You Will Find the Key to Life Fulfillment by Living Like a Polymath
Imagine being a child again when everything is possible and exciting. Cultivating curiosities in the age of specializations.
Do you want to experience life to the fullest?
Nobody would say no to that.
I mean isn’t that the whole purpose of life?
There’s always room for improvement in your life. So, take a step back and ask yourself, why don’t you feel fulfilled yet?
Let me give you a clue.
Maybe you’ve been doing the same thing over and over again your entire life. You’ve become an expert on something that it becomes your comfort zone.
When was the last time you actually explore something new? Whether it’s the unfamiliar knowledge from a different industry or simply a sudden interest in picking up a new hobby?
The thrill of stepping into the uncertainties to learn something new is what you’ve been missing out on. The excitement that reminds you of being a 5-year-old who was always amazed about the world.
You will find that missing puzzle by adopting the habits of a polymath.
What is a polymath?
No, we’re not talking about the securities token platform here.
We’re talking about the polymath as a type of mindset, a lifestyle.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary. A polymath is:
A person who knows a lot about many different subjects.
You’ve probably heard of Leonardo Da Vinci and Benjamin Franklin in your history class. These brilliant people are one of the many polymaths who brought marvellous innovation to the world across different fields of knowledge.
You would agree with me if I say we need more people like Da Vinci and Franklin in today’s postmodern world. You would see new inventions every single day.
Specialization is not the only way to be a functional member of society
You may wonder, why don’t we have more of these polymaths?
Well, want to know something cool. Just like Davinci, you have always been a polymath since you were born. Yes, you.
That’s fascinating, isn’t it? Every one of us can be an artist, a scientist, an explorer and a leader in a lifetime. All of us have that potential.
What’s holding us back then?
The capitalist society is holding us back. The society that aggrandizes specialization, and looks down upon generalists.
It happened to you before, didn’t you notice?
Here’s a nostalgic trip for you. Look back in your life, when you were just an infant, not knowing a single concept about the world.
You learned about concepts through language and your multifaceted sensory interaction with the world by seeing, touching, smelling and hearing.
You explored the world through these different channels of knowledge to understand the fundamental concepts of how the world works.
You went to your primary school, you didn’t just learn one thing. You learned mathematics, science, literature, art and history while learning how to socialise and connect with people.
These different ranges of skills that you’ve been mastering fit the definition of how a polymath conducts his life.
Suddenly, when you graduate high school, everyone asks you whether you want to be a doctor, a lawyer or an engineer?
Wait, a second.
After learning all these skills, now you have to just pick one and stick with it for the rest of your life?
Remember the pressure of choosing your major in college? I’m sweating just by reminiscing about it.
It’s a tough choice, to gamble everything on one thing, because somehow when you say yes to one thing, you say no to other things.
If you want to be a doctor, you’re not an engineer or a chef. The society wants you to fit in with the socio-economic structure for the benefit of capitalist profit. By being specialised in one skill, you become a resource for some company.
I’ll say that again. You become a resource.
Is that all you are?
You will nurture your curiosity with a polymath’s mindset
This is what you’re missing out if you’re tunnel-visioned with specialization — innovation.
Innovation comes from the curiosity that is driven by passion.
Yes, you guessed it, specialisation kills curiosity.
Innovation is all about solving problems — creatively. This can only be achieved when two or more disciplines converged and feed into a creative solution.
Yes, you can solve problems with one skill. But there’s a creative limit to it.
Cultivate your curiosity with directive learning
Let’s take a simple example — cooking.
If you want to be able to serve delicious food on the table, cooking skill is essential but it’s not sufficient. Break down the whole process of making food and you will see why.
First, you have to acquire some research skills like reading because you want to find out which recipe works and which does not in a book or online.
Then, you have to understand the basic concept of taste. You might want to ask yourself, which flavours complement and negate one another. Like how sweet food can neutralise spices.
Oh yes, you need some financial knowledge too, and that comes with grocery shopping. How are you going to find a more cost-effective ingredient while not compromising the quality of food you’re going to make?
We haven’t even yet come to cooking. Just the preparation alone requires more than one skill.
Not to forget, the food presentation. It’s an art.
Oh, some people are allergic to some ingredients. So, you might need to learn a bit of medical knowledge. Having the right medicine standing by in your kitchen cabinet in case of any emergency related to allergy is a must.
Just the process of making food requires other supplementary skills to finally get to the end product.
Okay, now imagine doing this — explore a little bit more on these supplementary skills. You will earn yourself another skill. Okay, how about exploring another one.
Now, you have a ‘skill set’ that relates to each other yet can be specialized on their own.
For instance, if you explore more about allergy, you’ll get some insights into dietary and health. You’ll then learn more about defining a diet programme not just for people with food intolerance but for people who have fitness aim like a bodybuilder for example.
Now, this knowledge you just learned branched out from one skill, cooking. Suddenly, you have someone who wants to listen to you talking about a fitness programme.
Cool right?
This is directive learning. Exploring other skills that relate to your one skill.
It’s one of the two ways you can cultivate your curiosity.
The other one is opportunistic learning.
Be adventurous with opportunistic learning
You might wonder what do you mean by opportunistic learning?
I would describe it as a spontaneous and random curiosity that triggered a sudden burst of exploration.
Let me give you a real-world example — my own experience.
Okay, it’s time for a story.
When I was 15, I decided that I wanted to be an architect without even knowing what the actual work was. Maybe I was hooked by the way that my father described the profession, he said:
“An architect is the leader when it comes to construction.
Without the design from the architect, there’s no building to build.”
I like that idea of taking the role of a leader in an industry.
I learned how architecture integrates both art and science in the design process. The versatility of the profession hooked me even more.
