With the increasing specialization of almost every field of scientific and even artistic endeavor, it's becoming more and more impossible for any one person to

With the increasing specialization of almost every field of scientific and even artistic endeavor, it's becoming more and more impossible for any one person to master multiple fields. Especially very different ones, like, say, quantum mechanics and songwriting. (Though I'm sure someone will quickly provide evidence of a string theorist who's also quite handy with the cello). If we take the "10,000 hour" rule as even a rough basis for mastery -- to speak nothing of the years and years of academic credentialing necessary to be taken seriously in many fields -- then the math quickly tells the story. As others have pointed out in this thread, Einstein seems like the closest we've seen to Da Vinci in many centuries. His accomplishments spanned almost every facet of physics -- a field that, even in the first half of the 20th century, was very broad and full of nearly insurmountable gulfs between sub-disciplines. But even Einstein would seem narrowly accomplished by Da Vinci's standards. That's not because Einstein wasn't Da Vinci's intellectual equal (he probably was), but because the nature of the game has changed so fundamentally and thoroughly since the Renaissance. All that said, despite the hyperspecialization of everything these days, some big and important breakthroughs seem to come from cross-pollinization of disciplines. The world is still quite ripe for gap-bridgers and box-busters; in fact, some would argue that we need these people now more than ever.