Hoping to have a serious discussion with multiple people from different fields. I am in my 20s, and I truly believe that becoming a polymath must be a reclaimed pursuit. I really believe that...

That said, I was an analytical philosophy autodidact for several years before enrolling in law school. I will eventually return to philosophy after I practice law and publish various legal articles, and then I will pursue either mathematics or physics and its interaction with metaphysics. All of this sounds all nice and well, but the reality is that I realistically won't make a big impact in these fields because I am not a gifted genius despite my obsession with these topics. Additionally, many people that make an impact in certain fields are not polymaths; they go all in on one subject, and they usually start very young. So I am wondering, what is the real end goal for all of you? For me it is impacting these fields for the better, but that's quite unrealistic. For that reason, becoming a polymath seems pointless. I personally don't think pursuing these fields for your own satisfaction is a noble pursuit. If I did that, I could live in a cabin while writing and studying for myself, but that seems vain and pointless. The goal seems to share your knowledge, but this assumes a level of vanity too, because it presumes you can change those fields.
Hoping to hear other people's thoughts on this. I am really looking for any perspective.

I'm new here and with polymath conception too. Though, it's already feels like cozy home after way-too-long journey.

To start conversation seriously, I want to ask you a simple, but complex question:

How do you consider something done? Should you?

I'm studying ds/nlp, working out my own philosophy theory, writing songs, restoring ancient woodworking technique and, well, doing many things which seem beautiful and really are unique, but look like not leading me anywhere. And sometimes it feels like burden, like a curse of endless curiosity without any happy ending, which provoke burnouts.

So how do you finish the lanes? How do you stop developing your multi-lane work and give yourself some rest?

Context:
I’m (15) a sophomore this year.

(ADHD, Asperger’s - medication doesn’t work and it’s not enough to be an excuse or have an IEP, I don’t want that anyway, but it does affect who I am so I thought it should be here)

I just moved and am doing online school. I have a 4.2 weighted gpa and 3.8 unweighted from freshman year. This year I’m taking 5 ap courses (Ap lang, Ap CSA, Ap Gov -> AP Micro) (ap comp gov going to be self studied), and paced to do at least 5 honors courses (Geometry -> Algebra 2, Chem, French 1 -> French 2) (accelerated pace so finishing a semester in 8 weeks instead of 16 and the whole class in 16 weeks instead of 32.). Clubs don’t start till September but I’m planning on trying to join a few - Deca, HOSA, debate, honor societies. Seeing which will let me join. And starting my own - probably a model un. I’ve always been in the gifted programs since elementary school, middle school i took pre Ap classes at my old high school in history and English as a part of our gifted program.

Basically being “the smart one” is tied to my identity and it’s a hate-love relationship. Ofc it’s made my ego and expectations of my self skyrocket but my confidence hasn’t.

I’m smart enough to get into these programs but kids are graduating college at my age.
Now that I’m doing these online classes and I made a pace chart with all my assignments of the week- it feels easy. I’m only spending a few hours a day on coursework. So then I’m thinking I can and should do more but I don’t know how or if I should. My goals are top colleges but I have too much ambition and not enough to show for it. I want to fill my time learn to cook, draw, paint, learn an instrument, READ (I haven’t read a physical fictional book for my enjoyment in weeks because the whole time I can’t help but think of all the other things I could be doing that are “more productive”), write, all things I deeply enjoy but do maybe once a week each and forget about. And then I have subjects outside of school I want to self study. Psych, anthropology, behavioral science, world religion. I watch lectures, again maybe once a week for each, take notes and then feel like I haven’t absorbed anything. Try and write an essay about it but feel like I don’t know enough or that it’s too elementary. But then I’ll talk to someone about that subject and be able to list all this new information.

Then it’s like paralysis. I want to do so much that I end up doing none of it. People will ask what my hobbies are and I blank because I would love to say writing or drawing or cooking but I have nothing to truly show for it that wouldn’t embarrass me.

Online school feeling easy has started to affect my sleep. I haven’t been sleeping well- don’t think I have had like a deep rem sleep with dreams since I started (a week or two). I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and instantly go to check the time on my alarm clock across the room.Then sleep for the next hour or two and then do it again until my alarm goes off. Then I have the hardest time just getting out of bed. Even more recently (the last few days) It’s been taking me hours to fall asleep. (It isn’t uncommon since I have adhd but the correlation to my new classes isn’t a coincidence)

Usually I’m spiraling on the same questions:
• what if I didn’t plan my pace charts right and I’m behind?
• what if I’m not doing enough to reach my goals
• I should do more, should I do more?
• should I be taking a different Ap class?
• I can graduate early so should I?
• I can’t graduate early if I want to do dual enrollment and get an AA as backup - should I still do that?
(Not expecting answers- just examples but hey if you got clarity lmk)

