Praise for the specialist and disdain of the generalist

We often hear, somewhat disparagingly the phrase: “Jack of all trades, master of none.” This maxim seems to be a commonality across multiple languages and cultures. For example, the Chinese also warn: “Equipped with knives all over, yet none is sharp.”

Writer Robert Twigger believes that this faulty way of thinking about specialization versus applied generalized mastery is due to a phenomenon in which he coined the word monopath.

monopath. It means a person with a narrow mind, a one-track brain, a bore, a super-specialist, an expert with no other interests — in other words, the role-model of choice in the Western world.”

Looking back at those wondrous higher types of antiquities and the Renaissance, we begin to see many trends. A polymath is someone who’s expertise flows like a flood, encompassing and saturating any field it comes across. 15th century polymath Leon Battista Alberti once wrote that a man can do anything that he wills. The ideal of perfection during the Renaissance was the master of all.

This great higher ideal of a human excelled in artistic, intellectual and even physical activities. Nothing was out of bounds for them. While all of this might conjure up imagery of the greats like Michelangelo, Goethe, or some other Faustian archetype… the polymath is something we can all subscribe to in some fashion.

Polymaths in a way embody the childish curiosity made manifest into experience and doing.

“I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do.” – Leonardo da Vinci

Question all established schools of thought and start from the beginning.

Don’t limit yourself to only studying one minute slice of life.

Learning is a never ending process that doesn’t occur over a few days or weeks. It is a lifelong pursuit.

Always record your thoughts in some manner.

Whisking yourself away into the ancient halls of unbounded inquiry will not hinder your goals in life, they will instead facilitate you to new heights of greatness.