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Deconstructing The Polymath
00:00:00 Learn Like a Polymath
00:01:46 Two Paths to Polymathy
00:24:46 Cross-Pollination as the Key
00:32:34 Guidelines and a Plan
Learn Like a Polymath: How to Teach Yourself Anything, Develop
Multidisciplinary Expertise, and Become Irreplaceable (Learning how to
Learn Book 12) By Peter Hollins
Hear it Here - https://bit.ly/learnlikeapolymathhollins
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08JKPHMX7
Polymathy is the modern currency. Generate unique solutions and
perspectives that only a dedicated self-learner can.
Transcript
Learn, like a polymath, how to teach yourself anything, develop multidisciplinary expertise,
Speaker:and become irreplaceable, written by Peter Hollins, narrated by Russell Newton.
Speaker:Think of the smartest, most successful people history has ever known.
Speaker:Which names come to your mind?
Speaker:Be it Einstein, Da Vinci, Bill Gates, Isaac Newton, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, or someone
Speaker:like them, their success can be attributed to one common factor - they were all polymaths.
Speaker:This means that they specialized and were knowledgeable in several different domains,
Speaker:and they integrated these disparate fields of study to create art,
Speaker:come up with scientific inventions, and so on.
Speaker:Though this might sound intimidating and only achievable for those who are
Speaker:naturally highly intelligent, anyone can become a polymath with the right mindset and attitude.
Speaker:You may have heard that it’s better to specialize or master
Speaker:one skill rather than be a jack of all trades.
Speaker:Some cultures even have sayings like “a man with twelve talents has nothing to eat for dinner."
Speaker:However, the modern workplace increasingly requires a more
Speaker:diversified skill set in order to thrive and achieve success.
Speaker:To be the best in the world at one thing,
Speaker:you need to be better than everyone else who specializes in that field.
Speaker:But to be great, without being the best, at three or more subjects simultaneously is not only rare,
Speaker:but also significantly easier than being the greatest of the great in one field.
Speaker:As such, being a polymath can be critical to leading a successful professional life,
Speaker:and in this book, we’re going to discuss how you can start thinking like one too.
Speaker:Two Paths to Polymathy
Speaker:Over the years, several theories have been
Speaker:presented to explain what makes someone a polymath.
Speaker:One such theory is Howard Gardner’s notion of multiple intelligences.
Speaker:To understand this theory, we first need to delve into what
Speaker:the traditional view of intelligence has been.
Speaker:Historically, intelligence has been perceived in fairly one-dimensional ways.
Speaker:Your intellectual capacity was thought to be fixed at birth as a result of
Speaker:your genetic inheritance, without any possibility of change in the future.
Speaker:This intelligence mainly consisted of one's ability to comprehend language and logic,
Speaker:which could be measured using some standardized tests, such as IQ tests.
Speaker:(LumenLearning, Keith 2009)
Speaker:Since then, much progress has been made in broadening our concept of intelligence.
Speaker:Gardner, a Harvard psychologist, considered the traditional view
Speaker:of intelligence insufficient for explaining how different people learn and exhibit their smarts.
Speaker:Where those who are highly articulate or able to solve complex logical problems
Speaker:are often considered to be conventionally intelligent, he emphasized those who are
Speaker:gifted in more creative fields, such as architecture, music, and dance.
Speaker:Those who excel in creative fields rather than logical ones are often labeled as “learning
Speaker:disabled,” thought to be suffering from ADD, or are simply cast off as underachievers.
Speaker:This is because most classrooms cannot accommodate the ways of learning these
Speaker:individuals need to become more proficient in different subjects, and as a result,
Speaker:these learners don’t excel in areas they are actually quite capable of grasping.
Speaker:Gardner’s theory revolutionizes this outdated approach to intelligence.
Speaker:So what is his theory of multiple intelligences all about?
Speaker:According to Gardner, we all possess at least seven unique
Speaker:forms of intelligence through which we learn and retain information.
Speaker:All of these types of intelligence can be cultivated with the right learning tools,
Speaker:although some individuals are more developed in certain forms of intelligence compared to others.
Speaker:His system outlines the following different types of intelligence -
Speaker:Linguistic intelligence
Speaker:Individuals with high levels of linguistic intelligence are generally articulate and
Speaker:adept at expressing themselves through spoken or written words.
Speaker:They find it easy to learn new languages, enjoy reading various kinds of literature,
Speaker:playing word games or debating, and generally have a unique way with words.
Speaker:Such individuals commonly take up lawyering, writing, public speaking,
Speaker:journalism, and other language-related jobs.
Speaker:Logical-mathematical intelligence
Speaker:People who possess logical-mathematical intelligence are attuned to logical
Speaker:thinking and have excellent powers of reasoning or deduction.
Speaker:They are good at thinking abstractly about problems that involve various concepts or
Speaker:numbers, which makes them temperamentally suited to maths and the natural sciences.
Speaker:These skills are useful for those involved in programming,
Speaker:scientific research, accountancy, etc.
Speaker:Spatial intelligence
Speaker:Spatially intelligent individuals are great at visualizing information and
Speaker:processing or manipulating it in critically evaluative ways.
Speaker:This is similar to logical-mathematical intelligence, except spatial intelligence
Speaker:usually involves physical spaces or environments and the objects placed within them.
Speaker:Architects, painters, and engineers are some examples of people with high spatial intelligence.
Speaker:Bodily-Kinesthetic intelligence
Speaker:Having bodily-kinesthetic intelligence means possessing the ability to use your
Speaker:body and physical movements to retain information.
