How to become a polymath

[Anonymous No.10468349]

PLAIN AND SIMPLE: How do I become a polymath living in an age such as ours?

[Anonymous No.10468362]

Read Euclid, Archimedes, and Apollonius in that order

Kthxbai

[Anonymous No.10468405]

>>10468362
not him but why

[Anonymous No.10468599]

bump for interest

[Anonymous No.10468610]

>>10468349
Depends on how you define polymath.

Get into Logic/Model Theory probably

[Anonymous No.10468612]

If you have to ask us how to be "a polymath," that's it. You will never be a polymath.

[Anonymous No.10468618]

>>10468405
Because of their relevance.

This way you get to learn how the properties and relations of shapes and numbers sprang up and were developed, learn basic rudimentary logic principles like reductio ad absurdum and the principle of superposition, learn the foundation of the field of calculus, learn the foundation of hydrodynamics, learn the basics of the center of gravity for objects, learn the difference between a parabola, hyperbola, and where these are physically represented in a three dimensional model.

That’s why.

[Anonymous No.10468631]

>>10468349
Like Jared Leto? I guess you can read biographies of modern polymaths.

[Anonymous No.10468777]

>>10468349
Do lots of stuff. Be well-versed in mathematics. Mathematicians can learn other subjects and logic comes easy to them, the reverse does not hold. Being able to cite famous works is shallow. Search for meaning and be curious rather than finding something clever to say.

[Anonymous No.10468788]

>>10468777
I would also say being able to communicate clearly is helpful. Read about Da Vinci and Franklin.

[Anonymous No.10468846]

>>10468349
Johann von Wower, a Hamburg philosopher, defined polymathy as "knowledge of various matters, drawn from all kinds of studies [...] ranging freely through all the fields of the disciplines, as far as the human mind, with unwearied industry, is able to pursue them".

There ya go anon. Here you have the definition, as well as the directions, to attain your goals. It only takes a lifetime. Good luck,and Godspeed.

[Anonymous No.10469106]

>>10468788
>>10468777
The trivium, basically

[Anonymous No.10469177]

>>10468631

[Anonymous No.10469222]

>>10469106
Yes, precisely.

[Anonymous No.10469241]

>>10468349
It's literally impossible now.

[Anonymous No.10469329]

>>10469241
Go ahead.

[Anonymous No.10469595]

>>10469241
A good upbringing is of course heavily beneficial.

What exactly do you think is impossible though?

[Anonymous No.10469612]

>>10469595
He's probably thinking of becoming a DaVinci like figure, spearheading different areas. Specialization has become so entrenched it's hardly viable to master, say, genetic engineering, philosophy and music. From a trivium perspective though it's doable, and I think that's the only worthwhile manner desu. You want to think for yourself, not be a technician in everything

[Anonymous No.10469622]

>>10469595
>A good upbringing
How do I achieve a good upbringing if I'm not pursuing a STEM or medical career

[Anonymous No.10469630]

>>10469612
>Specialization has become so entrenched it's hardly viable to master, say, genetic engineering, philosophy and music
OP here. Exactly what I think.

>From a trivium perspective though it's doable, and I think that's the only worthwhile manner desu

How??? I haven't had the best education in the world; not a "liberal" one at least.

[Anonymous No.10469681]

>>10469612
It's probably doable to get a career in genetic engineering going. Philosophy and music can easily be stacked on top, but it's probably hard to make meaningful contributions in the latter two fields. Still useful though.

Just following their spirits is a good undertaking.

>>10469622
Honestly, it's hard to acquire a level of fluency in mathematics without an education in it. I'd just advise you to read as much as you can. Include popular science, books about mathematics you can understand. You'll know what to read as time goes on.

[Anonymous No.10469690]

In regards to being famous, I get the allure, but some stoic thinking could do there. Just being a classically virtuous man trying to be valuable is sufficient.

[belief !9Im2b.ZGro No.10469727]

Study fucking everything


Religion
Math
Science
Literature
Old Gods
Pyschology
History
Art
Its all important, you need to be able to relate the topics to each other.
They all overlap and are interrelated.
If you cannot do so intuitively then you will never be.

