The internet has made access to knowledge extremely easy.
You can live in China and learn german at an expert level without meeting a german.
In fact, you can learn coding, sketching or anything with a laptop and dedication.
So, are we moving towards the age of Polymaths?
A Polymath is a person whose knowledge spans a wide range of subjects.
The term Polymath first appeared in 1624 and was used to describe a Renaissance man who excelled at science, engineering, technology, maths and art.
Leonardo Da Vinci is the most famous Polymath.
Although Youtube or Wikipedia didn’t exist back in the 16th century, there was a surplus of knowledge concentrated in Italy. Availability of information and the spirit of “A man can do all things if he wants” accentuated the culture of polymaths.
Right now, we are surrounded by data and it’s not concentrated in one place but literally everywhere.
As we are empowered by data, I’m sure there will be a lot of polymaths in every part of Earth.
But with great knowledge also comes the “Jack of all trades and master of none” phenomena.
What if everybody was a jack of all trades and a master of none?
Imagine you have to get your heart disease cured and there isn’t an expert heart surgeon on Earth, there are surgeons but they are all average in what they do.
Would you like that? Would you trust the doctor?
So, the world definitely needs experts or masters.
Then, where do the polymaths fit?
Elon Musk is a modern-day polymath. With knowledge in physics, mathematics, engineering, business, and finance he has contributed a ton towards making human life better.
The world needs polymaths too.
So, the choice is yours - Do you want to be an expert or a polymath?
I’m more inclined toward Polymathism since I’m curious about a lot of things.
And I’ve tried my hand at many things.
But I’ve observed that doing different things in a day doesn’t work for me. Eventually, I have to drop my projects and focus intently on just one thing.
I hate that. I don’t like the feeling of abandoning the subjects/projects I love.
Unfortunately, mental juggling is not for me, and neither is doing one task and then a completely different one. It gets me nowhere.
It breaks my heart but I’ve come up with a simple plan to pursue my many projects and if you are struggling with pursuing your interests, you can apply it in your life too.
The plan is simple and it stems from the belief that mental focus and energy are limited. You can only do so much in a day but over a month it compounds to a lot.
The rule is to “Pick one interest each month and do it whole-heartedly.”
Say, you are interested in A, B and C subjects or projects. Then pick anyone for a month, set your end goal which is measurable and pursue it like a hungry lion.
On the last day of the month, you should evaluate how far you’ve come, and whether you have achieved your goals or not.
Then, from the 1st of the next month, pursue a completely different project.
You must be wondering if one month is enough to achieve your goals.
Well, sometimes it can be just enough and sometimes it won’t. According to Parkinson’s law “Work expands to fill a time allocated for its completion”, which means if something has to be done in a year, it will be done in a year and if it has to be done in six months, it will be done in six months.
So, set the time you think the project will take and work at it.
Another crucial thing to consider is the time spent in a day on achieving your goals.
Day-wise working is pretty important because a 1% improvement made in a day means you’ll get 37 times better in a year. Source: Atomic Habits.
So, improving 1% better for 30 days means you will become 3 times better at it.
And that’s definitely good.
Well, how do we measure 1% improvement?
I don’t know and I’d like your thoughts on it. Comment down below your ideas on how to track a 1% improvement.
For me, right now it’s all about setting some goals every day and achieving them.
Also, let me know in the comments if you want to be a polymath or an expert. Bye!
Very good write up, congrats Shreya 👏 👍 keep doing great things 👍 👏 😀 🙌.