Speaker:People who have successfully developed this type of intelligence prefer to learn in a
Speaker:more hands-on fashion that involves dynamic activity rather than excessive thinking.
Speaker:They are also good at expressing themselves through their body language.
Speaker:Athletes, gym instructors, dancers, and actors are all intelligent in this way.
Speaker:Musical intelligence
Speaker:Musically intelligent individuals learn through sounds, rhythms, patterns, beats, and tones.
Speaker:Their talent lies in being able to produce, perform, and appreciate music.
Speaker:Conductors, songwriters, music teachers,
Speaker:instrumentalists and singers possess this type of intelligence in abundance.
Speaker:Interpersonal intelligence
Speaker:Interpersonal intelligence involves having a keen awareness and sensitivity to the emotions,
Speaker:mental states, and desires of other people.
Speaker:These individuals are conventionally known as
Speaker:“people smart” and can hit it off with just about anyone they meet.
Speaker:Interpersonally intelligent people tend to have many friends,
Speaker:learn through their interactions with others, and are generally empathetic in nature.
Speaker:This type of intelligence is common among psychologists, salesmen, politicians, etc.
Speaker:Intrapersonal intelligence
Speaker:This form of intelligence is the opposite of the previous one in
Speaker:that it involves being deeply aware of your own spiritual, mental, and emotional self.
Speaker:Individuals who possess intrapersonal intelligence are deeply aware of
Speaker:their strengths and weaknesses, fears, motivations, desires, and capacities.
Speaker:Counselors, social workers, and philosophers are generally high in intrapersonal intelligence.
Speaker:(LumenLearning, Keith 2009) (SimplyPsychology, Marenus 2020)
Speaker:While these are the seven main categories of intelligence in Gardner’s system, he would
Speaker:later go on to add three more - naturalist, existentialist, and spiritual intelligence.
Speaker:Though existential and spiritual intelligences in particular have received much attention recently,
Speaker:Gardner claims that these types are qualitatively different from the original seven laid out above.
Speaker:As the names suggest, naturalist intelligence involves being able to distinguish between nuances
Speaker:inherent to plants, weather patterns, animals, and other natural phenomena.
Speaker:Existentially intelligent people are proficient at tackling life’s deepest
Speaker:questions, such as why we exist, whether God exists, and so on.
Speaker:Lastly, spiritual intelligence is the ability to place one’s actions and life within a broader
Speaker:context in meaningful ways that give us direction and inspire us to action.
Speaker:(LumenLearning, Keith 2009)
Speaker:Now that we’ve laid out what kinds of intelligence exist,
Speaker:we come to how these categories relate to becoming a polymath.
Speaker:By one possible view, being a polymath involves becoming
Speaker:proficient in at least three of these multiple intelligences.
Speaker:For example, a counselor may treat his or
Speaker:her patients effectively through their interpersonal intelligence.
Speaker:However, to be a polymath who excels in this field, they may also want to
Speaker:develop their linguistic, intrapersonal, and logical-mathematical intelligences.
Speaker:Similarly, an artist might well be high in spatial or musical intelligence,
Speaker:but developing their interpersonal, linguistic, and intrapersonal intelligences might help
Speaker:them achieve greater success than what they would have managed by just being good at art.
Speaker:Adherents of this view hold that increasing your
Speaker:skills or knowledge can primarily be done in a compartmentalized fashion,
Speaker:wherein training your various intelligences one by one helps one achieve polymathy.
Speaker:For detractors, It’s unclear how distinct these intelligences really are,
Speaker:or whether science shows that they actually exist.
Speaker:Nonetheless, Gardner’s ideas remain an influential theory
Speaker:that is particularly popular among educators.
Speaker:Besides this, there is another prominent view of what makes
Speaker:a polymath, and this perspective is described in the next section.
Speaker:This next view of what makes a polymath has some things in common with both the
Speaker:traditional view of intelligence as well as Gardner’s multiple intelligences.
Speaker:We’ll refer to it as the biological view of intelligence,
Speaker:since it is heavily dependent on the structure and development of your brain.
Speaker:The human brain is one of the most complex organs in our entire body,
Speaker:with close to 100 billion neurons and 100 trillion connections all
Speaker:interacting with each other to coordinate our daily functions.
Speaker:Different parts of our brain are responsible for managing their own separate functions,
Speaker:and being a polymath requires these parts to be well developed individually,
Speaker:as well as in connection to the whole.
Speaker:As you’ll see, one part of your brain is responsible for logical thinking,
Speaker:while another controls your ability to interpret language.
Speaker:According to the biological view of intelligence, to become a polymath,
Speaker:you need a brain whose distinct parts are developed beyond the average in
Speaker:ways that facilitate higher order logical or linguistic intelligence.
Speaker:To find out more about this theory, read on.
Speaker:You might have come across the notion
Speaker:of some people being left-brained whereas others are right-brained.
Speaker:If you’re the kind of person who is methodical and always thinking rationally, you fit into the
Speaker:former camp, whereas more artistically oriented individuals fall into the latter category.
Speaker:(Healthline, Weatherspoon 2019)
Speaker:This theory is partly based on the way scientists
Speaker:have formulated the function of specific parts of our brain.
Speaker:To understand this in greater depth,
Speaker:we need to familiarize ourselves with some basics on brain biology.
Speaker:Our brains consist of three overarching parts - the cerebrum, the cerebellum, and the brain stem.
Speaker:The cerebrum is divided into two hemispheres, which control processes like movement,
Speaker:speech, hearing, vision, regulation of emotions, reasoning capabilities, etc.
Speaker:Each hemisphere is then divided into four lobes, which individually perform
Speaker:the aforementioned, along with other functions.
