Here we are…
A new year.
You can imagine a set of opinions circling the air:
“The year has gone way too fast”
“Time flies”
The tradition of setting New Year’s Resolutions is executed with high hopes, with a hint of awareness that they can be abandoned within the first couple of weeks.
In the content creator space, this is where most personal development creators capitalise to combat this problem.
When you type in the search bar on YouTube on how to make 2025 the best year of your life, you can see the patterns.
But one YouTuber by the name of
the Chad, a Yale Computer Science student, proposed a unique approach:
After reading the post, I excitedly pressed the like button, commented down below, couldn’t wait for the Sunday to arrive, and eventually discovered his Substack.
The good personal bias has taken over!
But in all honesty, is it true?
Could 2025 be the year of the people who strive to embrace more than a couple of passions and become “multi-dimension jacked?”
As with any New Year, there is uncertainty to make an overly hopeful statement, but what I can predict from personal experience…
The Polymath is Resurrecting
As the 21st century becomes increasingly more technological and epistemological, there is more self-awareness about knowledge as a resource:
High accessibility.
High abundance.
The Internet is a catalyst for this flood.
This self-awareness is mostly in the form of productivity and metacognitive education, cultivating healthier and playful methods to gain control over the flood.
The modern education system sparks intense debate; many are saying it does not teach you the skills necessary for the world we live in. Some even have the guts to point out that the system was intentionally designed to prevent these skills from being taught.
But if you guessed from the title of this piece, the one concern alerted is hyper-specialisation.
If you have been to university, trace back to the time when you had a careers session. A day of exciting opportunities is laid out to give you a taste of what your degree can do on the job. It gives a potential pathway that you may not have thought or expected. Some may not realise, but your learning does not stop; there are further pathways to lead towards being a specialist with a great deal of mastery in the industry.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with choosing this path; it may be what you desired to do before starting your degree.
The skills taught by the education system are no doubt relevant for your jobs; from the basic calculations to coding in Python to clinical validation of prescriptions.
This procedural knowledge fits a Kind Learning Environment, where the rules of a job are clear and immediate feedback is given when mistakes or little booboos are made.
But the modern world is known as a Wicked Learning Environment, which is the complete opposite; unclear patterns and delayed feedback when solving problems.
Problems are becoming more multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary, meaning effective solutions require a variety of domains. But the latter is where things get complicated; the thinking style sought after is a conceptual integration of these domains.
This is the nuance of the Wicked World.
It seems challenging at first, and one wonders, “How did we get into all this mess in the first place?”
And it’s true…
Thinking in concepts and cross-pollination requires a great deal of cognition.
But despite the difficulties, it makes problem-solving more curiosity-driven and fun as you explore multiple domains to find potential relationships and transfer of wisdom.
Interdisciplinarity is on the rise, and this prompts us to change our way of thinking.
To adapt to the Wicked World.
To critically evaluate complex problems.
To make societies more kinder and less divisive on the important issues.
There may be “barriers”, but the polymath is not **extinct**.
Nowhere near…
How to Dominate the Wicked World as a Polymath
The problems of the Wicked World are hard and somewhat…
Wicked.
It is the complexity of the human condition, from the notable discoveries to the undiscovered mysteries for all eternity.
But remember these mysteries are not mysteries in isolation. They are connected.
And that is where you come in; a visionary who sees the interconnections between subject domains, the resulting synthesis of new ideas and a beautiful thinking style to change your perspective of the world forever.
That is the polymath.
All you need are these core ingredients:
1. Curiosity is Your Fuel
Polymaths are like travellers with a bucket list filled with countries. The countries are your subjects of interest. But regardless of how many are crossed off, the wonder hardly runs out of energy and excitement.
2. Connections are Your Foundation
The basis of the polymath’s metacognition is the thirst for connections between concepts and domains that drive closer to the truth behind their questions, especially questions starting with why. By finding connections, the learning process becomes meaningful and purpose-linked to recharge curiosity.
Don’t just learn by passively consuming or by merely doing, learn by active engagement with connections.
3. Humility is Your Value
This one is special. It may be a virtue that you may not expect or even agree with, but I believe this is quintessential to the polymathic character. With the number of domains to explore with an endless curiosity and stark connections, the search for the truth slowly tends towards completion. But along the way, the hypothesised connections and unanswered questions act as graceful barriers towards the truth. This is where humility steps in. Being aware of what you don’t know or are unsure of, and to take it one step further, being aware of nuance, where there is always more to what meets the eye.
The polymath route is unconventional but intellectually fulfilling at best.
I’ll leave you this quote from an article by The Conversation:
Polymathism in the 21st century is no longer about “mastering” multiple fields of study, nor is it about being a generalist. It’s about acquiring a set of critical attributes that allow one to excel across subject areas as opportunities occur, and to negotiate interdisciplinary collaboration with a critical eye, and an informed outlook.
Pretty interesting article! But it made a question in my head as a young person, how a polymath can make a career in a expert driven world?
A few years ago, the term was introduced to me. Then it all made sense. My interdisciplinary mind finally had a home and a song to sing in it. Thank you.