3 is the key.

[Anonymous No.10469781]

>>10468362
>>10468631

>Reading.

Wrong.

>>10468610
>Learning fields

Wrong.

>>10468612

>Asking means you can't do something

Wrong

>>10468788
>You're responsible to communicate your eminence

Wrong

>>10469241
>Muh "Can't do it anymore"

Wrong.

>>10469612
>Muh "Everyone's too specialized" even if Da Vinci is famous in huge part for discovering phenomena, not mastering the ones already there

Wrong.

>>10468777
Correct.

>>10468349

You can't just be smart if you wanna be a polymath, because OTHER PEOPLE decide that is what you are. Literally no one cares if you self diagnose yourself as one, and if you want to be a polymath just to validate your self esteem, save yourself the effort and figure out how to be happy with being 'just smart', it's faster. If you ACTUALLY want to be a polymath, you will do so only by proving it.

To do this you must reach a recognizable level of skill on a variety of subjects, which means you need to do, AND FINISH, many projects in many fields that show this mastery. You may, and probably should, create the fields you do these projects in, because these projects will need to be awesome in the traditional "Inspiring awe" sense, you don't call "Pretty good Greg" who both plays an okay standing bass and can make a delicious casserole a polymath.

It isn't complicated, it's just daunting. There is no book or knowledge separating you from being a polymath, just a huge wall of hours of effort making stuff.

That "wide range of knowledge and experiences" you're supposed to read forever to build up? That shit is ex post facto justification people use to explain why they are not trying to accomplish stuff. Study is counter productive UNLESS it is in direct pursuit of improving or completing an ongoing great work.

>fuck you you're not a polymath

No shit, but anyone who's wasting time reading and studying rather than making stuff won't be one either. Nietzsche didn't have to be an ubermensh to describe how someone is, or becomes, one.

[Anonymous No.10469829]

>>10469781
Not being able to communicate is a big hurdle in most fields.

[Anonymous No.10469847]

>>10469829

Projects and ideas that inspire awe communicate their eminence by mere existence.

If an aspiring polymath was truly on their way to succeeding, they won't need to be the torchbearer on their ideas' behalf.

[Anonymous No.10469863]

>>10469847
Projects, maybe not. Ideas might require communication. If you add another dimension, for example it's in a business context, a social context or a political context, it becomes even more important.

[Anonymous No.10469865]

All worthy polymaths have a belief in God.

Even if they were "atheist" (doesnt exist, as they still have a belief about God, it is merely not how they like to view the universe)

[Anonymous No.10469896]

>>10468349
Learn multiple STEM fields relatively well

[Anonymous No.10469932]

>>10469865
Dude, fuck off with that shit.

[Anonymous No.10469937]

>>10469865
> Implying believing in a God isn't a sign of a simple mind

[Anonymous No.10469961]

>>10469612
Yes but certain fields are invalid and largely just conjecture. The worst thing we can do these days is assume that scientific understanding is 100% correct. Evolutionary biology and related fields are flawed because most likely incorrect. Then you have industries which reward innovators for fucking with the genetic code of plants and animals. I think this is invalid.

At the end of the day really, you only have so many ‘pure’ fields of study.

I would say go for it OP, learning math is incredibly entertaining and hopefully you and many others will create a culture that will create jobs which are difficult because for people who actually read about mathematics or linguistics (like many computer science jobs)

I mean, that’s how society works, spiritually

[Anonymous No.10469972]

>>10469937
What is the incompleteness theorem?

What is the summa theologica?

Who is Peter Robertson

[Anonymous No.10469980]

>The Ten and Four Books of Architecture.
>Michelangelo's and Leonardo's Notebooks.
>Composition of Scientific Words
>A History of Western Music
>The Neuroscience of Intelligence
>The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding
>A History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity: Vol. I: The Classical Theories; Vol. II: The Modern Theories, 1900-1926
>The Horse, the Wheel, and Language
>The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World
>Advanced Macroeconomics David Romer
>Modern Economics - Jack Harvey
>Main Currents of Marxism
>On Politics: A History of Political Thought From Herodotus to the Present
>Memory of the World, and, The Encyclopedia of Earth
>SAS Survival Handbook
>SAS Urban Survival Handbook
>Philosophy Between the Lines: The Lost History of Esoteric Writing
>The Spark of Life
You can't learn to actually make great music/art.

