It seems impractical to recommend that someone spend a few years in cryptography
That’s too literal. How about: always try to play chess/tennis with someone better than you, when you can. Get your early training—when it’s your full time job to study—in the field you struggle to keep up in, not the one you clearly dominate in. Be the small fish in a big pond. You learn most from people who are better than you. You will learn epistemic humility and self-skepticism. You hopefully learn not to stake your ego on your genius. you learn how to make yourself useful to people you want to learn from.
(But don’t pick the field you can’t keep up in at all; you won’t learn anything when you are utterly lost; you’ll likely be demoralized by the attempt, even if everyone is kind; and you risk being a true burden, toward whom kindness won’t always be extended).
That’s too literal. How about: always try to play chess/tennis with someone better than you, when you can. Get your early training—when it’s your full time job to study—in the field you struggle to keep up in, not the one you clearly dominate in. Be the small fish in a big pond. You learn most from people who are better than you. You will learn epistemic humility and self-skepticism. You hopefully learn not to stake your ego on your genius. you learn how to make yourself useful to people you want to learn from.
(But don’t pick the field you can’t keep up in at all; you won’t learn anything when you are utterly lost; you’ll likely be demoralized by the attempt, even if everyone is kind; and you risk being a true burden, toward whom kindness won’t always be extended).