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Quick takeaways
- Historical figures were polymaths with varied accomplishments in multiple fields.
- Societal wealth often correlates with intellectual output and fosters polymaths.
- Specialization is viewed as an exception, with polymaths historically being the norm.
- Career success linked to diverse avocational interests rather than IQ or test scores.
Deep dives
Historical Pedigree of Intellectuals
Throughout history, intellectuals were often polymaths, with experience and knowledge in a wide variety of domains. Examples like a Greek farmer plowing fields while reading Homer's Iliad or weavers in 18th century Scotland engaging in self-learning culture, showcase diverse intellectual pursuits not limited to the elite.
Encouragement of Wide Learning in Ancient Civilizations
Many ancient cultures like the Greek philosophers or Roman era bureaucrats pursued a multifaceted lifestyle by transcending fields and disciplines. Islamic teachings encouraged acquiring knowledge and wisdom, fostering extraordinary Muslim polymaths. Chinese bureaucrats known as shi embraced intellectual pursuits alongside artistic accomplishments, illustrating a culture that celebrated a multifaceted approach to life.
Impact of Wealth on Intellectual Achievement
There's a recurring theme that societal wealth correlates with intellectual output. Central Asian regions like Uzbekistan served as intellectual centers due to their affluence, fostering polymaths. The richness of classical Greece influenced intellectual flowering, hinting at the role economic prosperity plays in fostering intellectual achievements.
The Myth of Specialists and the Norm of Polymaths
Many renowned achievers in history were polymaths with varied backgrounds and accomplishments in diverse fields. The assumption of lifelong specialization is challenged, highlighting exceptional individuals known for exclusive commitment to one field. Specialization is viewed as an exception, with polymaths historically being the norm across art, science, and other domains.
Benefits of Polymathy and Creativity
Studies have shown that achieving eminence in one field often involves displaying more than average ability in other fields as well. Career success has been better correlated with intellectually stimulating avocational interests rather than IQ or standardized test scores. Historians have observed a correlation between the range of developed abilities and the diversity and importance of an individual's contributions.
The Relation Between Polymathy and Nobel Laureates
Nobel laureates in both science and literature tend to have multiple avocational interests, such as artistic pursuits, music, poetry, woodworking, photography, and more. They are significantly more likely to engage in various hobbies and creative endeavors outside their expertise compared to the average scientist or writer. This diversity in interests has been found to contribute to their remarkable achievements.
Auto Didacts and Unity of Knowledge
Polymaths and self-taught individuals (Auto Didacts) tend to see the interconnectedness of different fields of knowledge, viewing them as part of a unified whole. The book highlights the common thread between Auto Didacts and polymaths, emphasizing their broad-based learning approaches and the sense of unity and connection they perceive across various disciplines.
When we speak about people who have achieved a lot in their lives, we usually apply a single noun to describe them. Winston Churchill - politician; Nicolaus Copernicus - astronomer; Isaac Newton - mathematician; Christopher Wren - architect; Omar Khayyam - poet.
In The Polymath, Waqas Ahmed reminds us that this is a misrepresentation of their lives. Did you know that Winston Churchill won the Nobel Prize - for literature? That Copernicus also had discoveries in economics and mathematics, while spending most of his time managing Church estates? That Newton's main occupations were alchemy and biblical exegesis, and that he ran the Royal Mint? That Khayyam was in fact an astronomer and mathematician who wrote poetry on the side? Wren's career was variegated enough not to be able to fit inside a single sentence.
Ahmed introduces us to a compendious collection of famous and not-so-famous historical figures with great accomplishments, and shows us just how varied their lives, careers, and output were. They were all Renaissance men and women, polymaths, polyhistors, universal geniuses... It seems as though half the world are poets and polyglots, and most of the rest are lawyers, doctors, diplomats, revolutionaries, or businesspeople, at the same time as they make great strides in the fields which they become famous for.
At least, that's the history. Waqas Ahmed makes the further point that most people don't do it this way anymore, even though there's no good reason why we shouldn't - even the rapidly growing body of human knowledge makes this approach neither impossible nor unprofitable. His arguments about education and the fate of the world seem under-researched and based heavily on speculation, but the sheer volume of biography and variety of historical and cultural perspective that he brings to the task is immense.
While I take issue with some of his ideas about education, the broad thrust in the first half of the book - that breadth is much more common among great thinkers than we assume, and that therefore extreme specialisation is not a prerequisite for doing important work at the top of one's field - seems irrefutable. The book also serves as a fount of biographical knowledge about great people from the past.
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