Speaker:These are called the frontal, temporal, occipital, and parietal lobes.
Speaker:(Healthline, Seladi-Schulman, 2018)
Speaker:The frontal lobe can be found in the forward region of our
Speaker:head and is responsible for many essential functions of our brain.
Speaker:This includes emotional regulation, reasoning,
Speaker:planning, and most importantly, determining our personality.
Speaker:Its role in controlling the way we express ourselves, memory, language, impulse control,
Speaker:sexual behaviors, and more makes it central to the way others perceive us.
Speaker:The temporal lobe, located on the sides of our head near our ears,
Speaker:is primarily engaged in two distinct roles.
Speaker:The first role is controlling visual memory, which helps you remember people's faces, objects, etc.
Speaker:The second is managing your verbal memory, which helps you interpret language and speech.
Speaker:Besides these functions, the temporal lobe also plays a part in the formation
Speaker:of long-term memories and the retention of smells.
Speaker:The parietal lobe is largely responsible for our spatial intelligence.
Speaker:Moreover, it also plays a role in interpreting sense data that is
Speaker:related to vision, hearing, pain, and other sensations.
Speaker:The parietal lobe combines all the various inputs it receives from our
Speaker:senses to facilitate cognition and thinking.
Speaker:(KenHub, Shahid, 2020)
Speaker:Lastly, the occipital lobes, which can be found at the back of your head,
Speaker:are mainly responsible for processing visual information.
Speaker:This includes colors, shapes, lighting, etc.
Speaker:As you can see, these four lobes that together make up the cerebrum are involved in functions
Speaker:related to interpreting various forms of sensory input to allow for our cognitive processes.
Speaker:However, the cerebellum and brainstem, the two other main parts of the brain,
Speaker:are also significant for our routine functioning.
Speaker:The cerebellum can be found below the cerebrum and
Speaker:is crucial in coordinating operations that are related to physical movement.
Speaker:It helps us maintain our posture and balance while walking,
Speaker:allows motor functions such as riding a bicycle,
Speaker:and facilitates motor learning-related activities like learning how to play an instrument.
Speaker:It also plays a part in regulating our speech.
Speaker:(MedicalNewsToday, Fisher 2018)
Speaker:While the cerebellum makes many of our voluntary movements possible,
Speaker:the brain stem is in charge of controlling our involuntary processes.
Speaker:This includes our breathing, regulation of our heartbeat,
Speaker:sleep and eating cycles, sensitivity to pain, etc.
Speaker:The brain stem is particularly important because all information to the cerebrum and cerebellum
Speaker:passes through it first, making any damage to it the most catastrophic of any part of our brain.
Speaker:(KenHub, Crumbie, 2020)
Speaker:You would be forgiven for thinking that you have mistakenly stumbled across a biology textbook,
Speaker:but this information is essential to our purpose—the distribution of functions
Speaker:across different parts of our brain might tell us something important about being a polymath.
Speaker:If we were to reject Gardner’s multiple intelligences as being
Speaker:the root of polymathic abilities in favor of this biological view,
Speaker:a polymath would be someone with a well-developed brain with a particularly advanced cerebrum.
Speaker:We know that the brains of intelligent people have more folds in them, which
Speaker:increases their surface area and allows for a higher density of neurons overall.
Speaker:Thus, if specific parts of your brain, such as the frontal lobe or the parietal lobe,
Speaker:were to have a higher number of folds, that might explain the source of polymathic ability.
Speaker:The former being denser would point to improved reasoning skills,
Speaker:which the latter could indicate heightened linguistic abilities.
Speaker:One might be tempted to accept this proposition given that Gardner’s theory appears more abstract,
Speaker:while the biological view seems more scientifically grounded and thus reliable.
Speaker:Alternatively, we could also combine the two theories to
Speaker:understand what it takes to become a polymath.
Speaker:A person with high spatial intelligence might
Speaker:just be someone whose parietal lobes have matured extensively.
Speaker:Similarly, an individual who is strong in logical-mathematical intelligence could
Speaker:simply be someone whose frontal lobes have grown beyond what might be considered the average.
Speaker:This points to a similarity in both theories, which is their delineation
Speaker:of specific functions to either a particular type of intelligence, or a specific part of our brain.
Speaker:However, it’s important to note there is a difference between talking about various types
Speaker:of intelligences in a way similar to Gardner, and actually believing these intelligences to exist.
Speaker:Saying that someone is musically intelligent
Speaker:does not mean that Gardner’s idea of musical intelligence exists.
Speaker:Someone could simply be prolific at music composition by virtue
Speaker:of possessing a well-developed brain.
Speaker:So which is it?
Speaker:Is Gardner right, or does the biological view paint
Speaker:a more accurate picture of what makes a polymath?
Speaker:Or is it a combination of both?
Speaker:You might be relieved to know that, in truth, both of the preceding theories about polymathic
Speaker:abilities are deeply flawed and fail to do a good job of explaining what makes someone a polymath.
Speaker:It might be tempting to think that polymaths simply have more developed brains than we do, or
Speaker:that they are smarter in ways that we just aren’t, but neither of these possibilities is accurate.
Speaker:While both theories sound perfectly reasonable in their own right,
Speaker:neither has been sufficiently backed by scientific research to be taken seriously.
Speaker:To take Gardner’s multiple intelligences,
Speaker:there is nothing to suggest that there are actually distinct “intelligences” at play
Speaker:when individuals show proficiency in a certain field such as music or debate.
Speaker:The types of intelligences as Gardner lays them out are also hard to measure and evaluate.
