So...wtf is a polymath?

And why it matters more than ever

The world is bleeding.

It’s begging for polymaths, generalists, and jacks-of-all-trades to put it back together.

Not just those silo’d away in hyper-specialized fields.

But those who see the big picture.

Who connect the dots.

And can steer humanity in the right direction.

We’re on the cusp of a new epoch, yet we’re asleep at the wheel.

Time to wake the fuck up and become your deepest, fullest, highest, and widest self.

But first we have to ask:

Wtf is a polymath?

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If you're subscribed to this newsletter, I'm assuming you know what a polymath is.

Which means you also know how much they're misunderstood.

In my view, the source of this misunderstanding creates needless suffering for both polymathic people and society itself.

I'm writing this not to rehash the Miriam Webster dictionary, but to give myself and you clarity around some important questions:

• Who am I?

• What is a polymath, really?

• How do I thrive in this mad world?

• What do I want to do with my life?

• Why are we starving for polymaths?

I've come to find this issue goes deep.

It's as much a psychological & spiritual problem as it is intellectual, at societal scale.

Let's get into it.

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For review's sake, let's whip out the common definitions of a polymath.

Merriam Webster defines it as:

"A person of encyclopedic learning."

Wikipedia says:

"…an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems."

Oxford says:

"A person of wide knowledge or learning."

True, obviously.

But when you read about the lives of the greatest polymaths, it's just… incomplete. Flat. Sterile.

It's too fucking intellectual.

I mean come on! Reread the definitions! The most common word is either "learning" or "knowledge," as if all the greatest polymaths did was sit, read books, and philosophize all day.

Read this quote about Thomas Jefferson by Marquis de Chastellux, a French major general and scholar who aided the American Revolution:

“Let me describe to you a man, not yet forty, tall, and with a mild and pleasing countenance, but whose mind and understanding are ample substitutes for every exterior grace. An American, who without ever having quitted his own country, is at once a musician, skilled in drawing, a geometrician, an astronomer, a natural philosopher, legislator, and statesman.”

My oh my the gravitas! Tell me that doesn't light a fire in you.

Or check this quote from Albert Einstein:

"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

Goodness, a physicist describing himself as an artist??

And then this joke from Karl Kraus couldn't be more perfect:

"I had a terrible vision: I saw an encyclopedia walk up to a polymath and open him up."

The greatest polymaths were more than walking encyclopedias.

The greatest polymaths were living & breathing, dynamic forces nature. Yes, sometimes they did read books & philosophize all day. But they also did & made cool shit. They were sacred rebels. Many toes were stepped on.

So when I see the dictionary definitions? I just think to myself…

Nah, this ain't it.

In fact, I'd take it 10 steps further:

It was never about the knowledge.

It's about their way of being.

So…what is that way of being?

To answer that, forget the dictionary. We have turn to something far older:

Ancient wisdom & spirituality.

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Across the many traditions of the world, there's a recurring truth:

Beyond your daily human experience is a deeper, greater reality.

The grand arc of these traditions is to help you grasp this reality. Not just intellectually, but to feel it with your entire being. And to see that it is everywhere.

All you have to do is contemplate a simple grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation. — The Alchemist

I promise this isn't some religious preach about "why God exists!"

All we need to agree on is: there's more to reality than meets the eye.

A simple example is a painting.

Yeah sure, it's just dried oil or water, but for whatever reason, it evokes something.

Longing. Awe. Maybe horror.

Many times, you can't describe it. Why?

Because it's "speaking" to you from a "place" beyond language.

The cosmic punchline?

This "place" is not somewhere out there. It was within you the whole time. Always has. Never hasn't.

Different religions have different names and ways of describing it.

Hinduism calls it the Atman, aka the transcendent Self.

"The Self cannot be pierced or burned, made wet or dry. It is everlasting and infinite, standing on the motionless foundations of eternity." — The Bhagavad Gita Chp 2.

Christianity says:

The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." — Luke 17:21

In Zen:

“Look within, you are the Buddha.” — Bodhidharma

So whatever you feel when you see that painting, it's actually reminding you of something already within you.

“I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected.” —The Alchemist

We'll call it the divine spark.

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But here's the problem…

We forget.

We get caught up in the world of:

• Labels

• Senses

• Emotions

• Thoughts

• Worldly things

In Hinduism & Buddhism it's called maya. The veil that hides your divine spark from you, aka the DIY-but-didn't-know-you-DIY prison of illusion. But maya isn't inherently the problem. After all, we need those things to navigate this physical world.

The problem begins when you believe maya = reality. When you believe that all to reality is what meets the eye.

The result is the equivalent of being spiritually neutered. With no connection to your divine spark, you turn to false pleasures.

I myself have struggled with:

• Porn

• Vaping

• Fast food

• Doom scrolling

• Excess video games

• Excess masturbation

These make you think you feel connected to your divine spark, but they're fleeting. They will never fulfill you like your divine spark will. Those who fail to realize this fall into addiction.

