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What Is a Polymath or a Renaissance Person and How to Become One
Polymath is a kind of well-rounded person who knows a lot of things from several areas life. Academics, politics, health, pop culture, art... everything. In addition to knowledge, this person also has versed skills and talents. It seems like a lot of work for a single person, doesn't it?
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Helpful tips to become a polymath
- Learn Multiple Languages. Learn the basics and common vocabulary roots of the biggest language groups. This will enable you to learn any language.
- Learn How to Write. It all starts with keeping a diary or a dream journal.
- Be Artistic. Know the great works of art and music. Listen to some good music. Learn common techniques of drawing, painting, and sculpture.
- Get Interested in Philosophy. Know something about every major philosopher and theory.
- Learn Some Physics.
- Explore History. History helps you understand the present. It gives you insights into human nature.
- Read as Much as Possible. Know the classics and the most powerful literature works from modern authors.
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SIMILAR ARTICLES & IDEAS:
I travelled with Bedouin in the Western Desert of Egypt. When we got a puncture, they used tape and an old inner tube to suck air from three tyres to inflate a fourth. It was the cook who suggested the idea; maybe he was used to making food designed for a few go further.
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The real master has no tools
He/She has a endless power to improvise with what is to hand.
The more fields of knowledge he/she covers, the greater his/her resources for improvisation.
Alexis de Tocqueville
"Nothing tends to materialise man, and to deprive his work of the faintest trace of mind, more than extreme division of labour."
Invention fights specialization
To come up with new ideas, you need to know things outside your field.
The further afield your knowledge extends, the greater potential you have for innovation.
Learning how to learn - also known as "metalearning" - is one of the most important skills you can learn. Yet, almost nobody knows how to do it. Why is it so important? Well, it all goes back that parable of the lady and the fish.
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Learning and practice
Acquiring information is not learning.
Although textooks can help, they only work when combined with practice.
The Research Phase
- Get the big picture. Scan articles etc. to get an idea of what the field is about.
- Determine scope. Limit the size of what you want to learn. “Physics” or “philosophy” is too wide and will take decades. “Classical mechanics”, while still wide, might be a bit easier.
- Define success. Make a clear goal for your learning.
- Find resources
- Create a learning plan from what you have learned in you previous steps.
- Filter resources. Narrow down your resource list (Step 4) to the most important essentials.
The Learning Phase
- Learn enough to get started.
- Playing around with the information will give context and tacit knowledge to go back and do more verbal, analytic learning.
- Learn enough to do something useful with it.
- Teach. It is the only way to know for sure that you’ve learned something and a great way to fill in the gaps in your learning.
I've always been envious of people with exceptional memories. You know, the kind of people who amass encyclopedic knowledge with seemingly little effort, while we mere mortals struggle to remember the name of the person we were just introduced to. There's hope for all of us, though. Just...
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The Science of Memory
- Encoding - the stage when the brain consciously acknowledges information based on our senses. When we attach meaning or factual knowledge to any of this sensory input, that'...
Lifestyle Changes That Can Improve Memory
- Get a good night's sleep or take a power nap after learning something new, to help retain and retrieve memories better. Sleep deprivation and acquisition of too much information will not help you save those memories.
- Get moving, to improve the flow of oxygen-rich blood in your brain and to trigger neuron growth and new connections in the brain - critical for memory.
- Improve your diet. Fats from food can build up the brain, resulting to poor blood flow.
Mnemonics
Any system or device designed to aid memory:
- patterns of letters or words (common mnemonics)
- ideas (memory palace)
- associations (chunking)