Speaker:Some, like intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence, can be hard to define at all.
Speaker:One factor that makes these barriers significantly worse is that Gardner has refused to outline
Speaker:specific components of each intelligence type or suggest ways in which they can be verified.
Speaker:Instead, he has chosen to simply describe them extensively,
Speaker:which brings his theory on par with any other abstract theory on intelligence.
Speaker:(PsychologyToday, McGreal 2013)
Speaker:Regardless of these issues,
Speaker:there have been fairly rigorous efforts to prove the validity of his theory.
Speaker:Researchers have improvised and come up with their own guidelines of assessment,
Speaker:but none of these have proven conclusive in establishing Gardner's theory.
Speaker:The general consensus appears to be that each form of intelligence
Speaker:he highlights has a high degree of correlation with other forms.
Speaker:So if a person has high logical-mathematical intelligence,
Speaker:part of the reason behind that is because they also have high linguistic intelligence.
Speaker:One of Gardner’s intelligence types, naturalistic intelligence,
Speaker:was found to be correlated with all seven other types.
Speaker:(PsychologyToday, McGreal 2013)
Speaker:Despite all its flaws, Gardner’s theory does do some things right.
Speaker:It rightly undermines the authority of IQ tests,
Speaker:making it clear that you do not necessarily need a high IQ to be intelligent or a polymath.
Speaker:It also expresses the notion that one isn’t intelligent in permanent ways,
Speaker:and that mental abilities can fluctuate with the right approach and tools.
Speaker:This conclusion will be instrumental in our discussion of how to become a polymath,
Speaker:because it suggests that anyone can master a diverse set of skills.
Speaker:However, these ideas cannot compensate for the fact that ultimately there is very little,
Speaker:if any, scientific research supporting Gardner's theory.
Speaker:Even if there was, being a polymath isn’t just about
Speaker:acquiring a ton of knowledge in different domains.
Speaker:You need to be able to use this knowledge in collaborative ways, and there is nothing in
Speaker:Gardner’s theory to suggest that someone with, say, intrapersonal, interpersonal,
Speaker:and linguistic intelligence can necessarily use all three together as opposed to individually.
Speaker:This brings us to the biological view, and why exactly it fails to explain polymathic abilities.
Speaker:Many of the criticisms of this approach are similar in structure to the critique
Speaker:of Gardner’s theory, namely because both seek to isolate functions and types of intelligence
Speaker:in ways that are not scientifically useful in understanding intelligence.
Speaker:The claim that certain parts of our brain exclusively handle certain functions is
Speaker:simply misleading, and one can see this even by knowing the very basics
Speaker:of what roles various parts of our brain play.
Speaker:There is great overlap between, say,
Speaker:the way different lobes contribute to the interpretation of sense data.
Speaker:A great example of this is when we listen to music.
Speaker:Based on the descriptions of what each lobe in our brain does,
Speaker:you might think that music is primarily interpreted through
Speaker:our temporal or parietal lobe since these sections process auditory information.
Speaker:However, not only does listening to music require different regions in both of these lobes that are
Speaker:responsible for separate functions, but it also involves the frontal lobe and even the cerebellum.
Speaker:As such, listening to music, like so many other activities, requires almost all of our brain.
Speaker:Another reason the biological view fails is that
Speaker:we exert very little control over how different parts of our brain develop.
Speaker:Ninety percent of our brains develop before the age of five.
Speaker:(Brown, Jernigan 2012) If someone wanted to be a polymath based on this view, they would be placing
Speaker:an undue burden on factors like upbringing, culture, etc., in shaping our abilities.
Speaker:From a biological perspective, there would be no way for one to “acquire” polymathic
Speaker:abilities since that would be entirely contingent on external considerations.
Speaker:This lends credence to the fallacy wherein intelligent people are smart just because they
Speaker:won the genetic lottery, and there is no scope for improvement for those who didn’t luck out.
Speaker:Thankfully, we know these claims to be false, and one can indeed “become” a polymath.
Speaker:All of these points, when considered together,
Speaker:make a damning case against the biological view of polymathy.
Speaker:Consequently, the theory of left and right brains becomes highly suspect as well.
Speaker:This theory is another way of saying that particular parts of
Speaker:our brain are responsible for specific functions.
Speaker:What makes these theories so appealing is that they appear to give us greater
Speaker:insight into who we are, or why we aren’t who we want to be.
Speaker:If you’re good at math, it’s because you’re left brained,
Speaker:and if you’re good at composing music, then it’s your right brain dominance expressing itself.
Speaker:While these explanations are attractive for their simplicity,
Speaker:things are never quite this straightforward.
Speaker:There is a complex web of biological factors that
Speaker:make someone more attuned to logical thinking versus artistic expression.
Speaker:Like in the case of listening to music,
Speaker:both of them involve different parts of the brain all working together.
Speaker:This brings us to the fundamental truth about being and becoming a polymath - you
Speaker:don’t need to be intelligent in specific ways or have a certain
Speaker:level of brain development to achieve polymathic abilities.
Speaker:Anyone can become a polymath through the tools and ideas expressed in this book,
Speaker:no matter who you are or what your general intelligence level.
Speaker:Cross-Pollination as the Key
Speaker:If you want to become a polymath, there are two things you need in abundance - a willingness to
Speaker:learn new and different things, along with the time and effort that goes into learning them.
Speaker:There is nothing inherently special about polymaths;
Speaker:they have simply taken the time to learn the things they wanted to be good at.
Speaker:In some ways, learning is a skill in itself.
Speaker:Acquiring new skills requires discipline and unwavering focus,
Speaker:especially when the thing you’re trying to learn is challenging or alien to your knowledge base.