To be put it plainly:

We were gas lit into gaslighting ourselves into being miserable, then regularly gaslit into believing we can never be anything except miserable.

If this sounds like fucking madness to you, that's because it is.

The world is sick.

Not in the Jeffrey Dahmer I'm-gonna-eat-you kind of way, but the terminally ill kind of way.

Ultimately, the work of all the world's traditions, or at least, how it was supposed to be, is to help you remember.

To tear down the walls we built inside ourselves.

But that's another topic entirely.

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So… where does the polymath come in?

Let me tell you a common cycle I used to fall into:

• Get anxious and/or have negative feeling

• Binge food to numb.

• Feel like shit.

• Turn to other false pleasures like porn or whatever to make myself feel better.

• Feel like more shit as a result.

• Turn to more false pleasure to numb myself from feeling like shit.

• Do nothing to fix the root of my anxiety or negative state

• Repeat

Do you see how fucking insane that is?

And the amount of energy wasted?

It's like driving your car with the brakes on and it has triangles for wheels.

Once you understand the energetic toll that conflating maya with your divine spark takes up, you'll understand why polymaths are able to accomplish so much.

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Within the context of everything we've talked about, let's redefine the polymath:

A polymath is someone fully connected with their divine spark.

They have detached from the common labels of society because they're identified with the spark, which frees them to live in alignment with their uniqueness. Because if your divine spark is essentially formless, you can damn near be anything you want to be. The possibilities are infinite.

It's a different paradigm of being.

They're like nuclear reactors. They have near limitless energy. And because they live a life aligned with them, they draw more energy from it, giving them even more energy.

The result?

An outpouring of the soul.

They tackle different subjects at once. They take on new hobbies vigorously. They fall down rabbit holes with no immediate "practical" benefits. And the thing is: they can't help themselves. They have to take on multiple pursuits at once because one "thing" simply cannot contain them.

All of this is a byproduct:

• "They master multiple fields."

• "They have high curiosity and high IQ."

• "They're renaissance men/women."

To put it plainly, they do what they truly want. They don't mindlessly follow the prescribed paths of society. Or what their parents told them to do. Or what they think they should do.

The greatest polymaths don't chase knowledge.

Knowledge chases them.

Now, there's some specific nuances:

Nuance 1: There are polymaths who struggled heavily with vices. And yes, some of them were assholes.

• Alan Watts was an alcoholic.

• Einstein had a chaotic love life.

• Others wrestled with addiction, escapism, depression.

But what unites them?

Even when they faltered, they were still identified with the spark.

That’s what kept them on the path. That’s why they kept creating, learning, giving, serving.

It’s like biking downhill, even if you're too lazy to pedal, you'll still gain momentum. And if you fall?

Well, at least you fall forward.

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Nuance 2: Polymaths are mystics, but...

If you're into the whole spirituality shtick, what I described might sound like a familiar archetype:

The mystic.

And you are correct.

The greatest polymaths were mystics in disguise.

The tricky thing is, many had 0 conscious knowledge of this. I've found there to be 4 types:

• Conscious of it, talks about it

• Conscious of it, doesn't talk about it

• Unconscious of it, doesn't talk about it

• Unconscious of it, unconsciously talks about it

I will have to expand further in another newsletter.

Take a look at these quotes. Read them first then look at the names. They sound like straight mystical insight:

“I want to know God's thoughts. The rest are details.”

"Trying to label yourself is like biting your own teeth."

“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens.”

"The quieter you become, the more you can hear."

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.”

“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood."

"There is within us a palace of immense magnificence: the soul."

Now here are the names:

• Albert Einstein

• Alan Watts

• Jimi Hendrix

• Ram Dass

• Einstein again

• Marie Curie

• Teresa of Avila

Notice how the "real" mystics are indistinguishable from the polymaths.

That's because there's no difference except for one thing:

Some mystics renounce the world.

The polymath embraces it.

There's a Zen quote:

Before enlightenment, chop wood, catch water. After enlightenment, chop wood, catch water.

But for polymaths it's more like:

Before enlightenment, chop wood, fetch water. After enlightenment, chop forests, catch oceans.

Why have polymaths never been framed this way? And why does it matter now?

Because the people of the past accepted this greater reality as…part of reality.

In our modern worldview where the realest real is the physical world, we've completely forgotten it.

That's not to dismiss science, technology, and the progress of the past 500 years.

Billions of people have been lifted out of material poverty.

I can go for a stroll without worrying about shit getting tossed out of a window and onto my bald head.

But what's arising now is psychospiritual poverty.

We're so busy trying to do and build that we've forgotten how to be.

The greatest polymaths knew how to do both.

And I can't wait to see what more you and I can explore together on this grand adventure.

I’ll end with this quote from Michael Meade:

"Soul is the part of us that cannot simply be overwhelmed. Rather, the awakened soul becomes the source of genuine vision and creative agency that can inspire a genuine collective transformation."

Catch you in the next one,

Aaron

P.S. did this resonate at all? Reply and let me know what you think :)