Then finally, I’m in university and I’m doing architecture. That’s a dream come true, right?
Not really.
The grass is not always greener on the other side. I learned that the hard way.
The lifestyle of an architect certainly isn’t the most lucrative one out there.
Sitting in front of the computer designing on 3D software while smacking on woods building a physical model.
Oh yea, don’t start on me with the deadline. I remember coming to the studio at 4 am and found my friend sleeping under the desk in the studio. True story.
Anyway, all these stresses from not getting my expectations met with the architectural course led me to an existential crisis. (maybe I was being over-dramatic)
I began to delve into self-development to help sort myself out. You would do the same if you were depressed, right?
Then, I started diving into philosophy. I read some existentialist work by Sartre, Camus and Nietzsche which gave me some reassurance on my dilemma in life.
I then looked into Stoicism on how to deal with the world that can be wonderful on one occasion, then malevolent the next. I started practising meditation as a result.
It all started from that moment of refuge from stress and anxiety to now creating this website about self-development, intentional living and practical philosophy.
You might think, that’s quite a digress from architecture. Yes, indeed. That’s opportunistic learning for you.
So, what are you going to benefit from knowing about these differences between directive and opportunistic learning?
You will notice which type of learning pattern you naturally gravitate towards. Knowing this pattern will help you in deciding how to optimize what you learn into valuable skills instead of mindless dabbling.
Wait, there’s a little caveat:
There are limitations to both directive and opportunistic learning.
Directive learning can be exciting at first, but sustaining the same level of passion will require deliberate discipline.
Opportunistic learning, on the other hand, can pull you into this endless vortex of dopamine rush that is so deep, you would completely forget about the assignment you have to hand in the next day.
Be responsible.
The key to making polymath learning work for you is by developing a strategic system to integrate both approaches to cultivate your curiosity. Then, you will have a balance between the two types of learning.
Imagine waking up every day knowing there’s so much to learn and never running out of things to explore. For once, life feels like an adventure. And it should be.
Try putting on a polymath hat for a week, and see how fulfilled you’ll feel about your life.
Actualise your life with a polymath mindset
Answer this question — how thrill are you to live your life tomorrow morning?
You’ll be hesitant.
I mean you have to wake up early in the morning. Send the kids to school if you have kids.
Then, go to your workplace, the same office you’ve been working at for years.
Same faces, same work.
Come back home tired and empty.
Repeat for the rest of your life, until you retire or die.
Sounds like a dread to me.
Want to know a secret?
You can do the same routine, instead of feeling drained, you’ll be excited to go to work.
How do you do that?
Simple. Just do the work that is meaningful to you with the mindset of constant learning.
Here’s an advice from Benjamin Franklin;
An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest.
And a lot of times, meaningful work doesn’t come in one specialised area.
Meaningful work comes from this boiling pot of multifarious skills to solve problems that you care about solving.
You are craving a blossoming growth with your mental breadth.
Self-actualisation as Maslow would say.
Now, reflect on all the interests that you have said no to. Unlike dead people, these passions can be revived.
As long as you’re breathing, it’s never too late for you to experiment with your life.
In terms of colour, a specialised lifestyle is like black and white.
Imagine a rainbow — that’s the colourful life of a polymath.
Generalists are in demand in the age of AI
I bet you feel a certain level of insecurity with all the stories about how AI is going to take over the world. Thank you Black Mirror.
And they will start by taking over your job.
Well, as of now, the jobs that AI are going to take over are the ones that are specialised in manual skills and basic cognitive skills.
Based on research, real estate brokers and pilots are going to be automated. Let your kids know for their career choice later.
You might wonder how are you going to stay economically relevant?
I’m sure you don’t want to lose your job to some machine. Who’s going to put food on your table, right?
This is where polymath’s versatility comes to the rescue.
When you have a range of skills around your belt, if one is deemed irrelevant, you can always pull out another one, and another one. Only the sky’s the limit when it comes to the number of skills you can learn.
You’re still not convinced with the relevance of being a polymath in this era?
Well, look no further — who’s sitting at the top of your corporate hierarchy?
The leaders, the managers, the CEOs.
Most of these people exhibit a polymath approach to life.
Someone who can comprehend various trades will be able to communicate efficiently with people from different backgrounds of specializations. This is why a polymath will make a good leader.
You can debate me on this, but most of the above-average successful entrepreneurs out there lead a polymathic lifestyle. They see opportunities in any problem faced by society. They dive into them and find a solution.
That’s what polymaths do.
You can achieve balance in life with a polymath lifestyle
You would agree with me that balance is the key to everything in life.
The world as we know it will come to an end as it moves towards the inevitable entropy.
That applies to our being as well. There’s always a tendency for things to get unorganized and messy.
What keeps us sane and functional is the system that we implement in our life to achieve balance.
Even the ancient thinker preached on the importance of balance. Look at the concept of Yin and Yang in Taoism which is applicable in every facet of our lives.
“How is balance related to me being a polymath?” You’re wondering.
When you become specialized, you are putting your focus on just one thing. That will topple the balance sideways.
A polymath spreads his knowledge and passion to balance the scale.
We need both science and art for us to truly enjoy and appreciate the beauty of the world. That’s when we get to admire the extraordinary in the ordinary of our existence.
We need both of our logical left brain and our creative right brain for us to navigate through a life filled with hurdles and obstacles.
You need an objective thought process to decide on your finances. At the same time, you need a subjective approach to deal with the irrational emotions of your partner when they’re sulking.
Do you see it now?
Life is all about balance.
Yin and Yang isn’t just a hippie symbol or a tattoo that you see on some Asian dude’s biceps.
Balance is the goal in life that everyone should consider striving towards.
Do you know what’s going to get you to that balance?
Polymath.
Become one.
