The Polymath: There is more to a “Jack of all Trades” than the “generalist vs. specialist” debate

Polymaths are known for their unconventional approach towards knowledge acquisition, pattern recognition and operating breadth. How does one channel this ability into creation and fulfillment?

Substack article here

I am reminded that pure engineering (such as debugging the Arduino and figuring out a bug for hours) is draining. I can’t do pure engineering nor pure sales, both are draining. I feel disconnected from something greater

With mechanical systems, it feels too clinical, mechanical, no life or vitality or dynamic complexity. With software development, it’s not tangible, these are all very high-level abstractions. I don’t see its impact in the end. with purely sales, in business development, you’re obsessing over the map rather than the actual terrain. You’re not actually doing real things. When I was doing life sciences research, or doing brain-computer interface, it felt like it was hard to influence the outcome, hard to create and be creative, you’re constantly debugging the cells architecture and it’s a black box. The time horizon is much longer, the iteration cycles are longer, I like being able to create, build, and iterate quickly.

That probably has changed with AI for life sciences, because life sciences, biology was the background that I always had being pre-med, loving nature and appreciating living systems. in with bioengineering, it allowed me to create and integrate that desire to research, build something, and innovate, with more of the connection to living things. There’s that dynamic system and connection to the human experience. I think learning mechanical and control systems is a function of building a simplified model, but not a complete understanding

That’s also partly why I gravitated towards business, global development, and economics, because these complex systems somehow all connect with each other, and you can see how your individual actions affect global. I’m fascinated by these complex systems and dynamic systems - that’s what connects all the dots between the neuroengineering, robotics controls, biology.

The thing with complex systems is that there’s higher levels of expression, and that semantic meaning is captured in my passions for art, music, being active, and really embodying the world.
I realize I have SO many different interests, like spread out everywhere. I’ve done mini projects, but I’m having such a hard time converging on something like a “super power” or a top 0.1% ability. I’ve tried so many different things, I’ve wavering around.

This resonates so much more. It feels more natural to be owning this systems synthesis.

I’m realizing this is the characteristic of a polymath, similar to Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin. A lot of these founders, engineers, statesmen are the people that really embody this spirit. It’s so funny because Benjamin Franklin founded Penn, and somehow I embodied that spirit through exploring everything from my interest in international politics, to culture, but also deep interest in exploring engineering, biology, everything.

Funny is that it actually gets me so fired up in the bones thinking about this, the polymath abilities are just continuing, sustaining because I can see connections everywhere that people otherwise wouldn’t. People often ask me, “Oh, where’s the intersection between local economies? How does history tie in to engineering?”

What’s funny is that my friend even asked me, “How does history tie in with deep engineering expertise?” He always thought history was kind of boring, but I realized my learning perspective directly viewed history as a generalized way of contextualizing knowledge and pattern recognition, especially connecting concepts in engineering.

This is what I’m trying to embody more is the polymath. And some of the hesitation, the doubt I’ve been frequently encountering and seeing linear career paths, all these startup founders who are going really deep, they’re developing these skills right now on coding and AI, but what really sets me apart is my ability to synthesize knowledge.

And I even saw a video about Virgil Abloh on how he was a designer, an architect, a creative director. These are people who don’t even see boundaries; they see everything as one and are able to seamlessly move between domains. Virgil Abloh even gave the advice that you should have six projects going on because you’re constantly thinking about new things and new ideas and how they combine together.

What’s ironic is that with business, you’re looking at what the market needs, and you’re constrained by execution and what you need to do. Engineering is constrained too much by getting something to work, in a logical, repeatable, and reliable way. I deeply appreciate that and it feels like a double-edged sword, but at the same time, having part of your brain and being able to see the spontaneity, the randomness, and appreciate the beauty of life that is also what I see.

There’s something that’s incongruent with a lot of these AI startups I’ve seen, because there are sweatshops. They’ve asked you to wear many hats, and that you’re doing a lot of different things can be fulfilling. I’m seeing a lot of friends from school go and work at growth in these startups. But I don’t see what I initially interpreted as my range ability to do a lot of different things cannot be conflated with growth functions where your end goal is to push the bottom line of a company and to increase profit margins.

I’m more energized from focusing on execution of certain skills, but defining where that direction is myself. That’s where the creative direction comes in and allowing the creative direction and synthesis to guide what problems end up having compatibility. I don’t want to just be constrained by what the customer wants or what the economy needs.

It’s so weird because, at the same time, you can’t just be an aimless creative who is out of touch with reality. See researchers, creatives who are just trying to express themselves and that becomes art which is amazing.

But I do believe there is a level of art that can be mixed with science, and engineering to construe an alloy that is even stronger than those alone. But the curing process, the galvanization does take longer before it becomes a robust blade.

Anyway, from this, I think the breakthrough I had is identifying as a polymath, looking beyond a specific path, such as those that Penn and other Ivy League kids really emphasize. The clout and prestige game of achievement is one-dimensional, while real life consists more of multi-dimensional breadth.