[Anonymous No.10469982]

Would you like to see how far down the mathematical rabbit hole goes? Welcome to a world of philosophy and math. A world that no one talks about. A world I go to every day.

I read at least one mathematical proof every day. And if the author has chained them together through a series of interrelated proofs I just keep reading. I even miss work if I have to. I don’t give a FUCK ABOUT ANYTHING OTHER THAN PROOFS AND THEOREMS AND IF THEN BUT IF THEN BUT WHAAAAA

[Anonymous No.10470014]

>>10469980
>The Real Man's Guide to Fixin' Stuff: How to Repair Anything You Need
>The Double Helix
>Black & Decker Basic Wiring & Electrical Repair
>The Prepper's Water Survival Guide
>Basic Butchering of Livestock Game: Beef, Veal, Pork, Lamb, Poultry, Rabbit, Venison
>Complete Plumbing
>Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival
>The Back to Basics Handbook: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills
>Imperial Form: From Achaemenid Iran to Augustan Rome
>The Lost Art of Finding Our Way

[Anonymous No.10470019]

>>10468349
You give up becoming a polymath and pick an extremely monotonous activity, say hammering nails, and you do that for fucking hours on end until you are no longer cognizant and experience revelation in its purest form: becoming a mechanism.

[Anonymous No.10470030]

>>10469932
>>10469937
All Im saying, if you don't contemplate God then your an idiot.

Don't be scared Anon, you can't be the stupid.

[Anonymous No.10470034]

>>10470019
Most work is like that

[Anonymous No.10470054]

>>10470030
You make no sense. Go back to the drawing board.

[Anonymous No.10470062]

>>10469980
>>10470014
>Fire Skills 50 Methods for Starting Fires Without Matches
>The Mastery and Uses of Fire in Antiquity
>On Collective Memory
>Seven Types of Ambiguity
>The Invention of Cuneiform: Writing in Sumer
>Psychometrics: An Introduction
>To the Letter: A Celebration of the Lost Art of Letter Writing
>Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination

Here's a year of reading

[Anonymous No.10470085]

>>10470054
T. Brainlet

[Anonymous No.10470127]

>>10468349
Pick few areas which share lot of the same reading. I trying with philosophy, politics and art. You could swap politics or art with a stem-field of your choosing, if you wanted to. I personally found that just hanging out with philosophically literate physicists and mathematicians allows me not to fuck up my stance on such matters. I find that your goal should be comprehensive understanding of the world around you instead of massive finds in any specific field.

[Anonymous No.10470143]

You fucking don't

[Anonymous No.10470154]

>>10468631
Jared Leto is a polymath now?

[Anonymous No.10470168]

i will be taking an apprentice
the full moon does not lie

[Anonymous No.10470215]

>>10470168

Then pick this flower

[Anonymous No.10470242]

>>10470215
in eternal gratitude of the light within

[Anonymous No.10470307]

>>10470154
Search "Jared Leto, polymath". I knew of his existence because in a newspaper they presented him as a polymath.

[Anonymous No.10470315]

Why would you want to be a meme?

hurr durr muh greeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeks

[Anonymous No.10470318]

>>10468777
Mathematicians are fucking awful at logic.

[Anonymous No.10470323]

>>10470307
jared leto polymath
now is the time
jared leto polymath
now it's the time
when they clear the way
there'll be hell to pay
jared leto polymath
what will you do today

[Anonymous No.10470345]

now if that wasn't just for you
there's more to come you silly shrew
your buttoned buttocks fill the pew
and babies cry 'here comes the jew'

[Anonymous No.10470354]

>>10470085
Damn, got me there.

[Anonymous No.10470372]

>>10470318
Discrete mathematics literally is logic

[Anonymous No.10470374]

>>10469612
Trivium is a liberal meme. kys

[Anonymous No.10470377]

>>10470372
Bad logic. Off yourself you med-sucking retard.

