The Polymath Epidemic

Unveiling a special announcement

Image by DALL-E

Is the polymath no more?

Are they no longer needed?

Why have all the wise innovatory people gone?

Some call this:

A decline

An under-appreciation

An epidemic

This may not be concerning to many, but it certainly doesn’t shine in the public eye.

A society that follows a route of going to university, getting a job, and settling in.

Not like there is nothing inherently wrong with choosing this life path, but in terms of a macro scale, there lies the problem.

The problem of declining critical thinking, denial of nuance, fear of following curiosity, and furthermore intersecting curiosities to create a fulfilling discovery (from creation to career path).

Compiling these sub-problems supports the hypothesis of a polymath “epidemic.”

This piece is inspired by a YouTube video titled “The Polymath Epidemic,” which spoke up about a few of these problems, and discussed the history of education and where society has reached until now.

I want to share with you my perspective and whether this is an overarching problem to be concerned about.

The Intellectual Retreat

The history of the polymaths has been documented by Peter Burke, an intellectual historian and Professor Emeritus at Cambridge University, and has produced dedicated works. One of which being *The Polymath: A Cultural History from Leonardo da Vinci to Susan Sontag*, a leading non-fiction book in the polymath space.

He describes the polymaths as an “intellectual species,” not in terms of how clever they are, but mostly on how invested they are in finding answers.

In ancient and medieval times, when all philosophers had their breakthroughs, it was a beautiful period not to be restricted to one discipline to specialise.

However, beginning in the 17th century, the exponential growth of knowledge in Western society made it increasingly difficult for individuals to master multiple fields with depth.

This led to what Burke describes as an "intellectual retreat of the polymath species" - a shift from comprehensive knowledge across numerous fields to expertise concentrated in fewer domains.

This historical transformation didn't merely represent a natural evolution but reflected structural changes in how society organised knowledge. As industrialisation advanced, the specialisation of labour became a dominant paradigm that extended beyond factories into intellectual pursuits. The resulting fragmentation of knowledge created systems that biased depth over breadth.

To make matters worse, Burke highlights a shift towards a pseudo-polymathic behaviour, which he calls “passive polymaths,” consuming knowledge from various domains but only settling in one discipline.

A Call for an Intellectual Comeback

The history of the polymaths is a story of exile and irony.

To some, a sad ending.

To many, a thing of the past.

But to the few, a poignant vocation.

A vocation to think and act in an unconventional way that was possibly deemed conventional at the time.

Being unconventional sounds a bit political, especially when it’s replaced with a word like “non-conformist,” but ultimately, it is the pinnacle of creativity which polymaths feed off.

I want to enlist a hypothesis to address if we’re going to transform a retreat into a comeback:

The Value of Depth

Another paradox.

An irony of diving deep, that’s what specialisation is meant to be.

Well this is actually one part of the story.

When we talk about depth in terms of adopting the polymathic lifestyle, it is incredibly valued and taken seriously. After all it is the driving force for curiosity. But there is one overlooked facet about depth:

Time and space.

For deep work.

Deep Thinking.

Deep Synthesis.

If you are a follower of Cal Newport:

The ubiquity of deep work among influential individuals is important to emphasise because it stands in sharp contrast to the behaviour of most modern knowledge workers - a group that’s rapidly forgetting the value of going deep.

Cal Newport, Deep Work

Polymaths are nothing more than knowledge workers.

The breadth, depth, and integration of domains entails deep and complicated knowledge strategies.

However, our modern society has created difficulty for a time and space to occur, substituting for a quick, demanding, and attention-grabbing shallowness, for the sake of efficiency, getting things done, and oversimplification.

Instead, polymaths have valued the nuance of life, fueling their dedication to depth:

Finding the time and space.

Practicing effective methods of knowledge acquisition.

Reflect on how much depth means to you, does it give you a quest to follow your curiosity?

A Special Announcement

This quest has led towards unexpected and exciting avenues for finding the key to being a polymath in a specialised society.

Starting this project almost 9 months ago has enthused me with wonder and awe. I’ve been and will continue to write intellectual essays about polymathy, but I have decided to take this project on a new route.

The essential thinking methods of a polymath.

To think deeply not just in a specialised and distracted world, but also to appreciate the nuance of societal issues in our present time.

If you would like to gain full access to exclusive articles when they are released, click on the following link:

I would like to say thank you for making Polymath’s Patterns what it is today.

I could not have done this without your messages and kindness.

I’m always open for any feedback or content ideas.