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Polymath Meaning
I’m guessing that if you’ve made it to this article you’re already familiar with the term polymath. But juuust in case you don’t recognize the term, a polymath is considered to be a person with expertise in several areas. They have broad and extensive knowledge, often in disparate fields. But who are our current day polymaths? Surprisingly, the answer to this question is not too easy to find. There is also debate about who should actually be considered a modern day polymath and what types of skills/expertise should qualify.
So presented here for your inspiration and information is a list of some of the heavy hitters in the world of polymathy! All of these individuals are alive today, so you won’t find Ben Franklin or Newton or any of the older, more go-to answers associated with the term polymath. For the purposes of this article, I’m going to be using my own specific criteria for polymath, which I previously addressed in this article.
Polymath Criteria
All of these modern day polymaths meet the first 3 criteria (#4 being a bonus), although there may be some debate about how strongly they represent each point. And that’s fine. Debate is good and this isn’t a thesis paper that has to stand up to intense scrutiny, lol.
- Their Knowledge is in Disparate Areas.
- Their Knowledge is Expert Level.
- They Have Skill/Knowledge in at Least 3 Areas.
- Combining Physical/Athletic Expertise with Academic/Knowledge-Based Expertise is a Plus.
Modern Polymaths
Elon Musk (Computer Programming, Applied Physics, Business)
We’re starting off big here, with probably the most well-known and certainly the most influential polymath working today. Love him or hate him, Elon Musk is a brilliant (and complicated) guy who coded his first game as a kid. The science fiction based game, called Blastar, was published in a local South African computer magazine and netted the 12 year old Musk $500.
He then went on to found his first company, Zip2, an online city guide business started by Elon and his brother, Kimbal. Musk has described the long work hours, saying they’d have the website up during the day and then they’d take it down at night so that he could continue coding it. Musk, a self-taught programmer, was not as skilled a developer as some of those who were eventually hired by Zip2, as implied in Ashlee Vance’s bio of Musk. Nonetheless, Musk possessed a highly workable programming skill that he used to build up his first big business which he would go on to sell for $307 million, $22 million of which Musk kept. In the Vance book there is also a very brief mention that Musk bought a small prop plane around this time and learned to fly it.
Previous to his business career, Elon earned degrees in Physics and Economics from the University of Pennsylvania. His skill in these areas would come into play as he founded or invested in many successful companies, all of which would disrupt and innovate their respective industries. These included X.com (which eventually became Paypal), SpaceX, Tesla Motors, Solar City (which eventually became Tesla Energy), Neuralink, The Boring Company, and recently Twitter.
In several of these companies, most notably Tesla and SpaceX, Musk has consistently worked on the design of the products. To be sure, Musk collaborates with various teams, and in some cases the extent of his design work has been exaggerated. But in any case, he is in the room discussing the finer points of design with regards to electric cars and astronautical vehicles and has to be able to understand the underlying principles that go into engineering these things. Musk took his existing physics knowledge and furthered it by educating himself on aerospace design, reading books and peppering subject matter experts with loads of detailed questions.
Due to the financial success of his various companies, Musk’s personal wealth exceeded $300 billion, that’s billion with a B, in 2021. He subsequently lost $200 billion of it, lol. Although his wealth continues to fluctuate, he is consistently one of the richest people ever to walk the planet.
Arnold Schwarzenegger (Bodybuilding Champion, Businessman, Actor, Politician)
Arnold Schwarzenegger won the title of Mr. Olympia 7 times, crafting what many would argue is the ideal male form. He is the most legendary bodybuilder of all time and is largely responsible for catapulting the sport into the mainstream. Much of this was due to his prominence in the 1977 documentary film, Pumping Iron.
Before getting into acting, Schwarzenegger was already making good use of his fame by selling training programs, speaking and doing demonstrations around the world. As he sought to bolster his business ventures in the fitness industry, he began investing in real estate. The combination of these various entrepreneurial pursuits made him a millionaire way before he was ever Hollywood’s most favorite action hero!
Arnold was maybe THE quintissential 80s action star among all of the 80s action stars. The Terminator, Total Recall, Predator, Conan the Barbarian. There are too many iconic films of his to list here. He even got into comedy, albeit with mixed results. I do however remember having a fondness for watching Twins over and over when I was growing up, lol.
For most, that would be enough to ride off into the sunset having lived a full and fulfilling life. But not for Arnold. After being around politics for years, due to his marriage to Maria Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger became the 38th Governor of California in 2003, an office he held until 2011.
Felicia Day (Math, Music, Actress, Online Business Mogul)
While you might know her just as “that girl from Supernatural“, Felicia Day is in fact a multi-talented force of nature. Growing up in Huntsville, Alabama as well as San Antonio, Texas, Day was homeschooled with a decidedly “loose” academic curriculum. The lack of a structured program didn’t keep her from becoming a voracious reader, nor did it hamper her efforts in striving to be great at most anything she tried.
At the age of 16 she entered college at The University of Texas at Austin, double majoring in Mathematics and Music Performance (violin). Where music schools are concerned, the most highly competitive instruments are piano, violin, and flute. Out of these, probably the most competitive is violin. Day placed 2nd chair in her initial orchestra audition, beating out nearly all of the upper classmen and graduate students.
