The most common career advice is to specialize, focus on improving at one thing, and forget everything else. And eventually, you will succeed.
This is how you can become valuable in this society and thrive.
“The riches are in the niches.”, they say.
I have come to realize that’s all bullshit.
Here’s why:
1# – You gain a better perspective
Paul Morphy once said this: (he was perhaps the best chess player in the world in the 1850s)
“The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life.”
It may take you maybe 5 years to become one of the 5% best in your field, but if you want to be the 1% best, you might be looking at 20 more years.
Here’s how those two paths turn out over 25 years:
- Become one of the 5% best at 5 disciplines.
- Become one of the 1% best at 1 discipline.
Now… the question is: “What path is more valuable for me as an individual and also for society as a whole?”
You might tell me: “Isn’t it better to be great at 1 thing instead of good at 5 things? And what about our society? Isn’t the specialists that push the boundaries of knowledge?”
That’s a common misconception to believe that specialists are the ones creating new knowledge in their disciplines.
For context, here are some of the most innovative people and what they are known for:
- Leonardo Davinci: Painter.
- Galileo: Astronomer.
- Isaac Newton: Phisicist.
- Elon Musk: Entrepeneur.
And here’s what they actually do:
- Leonardo Davinci: Painter, musician, writer, sculptor, anatomist, inventor, town planner, engineer, architect, philosopher, poet and botanist.
- Galileo: Astronomer, engineer, mathematician, physicist, philosopher.
- Isaac Newton: Physicist, inventor, alchemist, theologian and mathematician
- Elon Musk: Entrepreneur, economist, physicist, inventor, engineer.
Turns out they are all polymaths.
On the surface, it looks like the result of their innovations and discoveries was a result of them being specialists.
But that is an illusion because we ultimately associate them with the discipline in which they created that valuable knowledge, innovation, or art. But we never look under the surface to see what other disciplines they actively explored, and how the relations and synergy between them made that innovation possible.
If you only look at a painting from a painter’s point of view, you will always be limited to that perspective.
Your perspective determines your ability to create knowledge.
If you can look at from the point of view of a musician, writer, sculptor, or philosopher, your creativity, innovation, and knowledge-creation ability will be far superior.
For example:
For a long time, physicists viewed the universe strictly through the lens of classical mechanics, where time and space were seen as absolute. But when Albert Einstein looked at the problem from the perspective of light and electromagnetism (fields that weren’t traditionally connected to mechanics), he discovered the theory of relativity.
The city of Athens in ancient Greece is a great example of this fact.
Around the same time and in the same place, numerous individuals now regarded as major figures in the world of ideas, such as Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Euclid, emerged.
Why? It’s certainly not a coincidence. Athens had a distinctive approach to education compared to the rest of the world at that time. Instead of enforcing a rigid curriculum, students had access to a diverse range of disciplines, including music, mathematics, astronomy, and rhetoric. They were free to choose what they wanted to study.
In the same way that being a specialist is now highly regarded, being a polymath and pursuing multiple interests was considered valuable and even a symbol status in Athens.
To me, that makes it clear enough why such many major figures emerged at that time.
2# – Be a polymath, not a generalist
It’s important to note that a polymath is different from a generalist.
A polymath goes deep into a handful of disciplines—a generalist goes broad into many topics.
I am not saying that you should know the bare minimum about many things. That’s not valuable. I am not asking you to lower your standards either.
I am saying to become good and go deep into a handful of different interests, that’s how you thrive.
3# – Polymaths have a bullet-proof identity
Let’s imagine that what you do is play tennis.
It’s what you do for work, what you do in your free time, what you talk about with your friends, and what has been your whole identity for 25 years.
Now imagine you have a terrible accident, and you lose your right hand…. you find out you can’t play tennis anymore, forever.
Can you feel the pain and grief?
Well, for a polymath, that would not be a problem.
Polymaths have their identity diversified.
I can’t play tennis anymore? Ok, I still have my painting, my curiosity about astrophysics, and my love for writing.
Polymaths are not scared of AI replacing their job as well. They are much more flexible and can thrive in this ever-changing, dynamic world.
4# – Polymaths are irreplaceable (very valuable)
The system encourages you to become a specialist.
They say that you should pursue a university degree, then a master’s degree, and then, even further, a Ph.D. degree.
This belief and encouragement that specialists are more valuable may have originated from the Industrial Revolution, which started around the mid-18th century.
They realized that if they made people do just one thing in the factory instead of doing multiple things, they could make the process of manufacturing much faster and more efficient.
Nowadays, machines do most of those repetitive and monotonous jobs, and humans have more dynamic, creative jobs, like physicians, pharmacists, architects, engineers, scientists, etc, essentially Knowledge workers.
Where am I going with this?
Let’s say that you are a really good marketer. No doubt you are valuable, but how valuable are you really? How many other good marketers are there?
If there are lots of them, then it means that you are easily replaceable. “Tom isn’t doing a very good job? No problem, there are 100k other Tom that have this skill”
Now, imagine that you are a biotech marketer and also an engineer. I don’t know how many of them exist, but I would guess not that many. And you don’t need an economics degree to understand that what is scarce and hardly replaceable is very valuable.
In essence, this means that companies will value you and be willing to pay you more.
In a way, counterintuitive, by going “broad” in your interests and skills, you become more “special” than the specialists.
With more and more people being encouraged to become specialists, this means that the value of polymaths is only going up.
You may tell me: “But don’t we need specialists in this world? Surgeons and other “high-qualified” people?”
I think that’s true to some extent, but that takes me back to my earlier point: the process of innovation and knowledge creation, which is also crucial in fields like surgery, is often driven by polymaths.
For instance, advancements in surgical techniques can come from the synergy of knowledge in engineering and chemistry, leading to the development of more effective medical devices or procedures. Polymaths can bridge these diverse fields and push the boundaries of what’s possible in a way that specialists alone might not envision.
Bringing it home
A quick review:
It’s a misconception to believe that specialists create new knowledge and humanity’s progress. If you look under the surface, you realize that most disruptive innovators, inventors, entrepreneurs, and artists are polymaths.
Your perspective determines your ability to create knowledge. If you only look at a painting from a painter’s point of view, you will always be limited to that perspective.
Be a polymath, not a generalist. Superficial knowledge about a lot of things is useless. Deep knowledge about a handful of things is much more valuable.
Polymaths have a bullet-proof identity. They have diversified their identities, and as a result, they are more flexible in this dynamic, always-changing world. They are not scared of AI taking their jobs.
Polymaths are irreplaceable (very valuable). In a way, counterintuitive, by going “broad” in your interests and skills, you become more “special” than the specialists, and as a result, companies will value you more.
Choose one insight from today and take action on it.
It’s always an honor to be in your inbox.
Stay curious,
— Idris Moura
In case you missed it, here’s your chance to catch up on last week’s essay about → The Dunning-Kruger Effect: “Ignorance begets confidence”
