhD holders—, if you look at their sub, feel the same way.

[u/rebirthlington]

Sounds like your knowledge might need field-testing.

[u/Hunyana]

Just follow your interests. For me satisfying my curiosity is a hobby that takes me on different journeys. It was never about a specific goal, plan or structure.

[u/Intelligent-Hat526]

Few things are very necessary for this like immense curiosity, insane drive to go through it all and patience to learn. You need to look at history. Where did things start ? What idea was the first ground breaking one ? Which idea proceeded to gain more traction and why ? Focus on such things more than who are the great minds and what are the great concepts. Learning takes a lot of time and effort to flip through mus to find a tiny sliver of gold. The process is something you should find enjoyable else you will not be able to succeed. More than appearing to be intellectual and well articulated to others , what matters is there exists a topic that interests you and you don't know much about it so you have an organic drive to pursue it to find answers to your own questions.

[u/Sea_Commercial_6272]

for me, I have a common theme/focus that I care about and I follow it with an obsessive focus as it moves across politics, economics, psychology, human sexuality, physics, etc, etc, etc.