Polymathic Synergy #2

Polymathic Synergy is right at the heart of why polymathics gives you such an advantage over the inward looking specialist. I am not of course talking about the highly successful 'specialist' who, in order to appear normal, hides his multifarious sources of inspiration, is, in fact, a covert polymath. As Professor Robert Root-Bernstein has found:

“Almost all Nobel laureates in the sciences actively engage in arts as adults. They are twenty-five times as likely as the average scientist to sing, dance, or act; seventeen times as likely to be a visual artist; twelve times more likely to write poetry and literature; eight times more likely to do woodworking or some other craft; four times as likely to be a musician; and twice as likely to be a photographer.”

(Professor Robert Root-Bernstein of Michigan State University writing in the Journal of Psychology of Science and Technology Vol 1 No.2 2008.)