Speaker:The fact that we’re constantly being told to specialize instead of generalizing our skill set
Speaker:makes it easier and more tempting to abandon our efforts at diversifying our areas of expertise.
Speaker:Warnings against being a generalist have been made for several hundreds of years,
Speaker:with Shakespeare receiving one of the first.
Speaker:Several cultures have their own sayings that illustrate this warning too.
Speaker:In Eastern Europe, for example, one reads, “Seven trades, the eighth one—poverty."
Speaker:While these beliefs may have been relevant at a certain period of time, our modern
Speaker:era is one where change is constant and rapid.
Speaker:We need to arm ourselves with multiple useful skills to stay relevant and retain value in
Speaker:an increasingly competitive economic world, no matter what it is that we do.
Speaker:This brings us to a concept that is becoming increasingly relevant
Speaker:in the business world - cross-pollination.
Speaker:Ordinarily, cross-pollination refers to pollen from one type of
Speaker:crop mixing with crops of another type, resulting in the creation of hybrids.
Speaker:This is often done intentionally to create all sorts of unique combinations.
Speaker:The same concept is applied to business,
Speaker:wherein acquiring expertise in disciplines or skills that are unrelated to each other
Speaker:results in uniquely qualified candidates who think in creative and productive ways.
Speaker:This perception has also been backed by several studies in recent times.
Speaker:One report by Lee Fleming in Harvard Business Review examined 17,000
Speaker:patents and found that innovators with qualifications in disparate fields were
Speaker:less likely to produce financially viable ideas than their counterparts.
Speaker:However, it also found that when these innovators do experience a creative breakthrough, the result
Speaker:is of “unusually high value—superior to the best innovations achieved by conventional approaches."
Speaker:Another study by Brian Uzzi, a professor at Northwestern University, analyzed more
Speaker:than 26 million scientific research papers dating hundreds of years apart.
Speaker:He found that the papers which ended up being most influential
Speaker:were composed by teams made up of people with diverse backgrounds.
Speaker:A third enquiry by David Epstein in his book Range has revealed
Speaker:that influential scientists are much more likely to have diverse
Speaker:interests outside of their primary area of research than the average scientist.
Speaker:Lastly, the investigations of Robert Root-Bernstein and Michele Marie
Speaker:Root Bernstein have established that the more artistic interests scientists hold,
Speaker:the more likely they are to gain eminence in their field.
Speaker:These scientists noticeably integrated skills they had acquired through their artistic interests,
Speaker:be it visual arts or music, into their professional scientific work.
Speaker:This made them more likely to be cited and receive prestigious awards like the Nobel Prize.
Speaker:These studies are just the tip of the iceberg given the amount of research that
Speaker:has been done on the correlation between polymathy and success.
Speaker:All of these make a very strong case for diversifying your skill set given
Speaker:the advantages it’s been shown to have instead of specializing in one trade alone.
Speaker:However, there is one more study that will be crucial
Speaker:to our understanding of what exactly a polymath is and how you can become one.
Speaker:Michael Araki is one of the few theorists who has attempted to
Speaker:create a system that exactly describes what components go into being a polymath.
Speaker:Generally, the word polymath refers to someone who is intellectually oriented,
Speaker:or someone who is simply good at many different things, and even
Speaker:as an ideal that should be pursued but can never actually be reached.
Speaker:The problem with definitions like these is that they don’t illustrate degrees well.
Speaker:Exactly how intellectually bent does a polymath need to be?
Speaker:How many different things do I need to be good at,
Speaker:and how can I measure how good I am at those things?
Speaker:Problems like these can make achieving the goal
Speaker:of polymathy harder, but Araki poses a neat solution to them.
Speaker:According to Araki, there are three main components of being
Speaker:a polymath - breadth, depth, and integration.
Speaker:Breadth is the largest category of the three,
Speaker:and consists of the knowledge you have of different subjects or skills.
Speaker:Often this is considered to be the only important component of polymathy,
Speaker:but Araki warns against making such an inference.
Speaker:Breadth only includes the superficial knowledge you have of certain areas.
Speaker:So if you’ve slightly familiar with Freudian theory, your knowledge of
Speaker:psychology along with other areas of interest forms a part of your breadth.
Speaker:Depth refers to the vertical accumulation of knowledge in specific fields.
Speaker:This, combined with breadth, makes up the store
Speaker:of your total knowledge across various disciplines and topics.
Speaker:However, these two factors aren’t enough to make you a polymath.
Speaker:You could be incredibly knowledgeable about psychology, philosophy, and political theory,
Speaker:but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re adept
Speaker:at using your knowledge in one field across the others.
Speaker:This is where integration comes in.
Speaker:The final piece of the polymath puzzle rests in your ability to connect, articulate,
Speaker:and synthesize disparate disciplines together to be creative in novel ways.
Speaker:This combination of depth, breadth,
Speaker:and integration is very similar to the cross-pollination theory outlined above.
Speaker:The latter involves taking two divergent types of pollen and bringing them together
Speaker:to create something altogether new, and that’s exactly what Araki’s theory of polymathy states.
Speaker:You take at least three different, disparate disciplines or skills, get
Speaker:to know them sufficiently well, and combine them instead of using individual skills separately.
Speaker:To take the example of Leonardo da Vinci, he wouldn’t be a polymath if he were just
Speaker:good at drawing, efficient at doing math, and possessed the ability to invent things.
Speaker:He’s considered a polymath because he used mathematical principles in his artwork,
Speaker:which he in turn employed to come up with inventions.
