Learning one thing to learn another can be taken to extremes. When I finished work on my BS in Pharmacy at the University of Cincinnati, I went on to the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Miami.  I wasn't that interested in becoming a Biochemist or in getting my PhD.  I wanted to know the answer to the question "What is Life?" so that I could write good science fiction stories about life on other worlds.

As Emeril Lagasse might say, if he was talking about learning science instead of cooking, the desire to write good science fiction might be to "kick it up a notch!"