Polymath: Master Multiple Disciplines, Learn New Skills, Think Flexibly, and Become Extraordinary Autodidact
119 printed pages
- Original publication
- 2020
- Publication year
- 2020
- Publisher
- PublishDrive
Impressions
- tomshared an impression3 years ago
👍Worth reading
Quotes
- xgz49vymr8has quoted8 hours ago
about what has spurred them to develop a pi or comb shape instead of remaining as a simple T-shape. - xgz49vymr8has quoted9 hours agoother interests alive, too. She spends a lot of time gaining depth understanding of the more fundamental and lasting business principles, but constantly flits around when it comes to supplementing her knowledge on more short-term interests.
She takes short courses on app development, learns to code, volunteers, takes up a glass-blowing hobby and reads anything from self-help books to continental philosophy, beat poetry, art history and pulpy horror novels from the ’60s. While she is certainly a polymath, she focuses many of her interests around the more general backbone of business studies, which acts as a framework and organizing principle.
Now, add in another element: time. Some polymaths are not literally juggling all of this at the same time; they can choose to be serial specialists, spending a few years on each project, developing one of the depth prongs before moving on to another. Such a person might not immediately look like a polymath, but over time they are steadily accumulating skills, mental models, connections and possibilities.
The longer they work and study, the more content they have to draw on and the richer their palette becomes. In fact, one could abandon the old shapes entirely and consider becoming star shaped, with interests expanding outwards in all directions. This is a decidedly non-linear way of looking at things, and emphasizes the value of expanding your skillset to - xgz49vymr8has quoted9 hours agoWhat’s Your Shape?
Being a polymath doesn’t necessarily mean you have to fashion yourself after the great “Renaissance men” of old, taking up political life or oil painting or basement science experiments. In fact, modern polymathy will look distinctly different, and can even apply to groups or organizations of people with diverse domain knowledge. Your goal as a polymath is to become a generalist, i.e. the person who can talk about any topic with anyone, because they are able to bridge gaps, draw connections and learn.
Remember the T-shape? If your skills profile resembled this shape, you would be a generalist to a shallow level with just one depth understanding in one field. This is definitely better than being an “I” shape, with no general knowledge at all, only a depth skill. But it’s not
fb2epub
Drag & drop your files
(not more than 5 at once)