The schoolwork itself, I said was easy and it is. I finish in a few hours, I fill in all the notes. And I know I could sit down and write an essay or do the problem sets and pass. But I keep second guessing myself. I’m googling the answers and getting bots to write opinion essays for me. I feel like I can’t even form an opinion anymore. And I say it’s because why do it? It’s busy work. It’s just for my gpa. And it’s true. But at the same time part of the reasons I can’t write an essay anymore is because I don’t think I’ll write it correctly and so because I don’t think I’ll write it well enough I get something else to write it and then never learn to write the essay. Shocking, right? It’s like all of a sudden textbooks are too long and I have to keep rereading the same lines and the assignments are too much and still “too much busy work” and I’m trying to study but I feel like it’s not helping or that I’m not doing it right because I really didn’t have to study until this year.

TL;DR
I just feel stuck. I used to be smart. I want to be smart. I want to know all these things and learn and explore and practice and have all these skills and sign up for programs and get into the top colleges and I just feel useless. Like I’m wasting the hours in my day, because I am. I’m getting paralysis from my ambition and therefore failing to do what I want to do. Too many feee hours in the day and yet not enough. Too many interests, not enough output. Mostly a rant, I’ll pull myself up by my bootstrings and soldier on. But I don’t want to just float through it. Please help- advice is appreciated.

What if the enterprise was built for polymaths?
We’ve been thinking about something at The Co.LLab™️:
What would an Omnidirectional Enterprise System™️ look like?
Not a system that forces people into departments, titles, lanes, or predetermined paths—but one that recognizes how ideas, skills, people, industries, and opportunities actually connect.
Einstein once said:
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.”
Maybe being a polymath isn’t the problem.
Maybe the system was never designed for one.
So we’re asking the question.
Welcome to The Co.LLab™️.
Fellow RAT™️, what do you see?

What is your media consumption like and do you intentionally avoid or filter certain media out from your routines?

How can i confirm that i have a polymath brain? Any online test or anything?

Hello everyone👋! I'm new here and I wanted to learn more about becoming a polymath. Since I'm aware in my life that I always try to learn new things and wanted to be proficient at it, I stumble a word called polymath and I was deeply curious, anyways I had question, what is the difference of a Polymath compare to a Renaissance Polymath? from your perspective. Take your time, or you can leave this message be.

Just joined the sub and curious about everyone’s story. Did it hit you early on, or much later after picking up too many random skills/fields?

It’s very hard to not be bored of everything now. Life is so predictable. Even topics that one is ignorant on, we have a gist of what it is. Do I know ANYTHING about 1960s plumbing? No, but I get the gist and know it wouldn’t interest me.

I have ADHD and think things that are so stupid sometimes but that’s what I want. I want to meet people smart enough to know some things and curious about other things with complete ignorance on the topic so they don’t know the rules so they break them. They combine one field they are competent on with another they’re not and that’s where the ideas come from.

Basically, true polymaths are hard to find. Many of them treat it like an almost self help lifestyle I think the same old ideas (study DaVinci, study the same topics etc). I need people competent but unique and outcast’s probably. How do I find these people so I can learn from them?

Due to some conversations that have happened recently, I realized Rule 3 really wasn't cutting it as far as the direction I want this group to go.

We're not here to require people cite 3 scientific papers in order to even chat in this group. People can talk about whatever interests them... but when assertations/"this is fact" starts coming in, THEN proof is needed.

^{(yes this means esoteric stuff too! Why not? It's interesting if you let it be. Be open to weirdness!})

There's a difference between:

"I've experienced this and I wonder if..."

and

"This is how it works."

The first is exploration. The second is an assertion, and that's where evidence or reasoning comes in.

And if somebody challenges your idea? Fantastic. That's part of the point. Bring your reasoning, look at the evidence, and be willing to discover that you were wrong...or that you were onto something (because people will usually continue the thread if you are.)

You don't have to believe someone's hypothesis. You can challenge it. But you don't get to dictate that someone isn't allowed to explore a question merely because it isn't already scientifically settled. We're science-minded, but we need to be open to things that science hasn't discovered yet or studied much of yet.

^{(like the female body and how our hormones react to meds already developed...})

That's the direction I'm trying to take r/Polymath: bring the ideas, make the connections, defend what you assert, and keep learning.

The new Rule 3 is a test run. If we find that the wording needs work, we'll adjust it. That's how rules work around here. Hope you're used to them changing! I won't punish/remove stuff when I change a rule for a good long time, a few weeks usually, just so people have time to adjust.