Speaker:He cross-pollinated (or integrated) his three skills in ways few else have been able to.
Speaker:Araki’s theory of polymathy solves all of
Speaker:the problems we highlighted with alternative definitions earlier.
Speaker:It gives you an idea of how to measure your expertise in a given field and also
Speaker:tells you how skilled you need to be to qualify as a polymath.
Speaker:Both of these functions are served by the integration component.
Speaker:If you don’t know enough about your chosen topics, you will likely fail to integrate them together.
Speaker:Likewise, if you are successful in integrating them, you can
Speaker:safely conclude that you’ve sufficiently mastered the topics you’re trying to integrate.
Speaker:Guidelines and a Plan
Speaker:Now that you’ve familiarized yourself with what a polymath is and how anyone can become one, it’s
Speaker:time to put all the concepts to use and formulate actual guidelines for achieving polymathy.
Speaker:These guidelines rely on your ability to cross-pollinate different subjects
Speaker:and then integrate them in efficient and creative ways.
Speaker:Here’s how you can do that -
Speaker:Step 1
Speaker:Choose the different areas you want to achieve expertise in.
Speaker:You should pick a minimum of three that are sufficiently distinct from each other.
Speaker:For example, learning about Freudian theory and Jungian
Speaker:psychology wouldn’t count since they are both subsets of the same subject.
Speaker:Instead choose a combination like psychology, philosophy, and political theory.
Speaker:Even better if these areas or fields have some relevance to your work.
Speaker:Step 2
Speaker:Start by establishing some breadth, which involves
Speaker:gaining some superficial knowledge about the areas of interest you’ve chosen.
Speaker:The citations on Wikipedia pages for your topics are often a great place to start.
Speaker:You can also simply read the first five to
Speaker:ten articles that show up on rudimentary Google searches.
Speaker:At this stage, all you’re trying to do is get to know your topics on a basic level.
Speaker:Step 3
Speaker:This is where we add some depth, and there are several ways you can do this.
Speaker:Depending on the type of media you prefer,
Speaker:you can approach learning about your topics in different ways.
Speaker:If you prefer reading, look for some books on Amazon.
Speaker:Alternatively, you can search for introductory, intermediate,
Speaker:and advanced online courses if you prefer a more audio-visual method of learning.
Speaker:If your topics are academic disciplines like in our example, this should be fairly simplistic.
Speaker:However, in some cases you might need to use a combination of different resources like books,
Speaker:podcasts, YouTube, online courses, etc.
Speaker:Step 4
Speaker:While performing the previous step, you’ll likely discover that your
Speaker:topics of interest are far too broad, and that you need to choose subtopics
Speaker:within them in order to gain a better understanding of the topic as a whole.
Speaker:So you might choose particular fields within philosophy like ethics or metaphysics along with,
Speaker:say, liberalism and totalitarian movements within political theory.
Speaker:You don’t need to learn everything,
Speaker:so pick your subtopics depending on what interests you and focus on them.
Speaker:The more subtopics you choose the better, but at the same time, your choices need to
Speaker:be practical and manageable so that you can complete your studies and master the topics.
Speaker:Step 5
Speaker:Now comes the trickiest step, which is integrating everything you’ve learned together.
Speaker:Let’s say you know some Freudian psychology, a little about totalitarian movements, and ethics.
Speaker:One good way to combine all of this is to study the totalitarian governments like the Nazis,
Speaker:their use of psychological repression as a tool
Speaker:to control their citizens and the morality of such tactics.
Speaker:This is close to the way the Frankfurt School
Speaker:investigated phenomena like the rise of the Nazi party.
Speaker:Depending on which topics you’ve chosen,
Speaker:the best way to integrate them is to try and find points of convergence.
Speaker:In this example, totalitarian governments are by definition oppressive, and so we
Speaker:look at the psychological ways in which this oppression plays out.
Speaker:Oppression carries with it strong ethical undertones, but who exactly
Speaker:is morally responsible for the rise of the Nazis?
Speaker:Is it Hitler alone, his cabinet, the entire Nazi party, or Germany as a whole?
Speaker:One can always find areas of convergence; you only need to look diligently enough.
Speaker:Let’s consider another example of how you can go about becoming a polymath.
Speaker:Step 1
Speaker:Pick another set of three disciplines or skills you want to learn.
Speaker:This time, let’s assume that your interests are theology, philosophy, and logic.
Speaker:Step 2
Speaker:Familiarize yourself with these three topics individually.
Speaker:Start with the basics.
Speaker:Since you’ve chosen theology and philosophy, you can study the
Speaker:problem of evil from the latter and the ways God’s existence would address that problem.
Speaker:The question here is, if God is supposed to be perfect and
Speaker:completely good, how can he allow evil to exist?
Speaker:Regarding logic, you’d need to study deductive argumentation to be able to
Speaker:assess whether claims related to God and evil are valid, sound, true, false, etc.
Speaker:Step 3
Speaker:Once you’ve developed some breadth, establish depth.
Speaker:Go deeper into the areas of your study.
Speaker:Get to know the two major paradigms of evil, those espoused by Fyodor Dostoevsky and Hannah Arendt.
Speaker:Then dig deeper into the various theological arguments that might
Speaker:help you answer why these forms of evil exist.
Speaker:Lastly, use your enquiries into logic to evaluate the validity of these arguments.
Speaker:Step 4
Speaker:We’ve already completed step four because we chose our subtopics early
Speaker:based on possible connections between these three disparate disciplines.
Speaker:The problem of evil is a major subtopic in both theology and philosophy,
Speaker:while deductive argumentation is one of three methods of arguing for or against a claim.