[Anonymous No.10470395]

>>10470374
>>10470377
samefag

[Anonymous No.10471045]

>>10470154
>now

[Anonymous No.10471176]

>>10468349
>be born with 150+ IQ
>be born with parents who cultivated learning at a young age and who were also rich enough to send you to a good school
>learn lots of shit
If you fucked up steps 1 or 2 you should just kys in hopes of being reborn as someone who wins both the genetic and socioeconomic lottery

[Anonymous No.10471198]

>>10471176
>socioenomic lottery
>implying most people born with an above average IQ aren't born to parents with above average IQs
>implying people with better genetic stock get to the upper echelons of society purely through "luck" rather than natural superiority
You have to go back

[Anonymous No.10471199]

>>10468349
sign newsletters from many different fields. Each time you are interested in a theme and don't know much about, research further.
Take notes in word files.

Here is one for astronomy:
http://www.astronomy.com/magazine/newsletter

You must now find one for particle physics and one for biology, mainly.

[Anonymous No.10471281]

>>10471199
Can you rec some online newsletters like Brain Pickings?

[Anonymous No.10472203]

>>10468349
It's sort of impossible, given the wealth of fields and knowledge. Also the amount of them that it takes to actually produce anything on par with standards, and with novelty.

[Anonymous No.10472204]

>>10471198
You'd think but socioeconomics doesn't work like that in practice.

[Anonymous No.10472274]

>>10468349

[Anonymous No.10472522]

>>10468349
People don't know but this is a blueprint for a rape machine.

[Anonymous No.10472899]

>>10472522
>People don't know
>I do

[Anonymous No.10473205]

mfw don't know if polymath or ADHD

[Anonymous No.10473311]

>>10473205
When in doubt, go with the least impressive

[Anonymous No.10474325]

>>10472274
is this lit approved

[Anonymous No.10475603]

>>10474325
curious as well

[Anonymous No.10475740]

>>10471281
>rec

[Anonymous No.10475765]

>>10470242 you still there?
what can you teach, would you want to teach?

how big of a trivium do you posses?

[Anonymous No.10475820]

Be naturally interested in a lot of subjects, and strive to be good at them. Being good at math and fluent in more than one language would help.

[Anonymous No.10475842]

>>10472274
Does rhetoric depend on the language you're speaking ?

[Anonymous No.10476880]

bump for interest

[Anonymous No.10476883]

>>10468349
Academia is so specialized now you can't really be one.

ps Da Vinci wasn't a polymath at all, he was a painter. None of his 'engineering' or 'science' makes sense and is basically the ramblings of an overeducated medievalist with too much time on his hands.

[Anonymous No.10476892]

>>10471198
This is just so obviously nonsense. If your position were even slightly accurate homo sapiens would have long since fractured off into Eloi and Morlocks.

[Anonymous No.10477031]

>>10476892
humans are the mammals with the greatest morphological variance next to dogs

[Anonymous No.10478083]

>>10477031
lmao, literally the only difference between humans are their skin colors. There is only ONE race and that is the HUMAN race

[Anonymous No.10479436]

>>10475765
what is this image tho

[Anonymous No.10479862]

why do people on 4chan wanna excel at everything except the things that will actually improve their lives (relationship with friends and family, learning to relate to the opposite gender and your future partner, health, developing a fulfilling and stable career) ?

[Anonymous No.10479868]

>>10479862
Who knows. Perhaps in the near future thinking well will be more important than you realize.

[Anonymous No.10480109]

>>10476883
>being this wrong

[Anonymous No.10480439]

>>10479862
stfu normie

[Anonymous No.10480445]

>>10479862
I do anon, and I try to study all I can as well.

Shits hard to keep balanced but thats why I perfect my life philosophy firsr, i use 3 to help me.

[Anonymous No.10480472]

>>10479862
DELET

[Anonymous No.10480553]

>>10470019
Heidegger plz go

[Anonymous No.10480566]

>>10479862
half gave up on every having a successful relationship with any other human being, the other half are deluded and think if they pursue intellectualism enough everything else will fall into their lap