To get to the level of someone like Stephen Hawking you would probably need yearsвЂ™ worth of education which would likely necessitate specialisation to a degree. For instance, making a breakthrough in physiques today would involve a complete understanding of a huge number of different concepts and likely access to some kind of high-powered machine like a hadron collider. The average person may have been much more curious and inquisitive in a time when we knew far less about the world around us and it would have been much easier to get recognised in a given field. We can also argue that there are fewer polymaths these days because we know so much more now.

These days most of us will work hugely long hours in brain-intensive jobs, and then when we get home in the evenings we will just want to вЂswitch offвЂ™. The working classes werenвЂ™t polymaths because they spent all day working (and often couldnвЂ™t read) for the same reasons they didnвЂ™t get portraits painted. If you look around the National Portrait Gallery youвЂ™ll find it was mostly the upper classes who fitted the вЂpolymath mouldвЂ™ вЂ“ and thatвЂ™s probably got a lot to do with them having so little to do during the day. It may be that we spent more time reading, writing, painting and thinking historically because we didnвЂ™t have TVs or other distractions.ДЄnother possibility is that weвЂ™re now much too overworked. Take for instance the fact that we now have so much entertainment available right at our fingertips.

Instead then you could blame a variety of modern lifestyle factors. Conversely, better health and nutrition should mean that we actually have more brain power than ever before. One obvious theory might be that we are simply becoming less intelligent вЂ“ and indeed scientists agree that our brains have actually been getting smaller ever since the Stone Age.ДЄctually, this is unlikely to have much to do with our smarts and more to do with our smaller bodies and reduced muscle mass compared with our ancestors. If you think about it, there are any number of reasons that we might be becoming less interested and spending less time in academic pursuits. The same day's paper features a story 'Is this a work of art or just any old iron?' about how the writer, broadcaster, doctor and polymath Sir Jonathan Miller asked a passing scrap metal merchant to remove a rusting bath from his front garden - only to find his three metal sculptures had also been over-enthusiastically taken.So the question is, what has happened to the polymaths? And have we ironically reached an age of widespread ignorance in an age where we have more available knowledge, tools and education than ever before? Theories White House says Obama does not regret Gates commentsДЇrom my friend Henry Gee (whose highly recommended blog is The End of the Pier Show, the show in question being Henry's many lives as science editor, fiction and non-fiction book author, palaenotologist, SF supremo, polymath, father and Person Who Lives in Norfolk These Days): Ansible 240 (July 2007) I thank them because if I was not the real homeowner they just stopped someone robbing my house. The word ' polymath' teeters somewhere between LeoВnardo da Vinci and Stephen Fry. One of Fred Pawlicki's friends called him a ' polymath,' which is just a fancy way of saying he's a pretty smart guy who's done a lot of different things.ДЄctually I think you will find that the word you are looking for is ' polymath'.

I would like to contribute a few more based on my book experience over the last year about what a next generation, ' polymath' analyst firm should aim for Ireland used to call a ' polymath,' for he professed at one time or another, in various universities, logic, metaphysics, Greek, and finally natural history.

in theoretical physics by age 23, studied with Stephen Hawking, made millions as Microsoft's chief technology officer, and has lectured on topics as diverse as barbecuing and paleontology. The word ' polymath' was invented for a man like Nathan Myhrvold, who earned a Ph.D.

Polymath examples