When she wasn’t making fellow violinists cry she was wrestling with higher level math proofs in the school library. After receiving a less than satisfactory grade on a test, and seeing her 4.0 grade point average suddenly endangered, she asked the professor what she could do to save her grade. Sensing the young Day could use a good dose of perspective, the professor replied that Day should get a B in the class, and that if she did, life would then be so much easier for her.
Day responded by attending every office hours session her professor provided, attending OTHER professors’ office hours (often pretending to be in the corresponding class), and studying harder than she ever had in her life. She received a 100 on the final and a frowny face from the professor, presumably for missing the life lesson.
After making amazing strides in the violin and mathematics, and graduating in the top 4% of her class, Day surprised her fellow classmates by not pursuing either field and moving to Los Angeles. There she would pursue an acting career that would eventually lead to roles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural, but she’s probably best known as one of the early pioneers of web video.
In 2007, Day launched The Guild, a DIY web video series released on YouTube that chronicled the adventures of a band of misfit online gamers. The show was an early success of the web series medium. Day went on to create Geek & Sundry, a massively successful premium channel sponsored by YouTube itself that became a creative and experimental hub for all sorts of geeky YouTube content.
Day is well known enough for her online business savvy that she was invited to speak about online entrepreneurship in 2013 at the Wharton business school (THE business school, housed at the Ivy League University of Pennsylvania). Although the edited interview is from 2013, it has some interesting insights about media and online business. You can check out the interview here.
Dolph Lundgren (Actor, Karate Champion, Chemical Engineer, Polyglot)
Are you surprised to see Dolph’s name here among the more esteemed company? I know when I was doing my research that I was quite surprised to come across his name. However, just like his fellow 80s action star, Ahnuld, Dolph has quite the resume. Where his acting is concerned, he was regularly featured in many 80s action films, starring alongside such notable names as Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Keanu Reeves. His most well known role has to be as Rocky Balboa’s intimidating Russian opponent Ivan Drago, in the film Rocky IV.
Of note, Lundgren was no mere pretty (tough?) face. For most of his life, he has actually seriously practiced Kyokushin karate, one of the more aggressive forms of the art and the same specialty practiced by former UFC Welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre. After achieving the rank of 4th dan black belt, Lundgren was crowned European champion in competitive play in 1980 and again in 1981.
Previous to his acting, Lundgren studied Chemistry at Washington State University, Clemson University, and at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, where he finished his undergraduate degree. He went on to earn a Masters degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Sydney in Australia. Not bad!
Although filmed many years after earning his degrees, you can watch Dolph flex his mental muscles in this (pretty amusing) YouTube clip.
That’s probably enough, right? Well in addition to all of that, Dolph is also a polyglot, meaning he speaks several languages. In addition to being fluent in Swedish and English, he speaks varying degrees of French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese.
Bruce Dickinson (Rock Star, Pilot, Businessman, Fencer)
Bruce Dickinson gained fame for being the front man of one of the most recognizable and influential heavy metal bands of all time- Iron Maiden. Dickinson joined Maiden in 1981, lending his soaring vocals to the band’s iconic sound and eventually contributing many songs he either wrote or co-wrote with fellow band members. He recorded 13 albums with Iron Maiden over a multi-decade career, in addition to releasing his own solo recordings.
Dickinson earned his pilot’s license in the 1990s and eventually landed a job flying for UK airline Astraeus. After the company went out of business, Dickinson himself began an aircraft maintenance company. Over the years, while working with various airlines, Dickinson has flown his band Iron Maiden, a number of professional football clubs, and military personnel. He has even assisted in ferrying out groups of civilians fleeing emergency situations.
Dickinson is also a serial entrepreneur, working in various other business ventures and creative pursuits to include beer making, writing, fencing, and aviation related radio and TV programming. He also has a history degree from the University of London.
Speaking of fencing, Dickinson is an accomplished foil fencer and in fact attained the rank of 7th best foil fencer in the UK during the 1988-89 season. He has even been officially recognized as a polymath by Intelligent Life magazine.
Jonny Kim (Navy SEAL, Math, Doctor, Astronaut, Pilot)
After surviving a tumultuous childhood, Jonny Kim enlisted in the Navy in 2002. He would eventually become a Navy SEAL, joining Seal Team 3, under the command of noted author and speaker Jocko Willink. Kim took part in over 100 combat missions, including the famous Battle of Ramadi. He was awarded the silver star decoration, the third highest honor for military operations involving conflict.
Eventually, Kim was able to take advantage of a Naval enlisted-to-officer program. Finishing in only 3 years, Kim received a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics, Summa Cum Laude, from the University of San Diego in 2012. He went on to receive a Doctor of Medicine degree from Harvard University in 2016 and began his medical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. However, he would need to put his medical career on hold to take part in his next endeavor.
In 2017, Kim embarked on a new journey, having been accepted into a NASA program to begin training to become an astronaut. Kim was selected out of a pool of 18,000 applicants! As part of this program, Kim attended and completed flight training and is now dual-designated as a Flight Surgeon and Naval Aviator. Kim is slated to land on the moon as part of NASA’s mission to return there, slated for 2024.
For a further look into what makes a Polymath, check out this article here –
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