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These days, popular use of the word algorithm is morphing: it is increasingly used to describe almost anything that a computer accomplishes.
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If you are shopping online and filter products by price, the bubble sort algorithm is kicking into gear behind the scenes. It cycles through the list again and again until it passes through without any swaps needed, at which point it outputs an ordered list. If the first is greater than the second, it swaps them. It begins by comparing the first two numbers. Think of it like a super-precise recipe, usually written in the cold logic of a programming language.Ī simple example is the bubble sort, which arranges a list of numbers in ascending order. But over centuries of use, accelerated by the 21st century’s reliance on technology allowing algorithms to run much of our lives, the term’s definition has changed.Īsk a computer scientist what an algorithm is and they will tell you it is a set of instructions that takes an input, performs some repeatable computation on it and provides an output. It was his work that formed the foundation of what we now call an algorithm, even lending the Latinised version of his name, Algorithmi, to the calculation.
DEFINITION OF POLYMATH HOW TO
When you can’t expect any single knowledge pillar to be important forever, it’s best to spend at least some of your time learning how to build new ones.Although human civilisation had been pondering the many nuances of mathematics since before the time of the ancient Greeks, it was the 9th-century Persian polymath Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi who developed the concept of algebra, allowing us to solve complicated equations with moving variables. This couldn’t have come at a better time either, because automation is killing off specializations one-by-one. The old definition of polymath showed their distinction from specialists but not from jacks-of-all-trades.īy recognizing polymaths as what they are: specialists in learning and connecting knowledge, we can start to see where they fit into the world of work. Specialists, polymaths, and jacks-of-all-trades are unique in their approaches to the world. This is certainly not one-sided either since the polymath would never have known how to build the standard aspects of the pillar without watching the specialist.
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These unique aspects complement those in the specialists’ pillars, offering the specialist a chance to learn from the polymath’s unique insights. The polymath, meanwhile, builds pillars that are wholly unique, often creating aspects that are built differently in - or entirely missing from - the pillars of the specialists. The pillars built by the jack-of-all-trades are really just stunted versions of the specialists’ pillars. That is why the polymath can contribute in a way that the jack-of-all-trades can’t. Can the template from one pillar be used to speed the building of other pillars in different domains? Or perhaps a foundation can be shared by two pillars? This is their specialization in connecting knowledge. Can the pillars be built faster? This is their specialization in learning. The polymath instead studies the building processing itself. The jack-of-all-trades starts similarly but soon shifts to start another pillar, and so on. The specialist starts their journey by building the knowledge pillars they need in their specialization. Here’s my suggested definition for polymaths: A polymath is a specialist in the field of learning and connecting knowledge. They are building something wholly unique - something greater than the sum of its parts. They are not copying the first few steps of an assortment of specializations. Polymaths are different in that their knowledge pillars are not built separately from one another. A jack-of-all-trades can, in most cases, readily be replaced by one or more specialists. The jack-of-all-trades sets out to partially learn several specializations, with the hopes that this diversity of knowledge will land him somewhere where they are at least competent. But these pillars of knowledge build to nothing more than the sum of their parts. The jack-of-all-trades has some knowledge in a broad range of topics, each built largely independently of one another. The problem with these definitions is that they actually apply more to the jack-of-all-trades than to the polymath. As an example, let’s check out the definition: “A person of great learning in several fields of study”. Similar definitions compare polymaths to specialists by saying that specialists have a depth of knowledge where polymaths have a breadth of knowledge. The most common definitions of polymaths poorly represent the group.