What makes a Polymath?

pol·y·math

/ˈpälēˌmaTH/

 

noun

1. a person of wide-ranging knowledge or learning.

 

    Throughout history there have been many people that have worn the title of "Polymath."
Leonardo Da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, Sir Isaac Newton to name a few in the foreground.

To compare one's self to the likes of these seems tantamount to gloating.  I would never claim to be a genius, especially as compared to these and other notable polymaths.  In truth I think that all humans are naturally born polymaths.  Watch the interests of a child as they change and dive into many things, even on a daily scale.  The young are gluttons for knowledge but our society has been set up to eliminate that drive in order to create good working class citizens.  If a child is interested in too many things for example, you are encouraged to medicate/sedate them until they can join the zombie ranks.  It is no coincidence that as the industrialization of humanity has increased bringing the availability of jobs to more and more people the comparative decrease of polymaths and innovation came about.  

     I think inborn desire to do many things is what led to our survival on the African plains of old, being able to adapt to any situation and utilize various areas of knowledge and capitalize in any situation for our future gain, not the gain of an individual, but for the betterment of the race.  I feel that we, as a modern species, need to take it a step further than our ancestors ever could.  Instead of trying to pigeonhole our children into specialized menial actions, they need to be encouraged to have the ability to do anything and to do it well.

     I (like most people in this world I expect) was raised to think that "being a jack of all trades" was something generally frowned upon by society at large, with the follow up in the common vernacular of "and a master of none."  It is beaten into us from birth that you should find one thing you are good at and once you have focused all of your potential into one avenue then figure out a way to do that every day until you die.  I found that (at least in American society) how valuable you are as a person is measured by your ability to do something you may or may not hate, while someone pays you the least they possibly can to do it, and occasionally they dangle a promotion or a raise out there for all the peons to eat each other over.  This is if you have a "good" job.  If you are lucky enough not to get replaced, fired, injured, dead, or any other thing that the job doesn't approve of you might even make it to 70 and get to retire, which is where they give you a 20 dollar pen and pay you even less than you have barely been surviving on till that point and expect you to just hide away from society so we can forget about you till you die.  This is the American dream.  Ask any kid in high school, hell, any elementary kid to fill in the blank in this sentence: "go to school, get an education, get a good ______, get married, and have kids" you could probably leave any section of that out and they could still do it.  Because that is the American dream as it is drilled into you as often as the pledge of allegiance or national anthem.  Make someone else wealthy while you scrape buy (spelled thusly on purpose)

Wow, I got a little off subject there, so I cast aside my depressive conspiracy for productive encouragement:

  I would like to see a world of tomorrow where every one has a large pallet of skills that they can draw from.  I heard someone say once that a skilled person does not need any tools to complete any task or goal, just the knowledge from their life and the things they have at hand.  I dream of a society of Macgyvers essentially.  So I do my part by expanding my personal knowledge of as many things as I can.  I also hope to inspire others to be more multi-talented by offering tips, ideas, and resources to realize the potential genetically locked into each of us.

What about you? 
What different kinds of things do you all like to get up to? 
What do you think of polymaths in general?
Who are some of your favourite polymaths of history or today?
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Thank you for taking the time to read this.