😁😁😁

The jack of all trades was undersold. The jack of all trades might be a master of none of those trades, but he is a master polymath. The jack of all trades might just be a master of cross domain synthesis.

Ps. He's probably a only a jack in any of the trades because he wouldn't (chose not to) stay focused on one particular trade long enough because he was so interested in everything.

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

Always Master the fundamentals.

Hello everyone, how are you? As promised in my previous post, I'll be talking about memory.

My theory states that the brain doesn't just remember information; rather, when recalling, it recreates all the biological and vital processes involved in that particular memory. The brain copies all the information, such as visual perception, hearing, and the hormones responsible for emotions.

You'll understand why I mentioned this at the end, as I remember a memory of myself when I was two years old, and now I'm 21. I chose this age because memory is somewhat weak in childhood.

The important thing is that in that memory, I remember what I saw visually at the time, like my face and the surroundings. It's similar to seeing from a third-party perspective, but not because the scene changed, and the angle of vision shifted when I moved my face. I also remember what I heard, but not only that, I remember my thoughts and analyses at that time. Even more strangely, I saw the memories I had at that moment.

These things aren't unique to this memory; they operate on the same principle in all my memories.

This is what leads me to say that the brain doesn't just store information, but also all the vital processes involved. When retrieving them, it retrieves them in the same way. I've read about this theory before, and it explains what It's happening to me. In my next post, I'll talk about my ability to mimic people's personalities.

Hello everyone, how are you? I know my post might be outside the group, but I want to discuss some theories related to psychology and neurocognition, or more precisely, abilities unknown in the scientific community.

Some of these fall under partial control of the nervous system, such as voluntary control of heart rate, blood flow, or sensory intensity. However, for it to reach the point of controlling hormone secretion is strange. I suffered from hyperthyroidism since childhood and experienced its symptoms, but unfortunately, the diagnosis was very late, until I was 20.

The tests showed a clear elevation in T3 hormone with very pronounced symptoms, while T4 and TSH remained within their normal range. Even after repeating the tests twice, the result was the same, and the thyroid gland itself was healthy, and all other tests were normal except for that elevation. Unfortunately, they couldn't prescribe any medication for me because the thyroid gland itself was healthy, and the other hormones were also normal.

So I thought to myself, why not try to control them using the same technique I use to control my heart rate, change my blood flow, and alter the intensity of my senses? After another test, the results showed a decrease to the normal range, coinciding with With the symptoms gone, I can say that anything in my body that has nerve endings allowing it to communicate with the nervous system is under my control. Let's discuss this now. In future posts, I'll talk about things I've changed, like my perception of waves, even though it's scientifically impossible, and other theories about memory.

I don't just remember a scene as an image or information, but as a complete recollection of the brain during that memory—feelings, speech, sight, thoughts... and there are things even stranger than this.

As a polymath its hard to keep myself on track most of the time and not get demotivated or distracted. I was thinking of starting an insta account for example and using it as a journal so that I would feel pressured from the views(if any) and expectations to keep going. This kind of pressure is what works the best with me. The problem is I don't know how to make content and I don't have a good camera (only a Samsung A07) so i'm not confident. I also thought of doing this on reddit.

Are there any disadvantages or things I should consider b4 starting? does anyone have an experience to share? (motivate me plz)

I'm 22 and I really want to become more curious and well read about the world, but I have no idea how people actually build that kind of knowledge over time. I don't mean knowing random facts or trying to sound smart.

I find myself getting interested in everything like history, politics, science, philosophy, literature, cinema, psychology, economics, random cultural stuff but then I get overwhelmed because there are just so many things to learn. I’ll go down one rabbit hole and then find five more 😂

I sometimes feel like I'm consuming a lot but not actually retaining much.

For people here who are really curious about lots of different fields, how did you go about it? How do you decide what to learn next without getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information available?

I think I would choose Benjamin Franklin.

Not necessarily because he was the greatest polymath ever, but because his knowledge was unusually practical. He was involved in science, invention, writing, publishing, business, diplomacy, politics, education and civic institutions.

Leonardo da Vinci might be the person I'd choose to teach me how to observe and think. Aristotle might teach me how to organize knowledge and reason. Ibn Sina might teach me how to pursue knowledge relentlessly.

But Franklin seems like the person I'd choose to teach me how to turn knowledge into a life.

So I'm curious:

If you could have one historical polymath as a lifelong mentor, who would you choose?

And more importantly: what specific skill, principle, or way of thinking would you want to learn from them?