Speaker:Step 5
Speaker:Lastly, integrate these three categories together.
Speaker:Use your knowledge of the three disciplines to ascertain whether there is any way of
Speaker:reconciling the existence of evil and God together based on logic.
Speaker:As far as the plan goes, you need to think on a broad level as to what you want to accomplish.
Speaker:This is where you make sure that you are spending your time the way you want to.
Speaker:This can be accomplished by following six steps.
Speaker:First, decide what you want to learn.
Speaker:This seems obvious, but there are better and worse things to spend your time on.
Speaker:When considering a course of action, you will want to first consider your strengths and weaknesses.
Speaker:Often, whether it’s in work or in play, we’re better off emphasizing
Speaker:and developing our strengths than we are trying to minimize our failings.
Speaker:After all, no one is going to ask us to do everything, and when we really have trouble,
Speaker:acquiring help from others is always possible.
Speaker:But excellence in one area, or a small group of areas, easily transforms us
Speaker:into experts in our fields, which is a highly desirable place to be.
Speaker:Emphasizing your strengths when you choose what to spend your time on is a good idea.
Speaker:Of course, if you want to learn something totally new, that’s also something you can accomplish!
Speaker:Even if you’re only looking to advance your professional skillset,
Speaker:you should still consider what you want to do when choosing a subject to learn or a skill to develop.
Speaker:Career paths are a consideration, but it’s even more important to take into
Speaker:account what sorts of activities make you happy and unhappy.
Speaker:You don’t want a degree in accounting if you hate numbers,
Speaker:after all, even if it would improve your paycheck.
Speaker:Paths that align with your interests and are emotionally fulfilling are usually more rewarding.
Speaker:Consider Darlene, who works as a web developer.
Speaker:She wants to have greater control over the processes that occur on her websites, rather than
Speaker:outsourcing for code when she needs it to perform certain functions she can’t create herself.
Speaker:Moreover, she wants to be able to manipulate that code and make it
Speaker:from scratch so that she completely understands what’s on her pages.
Speaker:Her vision for her learning is to gain knowledge of more types of code so that
Speaker:she can be a more competent, better-rounded web developer.
Speaker:The second step is analyzing your current skills and experience to spot gaps in knowledge.
Speaker:Where are you lacking compared to your future self?
Speaker:What do you already know and do well?
Speaker:What do you still need to learn?
Speaker:Can other people fill in these gaps in knowledge for you,
Speaker:or do you need to step up to the plate and seek out additional resources?
Speaker:Once you find areas in which you need to improve, you will be able to discern
Speaker:specific topics you can study and skills you should develop to come closer to your goals.
Speaker:This gives your plan a concrete shape,
Speaker:because you will know exactly what you are missing to get to Point B.
Speaker:Darlene already develops web pages for a living and knows the most current versions
Speaker:of HTML and CSS by heart, but she currently outsources certain types of coding to others.
Speaker:This leads to problems with version control and gives
Speaker:her a sense of powerlessness over that aspect of her job.
Speaker:If she wants to fill that gap in her knowledge,
Speaker:she needs to study other languages used on the web.
Speaker:She decides to start with Java,
Speaker:as that’s the code she most often interacts with without understanding.
Speaker:Third, identify the proper solution to your problem/deficiency/goal.
Speaker:This is about surveying your resources.
Speaker:Part of your approach will depend on your temperament.
Speaker:Are you a self-starter, or do you learn better in a classroom setting?
Speaker:Do you need a source of knowledge you can pick up and put down as your schedule allows,
Speaker:or can you afford to set up regular appointments with a teacher to develop a skill?
Speaker:Your schedule, income, and preferences all play a
Speaker:role in determining the right resources to seek and employ.
Speaker:Lots of learning resources exist in the modern world, from books,
Speaker:journals, webpages, and podcasts, to seminars, work teams, and formal classes,
Speaker:to one-on-one instructional training in formal and informal settings.
Speaker:When choosing a resource to learn from, it’s important to take into
Speaker:account your own learning preferences, but that’s only one of many considerations.
Speaker:You must also consider the reputation of your source or teacher, and whether
Speaker:you will gain any formal credentials from studying with a specific teacher
Speaker:or demonstrating competence in a certain field.
Speaker:It’s also essential to think about convenience,
Speaker:because a class you can’t get to is not useful, no matter how well-regarded the teacher may be.
Speaker:By contrast, solo studying offers no emotional or technical support from others,
Speaker:while a course or a tutoring situation may involve substantial help and oversight from someone else.
Speaker:If this support and community might be valuable in the area you’re studying,
Speaker:it could be worth paying for.
Speaker:Darlene is highly motivated but often pressed for time.
Speaker:She considers community college courses,
Speaker:learning from books and journals, and even hiring a private tutor, but ultimately decides to engage
Speaker:in one of the many online programs to help her develop her skills on her own schedule.
Speaker:These courses won’t automatically get her credentials, but she’s aware that
Speaker:she could take a skills test to certify herself once she gains skill mastery,
Speaker:and as she will have an immediate use for Java in her current job,
Speaker:she’s not worried about being unable to use her new knowledge in the future.
Speaker:The fourth step is developing your learning blueprint.
Speaker:Once you know what you want to accomplish,
Speaker:you should look for people who have already achieved your goal.
Speaker:These people will serve as a step-by-step guide for how to get to where you want.
Speaker:If the person is famous or no longer living,
Speaker:you can research their life to figure out how they became who you want to become.
Speaker:If they’re not particularly famous or renowned, even better,
Speaker:as you can approach them personally and ask about their road to success.
