polymaths
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Personal Development For Polymaths
Leonardo da Vinci: scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, and writer. Polymath is almost an understatement. “Polymath” comes from the Greek word polymathēs, meaning “having learned much,” and usually refers to having significant knowledge or expertise in a variety of fields.
[fr] L'expertise peut être alimentée par une connaissance exhaustive d'un seul domaine, ou par une connaissance approfondie de multiples domaines. Le généraliste a également une connaissance de multiples domaines, mais elle est superficielle. On a tendance à considérer que n'importe qui ayant des connaissances dans plusieurs domaines différents ne peut être un expert -- et c'est à mon sens une erreur.
What if Generalist vs. Expert was a Mistake? — Climb to the Star
A few weeks ago, I was in a work-related meeting where we were discussing skill sets required in a small team. At one point, someone said, “But we can’t be good at everything.” Since then, I found myself repeating that once or twice in some similar circumstance, but each time I say these words or something to the same effect, I wince deep inside. As I was growing up, my parents, to their credit, tried to make sure I had a well-rounded education. I was given music and art lessons, and turned out to be quite good at these things in addition to being an A-student.
The generalist’s dilemma
The Master of Many, Part 1. | robotic rodents
This conversation really began a few months ago, from my self-reflective rambly essay on hippiesque , followed by my friend Stephanie Booth’s investigation into the idea of the “poly-expert” . The question arose over an informal chat: what can multi-talented or multi-skilled people call themselves that do justice to their poly-expertise, when the market seems only interested in specialisation and 3-word long job titles? How do we even go about self-branding? How do poly-experts become who we are?Firstly, a (belated) Happy New Decade to all! Before the holiday season, I wrote about how poly-expertise was possible. In particular, I did some basic arithmetic: if we kept at something — say, working at a particular job — for 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, that it’d take us just over 8 years to become an “expert” if we were to follow the Gladwellian 10,000-hour rule. That is, assuming we have an 8 hours’ work day but are actually effective for 5, and a few other assumptions. Best read all of that here . So, what I’m going to is to show how, in practice, it’s possible to be a poly-expert over some time, even if you don’t try very hard.
The Master of Many, Part 2 | robotic rodents
Specialists, Generalists, Incompetence, and Cognitive Bias « Bad
I wanted to continue a bit where I left off with a non-technical explanation of what people such as myself do and my commentary on evolving technology management . Here is the abstract from Unskilled and Unaware of It : How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments (Justin Kruger and David Dunning, Department of Psychology, Cornell University), a fairly well known publication that appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (official link unavailable): People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains.
Don’t Do 'Shopping List' Marketing
I passed the window of a small business yesterday; as I understand it, a two-person operation. Across the windows it had a list of all the services on offer. And when I say ‘a list’ I mean a long list.