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Why some people are impossibly talented
Understanding A Polymath
Genetic and environmental factors, along with curiosity and self-awareness, make polymaths complex personalities.
They have historically been rebels, as society has always encouraged individuals to specialize in a particular field.
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Key Ideas
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.
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Key Ideas
Polymaths
Polymaths, geniuses with diverse skillsets and varied interests, are the source of some of history's greatest contributions.
Giants like Aristotle, Galileo, and Leonardo da Vinci were...
The Approach Of A Polymath
A polymath sees the world with a unique perspective, making connections that are not apparent to others.
Early polymaths had the advantage of a wide-open field, and went deep in their disciplines, yielding branches and sub-branches of specializations. Deep down, these different branches lead to the same trunk and roots.
Polymaths Vs Specialists
Polymaths differ from specialists, as they are on to a highway that is getting wider, and specialists are parked in a spot that is getting deeper.
Polymaths have the advantage of learning new fields of study, and forming new connections, while specialists start having a narrow vision by going deep, learning less. The learning ability of the polymath is the required skill-set of the future.
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The modern polymath
... is someone who becomes competent in at least 3 diverse domains and integrates them into a top 1-percent skill set.
In another words, they bring the best of what humanity has discov...
Creating an atypical combination of 2+ skills
Even if you're merely competent in these skills, combining them can lead to a world-class skill set.
Example: Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, one of the most popular comic strips of all time, was not the funniest person, not the best cartoonist, and not the most experienced employee. But by combining his humor and illustration skills while focusing on business culture, he became the best in the world in his niche.
Creative breakthroughs
Most creative breakthroughs come via making atypical combinations of skills.
Researcher Brian Uzzi, a professor at the Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management, analyzed more than 26 million scientific papers going back hundreds of years and found that the most impactful papers often have teams with atypical combinations of backgrounds.