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Do you have any examples of someone that would fit this description? I think a modern polymath could look a bit different than the ones in the classical sense.
by saganus 11y ago
Do you have any examples of someone that would fit this description?
I think a modern polymath could look a bit different than the ones in the classical sense. To be able to make contributions to the fields you mentioned, I guess you would need more years of study than anyone could dedicate to, just because those fields seem to be very hard, especially considering the degree at which nowadays we would consider someone proficient in any of these.
Well, I'm not sure, I'm actually wondering. For your particular definition, or something close to it, who would you say it gets close?
- steve19 11y agoBen Krasnow is easily one. The amount that guys knows about everything (electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, material science, chemistry and some programming) is staggering. His Youtube channel is great. https://www.youtube.com/user/bkraz333 https://www.youtube.com/user/bkraz333 http://benkrasnow.blogspot.com/ http://benkrasnow.blogspot.com/
- atmosx 11y agoArchimedes, Da Vinci, I. Newton are just a few that came to mind.
- e12e 11y agoTesla?
- celticninja 11y agoanyone more recent? You see it seems to be that it was a lot easier to know a lot when there was a lot less to know. Now people tend to specialise in one field and know a lot about that field as opposed to knowing quite a bit about a multitude of fields.
- atmosx 11y agoYou're right. I guess there are polymaths at this age and time, we just don't know about them. Maybe as you imply, it's impossible nowadays to stand out of the crowd the way Newton, Archimedes, Gauss, Tesla (as another commentator pointed out) did in the past.
- saganus 11y agoThat's why I said modern polymaths. Most people always think of the usual guys when talking about polymaths, and it seems like modern ones are never mentioned.