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Quick Summary
Jack of all trades, master of none.
The warning against being a generalist has persisted for hundreds of years in dozens of languages. “Equipped with knives all over, yet none is sharp,” warn people in China. In Estonia, it goes, “Nine trades, the tenth one — hunger.”
Yet, many of the most impactful individuals , both contemporary and historical, have been generalists: Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Richard Feynman, Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Marie Curie to name just a few.
What’s going on here?
If being a generalist was the path to mediocrity, why did a comprehensive study of the most significant scientists in all of history uncover that 15 of the 20 were polymaths? Newton. Galileo. Aristotle. Kepler. Descartes. Huygens. Laplace. Faraday. Pasteur. Ptolemy. Hooke. Leibniz. Euler. Darwin. Maxwell—all polymaths.
If being a generalist was so ineffective, why are the founders of the five largest companies in the world—Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffett, Larry Page, and Jeff Bezos—all polymaths?
When it comes to being a world-class entrepreneur or scientist, being a polymath might actually be the rule rather than the exception.
On the other hand, we all know generalist dabblers who may have encyclopedic knowledge, but who flounder in their career and don’t make any real impact.
The truth is that both perspectives are right: the most impactful scientists and entrepreneurs are polymaths and so are the least impactful!
In this Mastery Manual we’ll explain how you can be in the “most impactful” column by exploring:
- Why this paradox happens.
- What the polymath model is, and why it’s such a critical mental model.
- How to use the polymath model to make better decisions, learn faster, be more creative, and achieve financial success.
- How to avoid the fate of being a penniless generalist dabbler who never makes forward progress in their career.
- The untold story of polymaths and autodidacts throughout history.
- Step-by-step advice on how you can apply the mental model to your life immediately.
View Full Mastery Manual
Modern Polymath Mastery Manual.pdf
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Navigate Learning How To Learn Mental Models
Connecting your brain with other people’s in the right way is multiplicative, not additive. Using network science research, learn how to filter who to build deep relationships with and how to rapidly build deep relationships built on mutual growth.
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Research shows that when we teach what we learn, we learn faster. This is known as the Explanation Effect and it even applies when we teach concepts to ourselves by journaling, mind mapping, or talking out loud.
When you have a good mental model that gives you a way of doing the research efficiently, one focused hour of effort can yield gems. The Knowledge Mining model shows how to do research that brings us more growth and more profit.
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When it comes to being a world-class entrepreneur or scientist, being a polymath might actually be the rule rather than the exception. Learn how to enjoy the benefits of being a polymath while avoiding the disadvantages.
A digital garden is a public repository where you share your sawdust. In this manual, we’ll take a deeper look into digital gardens and do a step-by-step walkthrough of one of the apps that make them possible.
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What should you learn next? One of the reasons this question is so difficult to answer is because the choices are literally endless. The Multiplier Skills Mental Model gives you a formula for choosing what learning hurdle to conquer next.
The Subtraction Learning Method is the mental model Success By Subtraction applied to learning. It’s one of the most useful mental models but, as it often happens, it can be challenging to apply it. That’s why we did a series of 3 classes to help you practice this method and we organized a 7-day learning challenge that you can now do on your own.
The most important skill anybody can learn is the ability to learn rare and useful skills on-demand. Across warfare, AI, learning sciences, business, philosophy and animal intelligence, there is almost the same exact loop. I call this the Learning Loop mental model, and it is the fundamental learning process of the universe.
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Selling Your Sawdust is the process of turning the by-products of your learning process that you’d normally throw away (which, in my experience, is over 90% of notes) into products that can be valuable to other people.
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The ultimate sign of mastery is being world-class in what you do automatically. This model will help you understand how to go from conscious competence to unconscious competence to leverage the power of intuition.
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We live in an age of opportunity shock—too many opportunities, too little time. This model helps you decide what to do when there’s a new opportunity that could potentially be huge but you’re busy and you don’t want to waste time pursuing a flop.
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When it comes to mastering a skill, it’s more practical to think 100 hours, not 10,000. By picking the right micro-skills and stacking them, you can reach mastery 100x faster and continue building success upon success.
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We’re discussing reinventing learning itself. What does it really mean to learn and to reinvent learning in our lives?