Polymath vs Multi-Hyphenate

I wrote an article about polymaths last week (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/where-polymaths-aman-zaidi/) and it stirred up a little conversation. Here's throwing some more light on the topic.

Some of us look at ourselves and see that we have diverse interests, and think of ourselves as a Leonardo da Vinci. Here are a few tests that will help you determine whether you are a bona fide polymath or not:

The Cambridge dictionary defines a polymath as "a person who knows a lot about many different subjects". Note that this is very different from "dabbles in related subjects". So if, like me, you can spread some paint on a canvas once every few years and the end result looks like a landscape of some sort, don't go calling yourself a painter yet. If people aren't commissioning you to do their portraits, you may not yet know a lot about painting.

My friend, Shamsud, cycles every weekend, paints, writes poetry and TV scripts, invests in businesses and has a full time job. Of these, the only thing anyone is willing to pay him to do is the last one. So he dabbles in the rest and is not (yet) a polymath. He is probably at the hobbyist stage in many of these pursuits.

Is there a stage after hobbyist? There might be. It's called multi-hyphenate.

The Cambridge dictionary defines a multi-hyphenate as "someone who does several different jobs, especially in the entertainment industry". For example, Justin Timberlake is a singer-actor-record-label mogul. My sister, Annie, is an author-playwright-filmmaker-journalist. Varun Grover is a lyricist-screenwriter-standupcomic-filmmaker. Multi-hyphenates. Why? Because they do multiple jobs that are somewhat related, and have serious skill in them.

It seems that there could be a progression from hobbyist to multihyphenate to polymath.

Coming back to polymathy. Why don't we see too much of it in our times? Because people are taught to "focus on one thing" and become a "master of one", and therefore they tend to stick to one lane while ignoring the other areas where they have interest and potential. This is the dark side of focus. Exploring your full potential means seriously getting into different areas. For instance, my friend Bindu is an educator, marathoner, classical dancer and a philanthropist. Another friend, Tanul, is a businesswoman, krav maga exponent and kathak dancer. A cousin's husband, Saif, is a technocrat-cyclist-hiker-guitarist. A friend Anup is, to name just a few things, a chartered engineer, an experiential educator, an avid biker, an expert hiker, a pranayama teacher and a psychology post-graduate; he's not physically tall but his name plaque is at least 6 feet long! I see all of them as multi-hyphenates who may be on the road to polymathy if they don't abandon their multiple pursuits along the way. A friend, Sunit, has two PhD's in different subjects; if he gets a third, I might want to call him a polymath, because that is the what a classical polymath does - achieves distinction in different areas.

According to Waqas Ahmed, Nathan Myhrvold qualifies as one of the modern polymaths. He is a businessman-scientist-photographer-chef-author of some distinction. And Chad Woodford who I came across on LinkedIn seems to be another - he calls himself an attorney, yoga teacher, podcaster, product manager, speaker and ai philosopher. That's 4 very distinct jobs that he can get hired for!

I shall continue to search for genuine polymaths around us. Do let me know in the comments please if you have encountered any, and maybe we can build a list together!

#polymath #multihyphenate

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Aman works in leadership, talent and organisation development, teaches positive psychology at the TISS-ODA organisation development certification programme, coaches professionals on their strengths and is mildly obsessed with the diversity of talents that human beings possess. His?attentionally-challenged?brain rejects the idea of single-minded focus and indulges his multiple interests such as history, archaeology, anthropology and paleontology. He spends his spare time on Wikipedia and has even taught a course on dinosaurs.