To specialize or not to specialize, that is the question.

3. Do you do a deep dive learning sprint whenever a new project demands it?

Often it's this. A mix of 1, 2 and 3 actually. And 6, without the give-up clause

#6 was a bit facetious.  I guess nobody who hangs out on element14 has given up on technology and learning about it.

I've met far too many over the years who quickly gave up and became project managers...

Can we still be friends?

LOL. Of course we can. There's always an exception to the rule... you never gave up. Now that's respect!

9. Look at the cost of the education to go into any of these fields and freeze by being overwhelmed by both choice of options and cost of qualificaiton / certifications

cstanton said:

cost of qualificaiton / certifications

Certifications, I only do when sponsored. I'll go on a sponsored four day agile training + certification in two weeks. It's remote, but prices are out of reach for a normal person. 
I'm a bit lucky, that my company sometimes sponsors certifications that I do for personal reasons, too. They paid for my UML exam fees.

Then there's Coursera, free for a wealth of electronics related topics - university level. You don't get the certificate, but you get a document with your exam score.
A great way to achieve 3: Do you do a deep dive learning sprint.

cstanton said:

choice of options

That will sort itself out. You 'll drop out if you made a wrong choice, at no cost but your ego. 
If you don't pick any because too much choice: I have no solution for that

Good point - the field is not only daunting once you are in it, it is even more daunting before you get into it.

Jan Cumps said:

You 'll drop out if you made a wrong choice

Do you mean drop out of the education or certification?

I don’t have an electronics background but I spent 4 years straight out of university writing FORTRAN code for an industrial process simulator with company support and training and then 4 more years in the field proving and applying it in operations mostly on my own. That pretty much made me an expert in that area and I wanted to go back to the research organization and expand on the specialty I was in. But they made me an engineering supervisor responsible for general operations. And then an engineering manager and eventually even a project manager for quite a few years. That gave exposure to lots of things including electronics and instrumentation / control with some  freedom to poke around. If anything, being a project manager took more of a toll on life balance than being a technical specialist but I wouldn’t trade the time spent in either.

I say take advantage of the opportunities that come your way and do what you enjoy. That might mean doing any of the things in the list above. Right now I am on a 4 week sabbatical away from my normal job of being retired.