We live in an age where quantity is seen as preferable to quality, and many people tend to work in a horizontal line: next, next, next. But if you do that, you never investigate the vertical line - the depth of the piece.

The cost of choosing depth

There's something almost default about how we move through modern life—checking off tasks, scrolling to the next thing, accumulating experiences like they're items on a to-do list. We treat depth like a luxury we'll get to eventually, when we're less busy. But McBurney's point cuts deeper: going horizontal is actually the easier path. It doesn't require you to sit with difficulty, to wrestle with a problem, to let something really unspool in front of you.

The vertical line is where the interesting stuff lives. It's the difference between reading fifty articles about a topic and genuinely understanding one. Between having a hundred surface-level friendships and knowing three people deeply. Between making quick decisions and thinking something through until you actually change your mind. Most of us feel this tension—we sense we're skimming when we want to dig, but the structure of our days pushes us toward next, next, next.

What's worth noticing is that depth isn't about moving slower, exactly. It's about directing attention deliberately. You can work fast while working vertically. The real cost isn't time—it's choice. Going deep means saying no to other things. In a world that rewards quantity and options, that feels like a real loss, even when the payoff is actually deeper satisfaction.