Polymath

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I love the concept of being a polymath aka ‘a person of wide knowledge or learning’.

In life, we’re encouraged to specialise based on our talents and abilities.

But what if you happen to be rabidly passionate about something you’re awful at? Or you have no experience of or exposure to a topic but you’re deeply curious about it? Or it’s not the kind of thing that ‘people like you’ do but you really want to do it anyway?

Should you give up?

Or should you pursue it with everything you’ve got?

One story I love is about this lady in New York (I wish I could remember her name). She was in her 80s when she became interested in Ancient Greek mythology. She studied it with single-minded fervour and by the time she was in her 90s, she was one of the world’s foremost authorities on Ancient Greece.

I want to be an artist. I want to be a novelist. I want to be a great gardener and cook. I want to travel the world and understand sociology and psychology in more than just a passing way.

I think we should all go hard on what we’re interested in. We’re all so much more than an accountant or journalist; mother or electrician.

We’re woven together from many strands of different fibres and strengths. The more strands, the more complex and interesting the pattern.

 

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