The Polymaths Were Rich Yet Poor
Mapping Wealth & Intelligence From Da Vinci To Tesla
Never Confuse The Size Of Your Paycheck With The Size Of Your Talent
Studying the history of the world’s most remarkable & accomplished humans never ceases to uncover a healthy lesson or two. And while we usually chronologically cover one protagonist at a time, today, we’re instead comparing & contrasting the twelve polymaths we’ve reviewed across a single vector: that of financial wealth. The topic du jour is polymaths & wealth. Where they born into it? Did they attain it? Did they grow it or spend it?
Da Vinci, Franklin, Bacon, Russell, Tesla, Newton — all extraordinary in numerous ways, so the default hypothesis is that they attained a relatively high level of wealth no? We’re often told that IQ & financial wealth are strongly correlated, as you’ll see below, this is not quite the case (at least within this admittedly tiny sample pool).
They Were All Born Into Money
Starting with a sobering statement, it’s only right to remain objective & reveal that all (not some, all), of our protagonists were born into at least the middle-class. There is, of course, nothing wrong with being born into wealth & using it rightfully (as everyone here certainly did); however, it’s worth addressing…
