“Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Develop your senses — especially learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.”
— Leonardo Da Vinci
Now that we are asked to practise social distancing because of the global pandemic, I am working more from home. My daughter, who is usually at university, at her part-time job or busy in any one of her church meet-ups, is also at home full-time too because all her activities have come to a sudden standstill. She has been observing me these past few weeks getting on with my day and while she watched me busy on an oil painting remarked: “Mum, how is it possible to be so talented in so many things?” When I asked her what she meant, she replied, “you are good at reading, writing, technology, woodwork, gardening, handcrafts, cooking, painting, music(okay, I still can pick a tune on the recorder!), teaching, travelling, social media, blogger, and being a businesswoman.” I just smiled then and casually replied, “I try.” I didn’t notice then that she didn’t mention being a good mother, but ne’er mind.
However, through the course of the week I gave this more thought and it occurred to me that many of the highly successful people I know, do in fact have more talents than what they are known for. While I share many interests, I dare not put myself in the same category as these highly talented and gifted individuals who are referred to as “polymaths” which in layman’s terms mean multi-talented people with interests across multiple fields like art, literature, acting, sports, music, and science”.
The most famous polymaths in history in terms of their greatness and influence was without doubt Aristotle who was a brilliant scientist but who also influenced the fields of logic, aesthetics, poetry, linguistics and politics. Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, mathematician, futurist and humanitarian and could speak no fewer than 8 languages. Jagdish Chandra Bose was a Bengali physicist, biologist, biophysicist, botanist, archaeologist, a connoisseur of fine arts, and an early writer of science fiction.
We also have the Renaissance polymaths like Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Galileo Galilei as well as our modern ones like Elon Musk(engineer, industrial designer, technology entrepreneur, and philanthropist), Mark Zuckerberg (software programmer, internet entrepreneur, philanthropist and spacecraft travel), Steve Jobs (business magnate, industrial designer, investor, and media proprietor) and Jamie Foxx(actor, singer, comedian, songwriter, and producer). These are highly successful people who manage to achieve mastery across multiple industries, arts, or fields of study. So what sets them apart from most mere mortals?
The answer is quite simple. While the majority of the population stop learning when they finish high school or university, these people have a never ending quest for learning and doing. Bryce Courtenay, one of my favourite authors who has been described as a modern day Dickens, started his writing career at the age of 50 after a successful career in advertising, penned 21 best selling novels within the span of 24 years and wrote for 12 hours a day until his death from stomach cancer at the age of 79 years.
At the onset of the modern age, we have been influenced to think that “Jack of all trades is master of none”. At school, we have to choose our “specialist” subjects at year 10 (standard 8 in my time) that will determine the success of our future lives. If being a generalist would take you on a path to mediocrity, then why would the top five largest companies in the world be owned by polymaths: Bill Gates(Microsoft), Steve Jobs(Apple), Warren Buffet (Berskshire Hathaway), Larry Page(Google) and Jeff Bezos (Amazon). Recently, numerous studies have been conducted which points to a direct correlation between the varied interests people have, to their creative impact.
It seems that the creative heavy weights are who they are because they marry their knowledge in the various fields they are interested in to produce their eventual inventions or ideas. Take Steve Jobs, for example; so elegantly and gracefully he combined his interests in calligraphy, design and hardware to produce the sexy Apple products. Oprah Winfrey, captures the essence of a Renaissance polymath- an icon that has dominated pop culture for decades. Like the Renaissance Man who possessed an “unquenchable curiosity” and “feverishly inventive imagination” she has shattered the proverbial glass ceiling by becoming the first female black billionaire with her exceptional capability in various fields in authorship, oratory, philanthropy, acting, research, and many more.
While there are still parents that look forward to basking in the glory of their child achieving “straight A’s” or achieving a bag full of distinctions in their final year of school or university, I think the advice that Jack Ma, founder of Ali Baba online sales platform, gave his son makes so much sense. He advised, “you don’t need to be the top 3 in class, being in the middle is fine, so long your grades aren’t too bad. Only this kind of person has enough free time to learn other skills”. What profound wisdom! He is actually advocating that an individual should have varied interests so that they can become fully rounded free spirits. And who knows, perhaps they would be more of a force to be reckoned with when their skills from one field affords them greater insight to develop something quite fascinating in another.
Going back to the oil painting that I started during this social distancing period. While I have dabbled in fabric, watercolour and acrylic art before, oil painting is fairly new to me. It is hard going each day as I navigate my way as I learn about tones, values, hues, blends, shadows and shades. After two hours or so of meticulous work, I barely manage to cover a 5-centimetre square space of the canvas. Now I appreciate why these oil paintings fetch thousands of dollars. The point I am getting to though is that hard work beats talent any day of the week.
People with multi- interests are self motivated to learn and have an insatiable curiosity. They are resilient- many a time I wanted to throw in the brushes and palette altogether as my frustrations grew with mastering the oil painting technique, but I just leave it for awhile, go and do some gardening or cooking and then come back another day to try again. That’s the beauty of having many interests as you can switch when your mood is down, do something else and then return to become more productive. Apparently Albert Einstein who was a master physicist and accomplished musician would exclaim after a recital ”I have it!”. He discovered the solution to his invention problem while playing the piano or violin. I can’t tell you how many times I made big business decisions as I reached clarity of thought while weeding or pruning.
In this new era when there are so many unprecedented problems like the Covid-19 virus, we should open ourselves to new possibilities. Little children are so full of life and highly creative yet they are hammered into docile recipients of learning that lacks imagination and creativity. With this period of self isolation, we should encourage our children and even ourselves to pursue more interests. Today, more than never before, it has become so easy to learn through readily accessible technology with free or affordable content.
I read once somewhere where Bill Gates stated that around 70% of the jobs of the future haven’t been invented as yet. What we can be certain about is that we need to learn and relearn a whole range of skills to adapt to the future. So while we may revere specialists now because of their big pay packages, they risk getting trapped by their narrow skills set and will find it hard to learn new stuff. Polymaths, on the other hand, are more versatile who can quickly combine their existing skill sets in a myriad of ways to solve the world’s pressing problems. So, let’s move away from wishing our kids would be top in class; rather, encourage them to try a whole variety of interests to become the best, creative problem solvers that they can be.
#polymaths #multi-skilled #multi-talents
Very well said. We should concentrate on quality rather than quantity and keep continue the learning process.
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