Speaker:Take note of any struggles, education, or personal relationships they had to overcome
Speaker:or pursue to reach their goals, and try to find ways to mimic this path in your own life.
Speaker:This can give you deeper insight into skills to
Speaker:focus on and paths to pursue once your initial research project is complete.
Speaker:Darlene sits down and has a conversation with her team supervisor about the best ways to advance
Speaker:her career and land a comparable job to her mentor when the time is right.
Speaker:He tells her about specific skills she’ll need to learn and
Speaker:certifications she’ll need to complete once she gains the skills she needs.
Speaker:He will tell her about the struggles to expect and how to overcome them.
Speaker:Darlene may ultimately choose a different path,
Speaker:but researching blueprints provides clarity and information.
Speaker:The fifth step is to develop measurable goals.
Speaker:Your learning goals should be simple, specific, and easy to quantify.
Speaker:You need to set up deadlines where you will measure yourself against your expected
Speaker:progress using the metrics you devised, and you need to stick to that schedule.
Speaker:Placing your goals in a public, visible space will increase accountability by
Speaker:ensuring that others are aware of your project and your expectations.
Speaker:Remember, you should be acquiring specific, measurable skills and abilities by set points
Speaker:in time, and these benchmarks should all be in service of your larger learning goal.
Speaker:If you’ve chosen a more formal environment, your class times may be set for you,
Speaker:but you must still set aside time to study, learn, and practice on your own.
Speaker:No class gives you all the practice you need to master its skillset on the teacher’s time.
Speaker:If you’re engaging in self-study, setting up a consistent schedule
Speaker:for studying on your own is even more essential.
Speaker:Keep in mind, genuinely mastering a skill takes a little time even with the best techniques,
Speaker:so be generous in the study windows you provide yourself.
Speaker:You don’t only want time to read or watch a video,
Speaker:but also to reflect upon what you’ve learned, perform meaningful exercises,
Speaker:and catch and correct the errors you are inevitably going to make.
Speaker:Darlene marks a schedule for herself based on the units offered in her online course, sets
Speaker:aside specific times to undertake each course, and allot blocks of time to study each unit.
Speaker:She also allocates a specific time each week to take the unit’s quiz.
Speaker:She programs all this into her phone so that she doesn’t forget the plan,
Speaker:and prints a copy of her calendar to put on her cubicle wall.
Speaker:She stays on track throughout the months,
Speaker:and as a result, she will reach her goal of achieving programming proficiency.
Speaker:Sixth, set aside time throughout the process to reflect on what you’re
Speaker:learning and reevaluate whether you’re progressing at your maximum capacity.
Speaker:After all, if one method isn’t working, that doesn’t mean you’re hopeless!
Speaker:Sometimes all you need is more accountability or greater independence to really shine.
Speaker:You want a learning plan that gets your skills where you want them to be,
Speaker:not something that isn’t clicking and is therefore wasting your time.
Speaker:A chef will always taste their food while they are making it;
Speaker:you should assess your progress in a similar way.
Speaker:Darlene sticks diligently to her plan and is happy with her progress,
Speaker:but finds the course itself a little low on support for her needs.
Speaker:She solves this problem by approaching her
Speaker:supervisor with questions when she needs further clarification.
Speaker:He’s happy to help her along.
Speaker:Ultimately, she gains the skills she needs and becomes a more efficient, more skilled employee.
Speaker:Takeaways
Speaker:•We’re often told in different ways that the key to success is specialization,
Speaker:and that being a generalist is inadvisable.
Speaker:Yet, many of the smartest individuals that have ever graced the earth are
Speaker:renowned for being polymaths with skills across multiple subjects.
Speaker:•The modern workplace and companies are increasingly reliant on polymathic
Speaker:individuals to bring them success, making it imperative for us to
Speaker:diversify our skill set instead of simply mastering one trade and sticking to it.
Speaker:•But what exactly is a polymath?
Speaker:Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences might be useful in answering this question.
Speaker:He lays out seven different intelligences that include musical, spatial, linguistic,
Speaker:and other abilities that we all possess.
Speaker:A polymath is simply someone who has developed three or more of these intelligences.
Speaker:•Alternatively, we have the biological view of polymathy.
Speaker:According to this perspective, different parts of
Speaker:our brain are responsible for their own unique functions.
Speaker:Our ability to write is dictated by one part of our cerebrum,
Speaker:while the capacity to comprehend writing is controlled by another part.
Speaker:A polymath is someone with an exceptionally developed brain
Speaker:whose cerebral lobes have matured beyond the average.
Speaker:•So which of the two is accurate?
Speaker:The truth is that both of these theories are
Speaker:highly flawed and unsupported by any kind of scientific research.
Speaker:Gardner’s multiple intelligences is simply a theory that can’t be proved scientifically,
Speaker:while the idea that specific parts of our brain alone conduct certain functions is patently false.
Speaker:•A true polymath is someone who possesses three components of knowledge - breadth, depth,
Speaker:and integration.
Speaker:This is also known as cross-pollination.
Speaker:Such a person has acquired expertise in at least a few different domains,
Speaker:and can successfully integrate those domains together instead of treating
Speaker:them as unrelated and distinct subjects or skills.
Speaker:So a scientist who is also artistically inclined can use the latter to aid his research in ways
Speaker:that will make him more successful than the average member of his field.
Speaker:This has been Learn Like a Polymath, How to Teach Yourself Anything, Develop Multidisciplinary
Speaker:Expertise, and Become Irreplaceable, Written by Peter Hollins, Narrated by Russell Newton,
Speaker:Copyright 2020 by Peter Hollins, Production Copyright by Peter Hollins.
