Is being a Polymath a sustainable life purpose?

[Jahmaine]

Leonardo da Vinci was considered a polymath, he wasn’t necessarily just good at one thing, there wasn’t just mastery in one domain, but still got recognition for his greatness. In the context of life purpose and mastery, is it really practical? Would being a modern Da Vinci have any benefits? If not then why not? And why was Da Vinci an acception if that’s the case?

 

FYI - im still in the process of doing the life purpose course, I was just curious about this.

[Austin Actualizing]

It's not practical at all. Only about 1-2 things should be picked to master in a lifetime. We have a short amount of time and only so much energy. The recognition is from becoming masterful/world-class at something. Davinci would have been better off to stick with one thing. The only reason he got away with it was because he was one of the most brilliant minds in history. What's the difference between someone who can dribble/shoot/pass a basketball in their backyard and someone that gets paid 30 million a year to do it? The one that gets paid 30 million a year is one of the best in the world at that task. There is great reward is becoming masterful at something.

Check out these books if you want

Deep Work by Cal Newport and Mastery by George Leonard 

Edited January 18, 2020 by Austin Actualizing

[electroBeam]

On 19/01/2020 at 1:19 AM, Jahmaine said:

Leonardo da Vinci was considered a polymath, he wasn’t necessarily just good at one thing, there wasn’t just mastery in one domain, but still got recognition for his greatness. In the context of life purpose and mastery, is it really practical? Would being a modern Da Vinci have any benefits? If not then why not? And why was Da Vinci an acception if that’s the case?

 

FYI - im still in the process of doing the life purpose course, I was just curious about this.

Yes its totally sustainable. What are startup entrepeneurs? They are polymaths! They are good at marketing, engineering, personal relationships and business. In startup entrepeneurship its actually encouraged to wear multiple hats. 

Leonardo Da Vinci was good at 2 things: deep creativity and non biased observation. Because he did so many things, his creativity was massive and his observational skills were very attuned. It superseded others in his field. At the time, his artworks and engineering feats were unique and desirable. 

Startup entrepeneurs are also good at 2 things only: observation and creativity. They wear multiple hats in the process of making that scalable business model, but in the end finding that business model is really just about having wise judgement and massive creativity. Entrepeneurs need to have very good observation skills just like leonardo da vinci, because no research paper, mathematical equation or mentor is going to give you the insights you need to discover what that scalable business model is. Entrepeneurs also need to be creative because making a startup is highly competitive and creativity is what overcomes that competition (this is the essence of biological evolution). 

[Nahm]

@Jahmaine Maybe purpose, recognition, greatness, mastery, practicality and benefits weren’t on his mind at all. Just speculating of course. 

[Leo Gura]

Keep in mind that things have evolved a lot since Da Vinci's time.

Today to succeed you must be more specialized. You can't be an architect, a painter, an engineer, and a writer because you will be out-competed by others who specialize in just one thing.

Back in Da Vinci's time fields like engineering, architecture, etc. were not as developed or deep as they are today. It will take you 10 years of study just to become a decent engineer. And now you need work experience, licenses, certifications, etc.

So you can certainly be a polymath in the casual sense of studying lots of topics, but you ain't gonna master them all enough to make a career out of. Pick your career field more carefully. Even something like Engineering is far too broad. You need to pick what kind of engineer you want to be.

Competition is a lot more fierce today. So many amazing specialists to compete against. And it's a global marketplace. In Da Vinci's time the marketplace was a single city of 300,000 people, most of whom were peasants who couldn't read.

[remember]

what is fascinating about a lot of davincis work is that it all works mechanically but it mostly does not functionally. it’s all concepts. in that sense theoretically, no, we still need polymaths. the questions just is how good of a polymath will you become - how  far into the details will you be able to go?

just yesterday i saw some of the machines he constructed built of wood - not originals as the originals only exist in drawings. amazingly fantastical.

 the question in the most cases though is - how far does it fly?

the most amazing concept he constructed though was the plan on how to remember what a genius is about.

Edited January 20, 2020 by remember

[remember]

33 minutes ago, modmyth said:

I've met maybe one person like this in an intellectual sense, who was actually an intellectual. Very very few people really being knowledge for knowledge sake, or creation for creation's sake.

mhh did you ever try seeing it the way that everyone might be creation for creations sake - (be careful with this view it can become hollow fast. although if you get spiritual it will be the opposite.)

i also don’t coincide with what you say about the image. i really think as long as you have vision it’s the image that counts. in our times more than anything else.

[remember]

@modmyth  yes in a sense i‘m a popolist. but you don’t go into it deep enough, you predict the reason why and how for yourself. at least i‘m not handicapped... you think so? you are limiting yourself by saying anything is not debatable. you don’t even know what is really debated - is it populism vs arrogance? the picture is not always what it seems to be.

what is really debated is that the picture/image (and in a sense i‘m including sound and concept and emotion) is all there is - populist or non popolist. the practical intention lies in the eye of the visionary.

Edited January 21, 2020 by remember