I can’t remember when I first became aware of the word “Polymath“. It must have entered my semantic memory sometime in the past 3 to 5 years. But now it seems suddenly the whole world is a polymath. Up there with great polymaths like Plato, Aristotle, and Leonardo da Vinci.
What is a polymath?
Let’s clear up one thing first. A polymath isn’t a funky, multi-tasking mathematician! It’s actually someone totally more awesome.
Turns out, the “-math” part is from an Ancient Greek word for knowledge. A polymath isn’t someone who knows lots of things about maths… it’s someone who has mastered multiple domains of knowledge and expertise, and uses that to do great things.
"A polymath is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems."
I want you to try this experiment
- Go to your LinkedIn profile.
- Type in “polymath” in the search box.
- Let me know in the comments below how many results you get.
Can you beat the staggering 6,300 people in my 1st, 2nd and 3rd-degree connections who self-identify as being a polymath?
A new one for me is the “professional polymath”. Tell me if you ever find out what a professional polymath actually is. And do take a selfie if you meet one in real life 👀
Why are there so many polymaths now?
Polymaths used to be a rarity. In the past, it took a lot of time and effort to achieve mastery in even one subject, let alone multiple subjects. This is because access to information was limited. People would have to travel great distances to learn from a teacher, or to obtain books. The average person lacked the financial means and free time to dedicate years to higher study.
However, many of the historical barriers to polymathy have rapidly fallen away in the modern age. The Internet has placed the sum total of human learning into everyone’s pockets, to the extent that municipal libraries in many cities are now empty and closing down.
The rise of distance learning means that a student does not need to leave their bedroom to interact with a class of fellow students and their teacher. The world has rapidly shrunk through ease of travel. Far-flung destinations that were once considered exotic, mystical and difficult to reach are now suffering damage from overtourism.
For a lot of people, changing economics and workplace dynamics mean that there is no longer such a thing as a “job for life“. People now have portfolio careers. It is not uncommon for a person to study one subject at university, take a first job in a completely unrelated field after graduation, work their way up a corporate ladder learning new skills along the way, and then be made redundant or take a career break – forcing yet another period of retraining. Even in retirement, the reality of many workers today is the need to take paid employment in a totally new field.
As a consequence of all these factors, autodidacticism (also known as self-education and self-study) is on the rise. It is associated with the democratisation of knowledge. Knowledge is no longer the preserve of the elites such as the clergy and the academics. People have learnt so much, so rapidly, that they now consider themselves to be a polymath!
What’s so great about being a polymath?
We are missing a crucial point with the inexorable rise of the polymaths in our midst. 
#1 of this post is that much of what is described as polymathy is not, in fact, polymathy at all.
Let’s take a look at what is sometimes mistaken as polymathy:
1) The Normal Person – Each of us is a son, or a daughter, or a parent, or a friend, or a neighbour, or an employee or an employer. To juggle each of these roles, we all need to have mastery of many different skills. Everyone has faced a variety of challenges throughout their lives, and learnt new skills along the way. This is just a normal part of being human. This is not polymathy.
2) The Multi-Tasker – Someone who performs more than one task at a time. The person who is driving their car, while using their mobile phone, while adjusting the radio, while talking with passengers in the car. This is not a reflection of their level of mastery in any subject, as each individual task is simple. Multi-tasking is not polymathy.
3) The Jack of All Trades – The person who is competent in several different trades – such as plumbing, bricklaying, and gardening. They are versatile as they know a little bit of many different trades. However, their knowledge does not achieve the level of mastery. This is not polymathy.
4) The Generalist with Transferrable Skills – I have met many managers who pride themselves on the generic and transferrable skills they have brought from their previous jobs. While it is great to be an amazing project manager or to be able to put together a smart PowerPoint presentation, the level of knowledge required for this can hardly be referred to as polymathy.
5) The Career Changer – Someone who trains in one field or profession, and then leaves it to train in a different field or profession. Over the course of a working life, the person may have worked in many diverse fields. This requires a willingness for life-long learning. Similar to The Multi-Skilled Individual, the accumulated skillset is impressive, but not quite the level of polymathy, as we will soon see.
6) The Multipotentialite – A person who excels in two or more different fields. I know someone who can drive a car, ride a motorbike, fly an aeroplane and pilot a motorboat (although not all at the same time!) I also have a friend who is very senior in the medical profession, and he is also an accomplished competitive cyclist in his spare time. Both of these individuals are multi-skilled high achievers. But polymathy is more than multipotentiality. It is more than merely being multi-skilled or multi-talented, as I will soon explain.
It has become a fad to water-down the weight and significance of polymathy by referring to individuals with diverse life experiences and skills as being polymaths. It is not sufficient to have lots of different skills. Or to continuously learn new skills one after the other.
None of the people listed above satisfy the definition of a polymath we saw earlier –
“An individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems.”
The genius of being a polymath lies in:
(A) The mastery of multiple complex and specialist domains simultaneously, and
(B) The creation of a synergy at the intersection of the things learnt in one domain, and things learnt in another domain, and
(C) Using (A) and (B) to unlock possibilities that aren’t accessible to others.
Leonardo da Vinci was multi-talented. He was one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance period. He was also a pioneer in studying human anatomy by dissection, and he was trained in mathematics. These three things in themselves do not constitute polymathy.
However, he came to be described as the archetypal Renaissance-era polymath when he brought together his mastery of these three domains to produce something extraordinary for that time: detailed drawings of human and animal anatomy highlighting the mathematical proportionality of the body and its parts. Not only did he dissect and study anatomy, but he also meticulously drew and painted what he saw, to create a deeper understanding of anatomy for himself and for others. He also used his mathematical knowledge to find mathematical patterns within anatomy. He utilised skills from all three domains to come up with a new understanding of the human body.
To achieve something similar, the Jack of All Trades mentioned earlier would have to be plumbing, bricklaying and gardening all at the same time, and maybe creating a garden water feature that no one else has ever even imagined. My doctor friend would have to be winning a cycle race while treating patients in his clinic, in such a way that the combination of these two activities creates a superior outcome. Or at the very least, using his specialist medical knowledge to help him cycle faster.
True polymathy is rare.
In summary…
Contrary to popular opinion, polymathy is not an inherited or genetic characteristic that a person is born with. It is not like a neurodivergent trait such as Autism or Asperger’s Syndrome.
Rather, polymathy is an action, and not an attribute or quality. And the person who performs that action is a polymath, while they are performing it.
After acquiring mastery over complex knowledge, polymathy requires the cultivation of a mindset that can break down conceptual silos and see possible cross-connections between diverse bodies of knowledge. Ultimately, this is a skill that can be learnt. And that’s #2.