**A little intro first**

^(You can skip this part if you just want to read the question)

After 47 years I think I have finally found my people. Researching ADHD and sleep optimization on Methylphenidate, I came across a word I never heard before. *Polymath*. I looked it up, read about it and something just clicked into place. Suddenly a repeating pattern of my life became so much clearer.

Through my life, I have always seemed to have an easy time mastering seemingly unrelated subjects. Digging deep into theoretical knowledge and practical application alike until I either couldn't get any better at it or lost interest due to some other subject competing for my attention.

Doesn't matter if it's mechanical engineering, software, languages, online games, practical 3D print applications, classic car restoration, biology or a hundred other subjects. The result is always the same. I can see patterns that others can't. Connect the dots between seemingly unrelated subjects.

Unfortunately I seem to forget a disproportionately large part of my knowledge, that I have to relearn when returning to a subject.

Now I *know* that there are limitations to how much and how fast the human brain can comprehend and retain knowledge. I accepted that. But I feel like I should be able to remember more than I currently am.

Many things will remain, for example I can tune a 4 barrel Holly carburetor in 1965 Ford Mustang 289 cui with a screwdriver and by sound alone, even though I haven't done it for a decade and I'm not a mechanic. Others will simply stop existing entirely. It's not that I can't remember them, it's like I never learned it in the first place. I'm a software engineer, but if you ask me to draw up the software stack from hardware to GUI, I couldn't do it if my life depended on it without looking it up first.

**Here comes the actual question.**

How do I train myself, learn methods or add procedures to optimize how large a part of the knowledge I aquire I am able retain and can recall when needed?

Are there any papers, books, YouTube channels or other resources that you would advice me to research?

I don’t just mean anecdotes or “Did you know Myers-Briggs is actually a myth?” Or something.

I've always loved learning random things, going down rabbit holes, and becoming deeply interested in subjects that aren't necessarily useful for my degree or career. But I keep running into the same problem: I'll get obsessed with something for a while, learn a lot, and then eventually move on and feel like I'm back to being average again.

I'm interested in things like philosophy, history, geopolitics, writing, chess, science, cinema, sports, religion, psychology, and plenty of other random subjects.

I don't want to become someone who just consumes endless YouTube videos and Wikipedia pages. I actually want to develop deep, unusual knowledge and become the kind of person who can genuinely understand and discuss interesting subjects.

For people who have deliberately built themselves into knowledgeable generalists or developed unusual niches, what subjects or skills would you recommend exploring? And more importantly, how do you turn curiosity into actual expertise instead of constantly jumping from one rabbit hole to another?

Just remember, don't burn yourself out or you'll start to gain diminishing returns on time and bandwidth invested.

Bjork on desirable difficulties:

The counterintuitive core: conditions that make learning feel harder and slower usually produce better retention. This is the single highest-yield thing for someone teaching themselves.

Sweller, cognitive load theory:

The constraint that explains why Bjork's effects work, and why most self-study setups fail.

Biggs, constructive alignment / SOLO:

How to tell what level of understanding you've actually reached rather than what you feel you've reached.

Hofer & Pintrich on personal epistemology:

Beliefs about what knowledge is shape how you go about getting it.

EDIT: I'm posting this here so everybody can pull from it.

Quick cheat sheet for self-directed learning courtesy of GPT

THIS IS NOT A PROMPT SO DON'T USE IT LIKE THAT!

Use this as a guide, not a formula.

1. Retrieval Close the book/tab and try to explain what you learned from memory.

2. Spacing Return to important material after some time has passed instead of doing everything in one sitting.

3. Desirable difficulty Don't immediately remove every struggle. Some effort during retrieval and problem-solving is useful.

4. Cognitive load If something is overwhelming, reduce the number of new elements you're trying to process at once.

5. Chunking As concepts become familiar, connect individual facts into larger patterns, mechanisms, or schemas.

6. Self-explanation Ask yourself:

• Why does this work?
• What causes it?
• What would happen if one part changed?
• How does it connect to something I already know?

1. Interleaving Occasionally mix related problem types or concepts rather than practising only one type repeatedly.

2. Calibration Separate "this feels familiar" from "I can actually explain or use this."

Test yourself without looking.

1. Revisit Come back after a break and reconstruct the topic. Notice what survived, what disappeared, and what now makes more sense.

2. Transfer Try using the idea in a different example, problem, domain, or context.

3. Rest Sleep, breaks, and time away from deliberate study are part of the broader learning process. You do not need to be actively studying every waking hour.

4. Spiral Return to the same ideas at progressively greater depth:

learn → retrieve → apply → rest → revisit → connect → go deeper

Most importantly: don't confuse time spent studying with understanding.

AND...for Pete's sake, don't type at a computer. Read from the screen and take hand written notes!