#47: THE KEY TO BEING A MODERN POLYMATH

In the world today, we are encouraged to specialize in one discipline. And while this has its own share of advantages, I must say that it strips us off the ability to explore as we should.

Back then, the university didn't specialize in specific fields—students were taught a diverse range of sciences, philosophy and other disciplines as well.

This gave people the ability to learn as much as they could and specialize in as much disciplines as they wanted.

Michaelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci and many others like them are essentially intellectual giants. For the depth of the vast ocean of their knowledge is indeed awe-inspiring and breathtaking.

Leonardo Da Vinci, for example, was a painter, an architect, an engineer, and a theatrical producer. Michaelangelo, on the other hand, was an architect, a painter, a sculptor, and a poet. 

There are many others who have attained such a height as well in the intellectual realm due to how versatile they were in synthesizing the immense knowledge they had acquired—this played a pivotal role in germinating the seeds of their creativity.

In one word, they were polymaths.

Waqas Ahmed, the author of The Polymath: Unlocking the Power of Human Versatility describes polymaths as “essentially self-seeking, holistically minded, connection-forming humans characterized by a boundless curiosity, outstanding intelligence and wondrous creativity.”

Well, we can't have such people in this era because we all are narrowing down and specializing in specific disciplines. 

Obviously, that's the case. But what we can do is to try as much as we can to know a bit of almost everything. Doing so will equip us with the ability to understand things in a much broader perspective.

It's not an easy feat but it can be done.

Ever since I started reading and writing in 2018, my core objective is to have clarity in my thoughts—to think better, live better and...just do better in whatever it is.

As I treaded this path, I figured out that in order to attain this level of mental clarity, I must be able to connect the dots between different ideas and also make meaningful sense out of it. 

Thus, I've been spending my free time studying subjects that most people (of course, I mean regular people) will tell you are not in any way related to the physics I study at the university.

One outstanding realization I've made so far is that the more I peruse and think through about all that I'm learning, the more I see the interconnectedness between the ideas in different fields of knowledge.

This makes me want to study more and understand more.

This, as a result, made me want to understand what economics is. I have this utmost believe that economics, as a social science, does have a lot to teach me on how I can think better in such a world that most people are being stripped off the ability to think independently and clearly in the face of events. As such, that's what I've been doing in the past months, studying economics.

You should join me too. It musn't be economics. The key is to know a lot and become a broad synthesizer of information. It's a worthwhile pursuit. Just pick a topic you find interesting and start learning. Overtime, you'll learn a lot.