Being a Polymath in the Age of AI

In this blog I explore what it means to be a polymath and why it is the best way to innovate and create in the age of AI.? We tend to get a glimpse of what a polymath may look like on most social media platforms like instagram.? We see the portrayal of someone leading an exciting life of?travel, adventure, creativity, releasing “products”, practicing art,? posting opinions about things that they care about etc.

Is that what a polymath is supposed to looks like? ?

I imagine such folks are exhibiting tendencies or aspirations but may not necessarily be one. In order to understand what a polymath is, first let’s look at the key characteristics of being a polymath.

Follow your curiosity

“There is something at work in my soul which I do not understand…a love for the marvelous, it hurries me out of the common pathways of men” - Mary Shelley in Frankenstein

Being a polymath means following your curiosity.??

Curiosity is a strange thing, Let’s understand first what it is not. Most people often confuse it with scientific study or academia. Curiosity does not mean one acquires some degrees in a field of study, having a PhD does not mean you are a curious person.? Although it can certainly lead to deep study, perhaps even a PhD one day. However, studying about a field with the goal of getting into a profession is definitely not being curious.

Curiosity does not mean leading with your nose in places where you have no business to be in. It is not a way to show others what you are? made of nor is it a way to ride the latest wave.?

It is in a way listening to your deepest voice, what some may call intuition.? This listening, leads you to find a practice or a craft.?

One cannot get oneself into a curious state but one one finds oneself in it when you allow it. Though being in a curious state wasn’t an accident or a coincidence it strangely feels like it. You know you are in a curious state when you sense that you have silently observed what others have completely missed.? You sense a rapturous interest in learning about what you have observed. You want to learn it from every vantage point. When you are curious, the acts you do in that state feels like it rewards your soul.

Practice Alchemy

Being a polymath means you are an Alchemist, No it is not some form of sorcery ??.

It means you embrace the study of many branches of Science such as the Arts, Technology, Philosophy and Literature. This study will one day be combined and connected in the work you output. The body of work that you produce is nothing like what the market has ever seen, it is novel.??

The novelty is unattainable to the one who does market research because you have the ability to derive your creation from disparate fields. This does not mean you try different combinations of the lock in the hope to click unlock. Instead, led by your curiosity you naturally allow your hidden interpretations to come to light. Your unique experiences of life and interpretations that you derive from it is precisely what makes your product or value proposition unique.

Life Learner

“A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions--as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all.” - Nietzsche

Being a polymath means you? are a life learner. A polymath sees life’s experiences as somewhat of an experiment, all the while enjoying the learnings from it. The polymath lives in a world that is dynamic, everything may be in flux, expects it to be that way and is comfortable with it. When external events happen to a polymath it is something of a variable that is added to the experiment. In this dynamic world Life’s creative force itself unfolds. The learning is effortless and comes from a state of perceiving creativity itself. The ability to construct some theories? and validate them with reality is the way learning occurs to a polymath. No result goes unreflected, patterns are matched, randomness is sought and brought into precision.

Aspire Aesthetic Mastery

“Style is the answer to everything. A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing” - Charles Bukowski

Being a polymath means aspiring to be an aesthete.? The output of a polymath is the result of a mastered craft. It is not a pedantic solution to a common problem. There is an element of aesthetic beauty in what he or she may have created. Steve Jobs and Steve McQueen are perfect exhibitors of this behavior.?

When you refuse to publish or launch anything that is run of the mill or doesn’t please your inner standards you are in a craft state. The best version of this behavior is when you can find different channels to demonstrate your craft. The? worst version of this is when perfectionism gets the better of you and you don’t put out anything.

Polymath in the Age of AI

Why then is it important to be a polymath in the age of AI?

Well, for the polymaths that read this it will be evident. For the aspirational ones who need that extra nudge here are three reasons.?

The Job displacement with AI has surprisingly been in the white collar space. We all have heard Knowledge is power and this was adopted by every “knowledge worker”.? Every knowledge worker voraciously acquired knowledge to become specialists in fields.

With the increasing number of lucrative jobs for the knowledge worker accelerated by the Tech boom, competition for this type of work heightened. This led knowledge workers to become more specialized to stay competitive. This specialization is actually becoming a detriment for the knowledge worker.?

Training AI models on highly specialized data and tasks is much easier and cheaper.? AI can safely operate within a domain and the corpus of data sets is relatively smaller.?

Think about this, a marketing consultant who is highly specialized in marketing products to dentists and orthodontists is much easier to replace with AI than a Seth Godin who is a generalist in Marketing, highly creative and understands the philosophy of Marketing.

Secondly, AI engineers are making great advances in building autonomous agents. These agents are able to execute tasks that require minimal reasoning. Very soon we will be able to chain these tasks and allow them to make micro decisions on our behalf.? The big CRM company Salesforce just invested $1 billion in its autonomous? agent project called Dreamforce. One can? imagine in the not too far future a workforce or a dreamforce where one might see human employees working closely with an AI agent force. In such a workforce the activities and tasks that require micro decisions will largely be one dimensional.? These one dimensional tasks or activities will largely be performed by these autonomous agents.?

Polymaths are multi-dimensional thinkers since they learn from a variety of sources, sources that go beyond their assigned responsibilities. Polymaths will be able to add immense value to these environments by bringing in aesthetic value, novelty and above all an attitude that challenges status quo with their curiosity and intuition.

Finally, although AI can work tirelessly, 24/7, without taking a break. There is something to be said about the energy of humans being up or down. Existential philosophers such as Soren, Hiedegger, Sartre etc have said we as humans are beings oriented towards death.? In other words, the finiteness of human life is what makes moments in our life infinitely valuable. For the polymath this is precisely what gives life its passion. Polymaths with their heightened sense of curiosity and love for the act of learning are always driven to work on projects that they are passionate about. In the book “Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet”, Authors? Marian L. Tupy and Gale L. Pooley navigate the history of Innovation to show innovation’s end benefit to human beings? is that it gives them more time. This is precisely the sort of world one can imagine with AI. A world where we have more time to pursue our passion, creative way of thinking and living.?

In such a world Polymaths are destined to shine.

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