

Hunt for Modern Polymaths: 20 Living Examples - yarapavan
http://www.moreintelligentlife.com/blog/ed-cumming/hunting-modern-polymaths

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frisco
A lot of the "strings" seem expansions of others or superfluous. For example,
it lists "Physicist, philosopher, author, mathematician" for Penrose. I'm not
so sure that theoretical physics and maths are different enough to qualify you
as a polymath, and "author" falls out of being a good physicist; he's not
exactly writing fiction on the side.

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piramida
My thoughts exactly. Taking this criteria, thousands of people can be listed,
author just lists people he heard of. Not like any of them are a new Leo.

But yes, even in specialization age there are talented people who are
successful in more than one discipline. There are many thousands of them. But
"successful" and being world's best is different - there are what, zero people
in this list who can be considered top of the crop in more than one listed
area?

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yarapavan
A Polymath is someone who knows a lot about a lot and whose expertise fills a
number of significant subject areas.

I know that there are lots of people who'll fit the bill.

Who do you recommend as a living example of a modern polymath?

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rglovejoy
* Anthony Julius - Author, Literary Critic, Attorney

* Donald Knuth - Mathematician, Typographer, Musician, Philosopher

* Rudy Rucker - Mathematician, Science Fiction Writer

* Alex Kozinski - Federal Judge, Essayist, Humorist

* Murray Gell-Mann - Physicist, Mathematician, Linguist

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yarapavan
One more addition * Von Neumann - Mathematician, Economist,Game Theorist,
Computer Scientist.

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nibrahim
Eric Raymond perhaps? - Programmer, Musician, Media personality, Martial
artist, Economist, Mathematician, Mystic, Essayist, Author

The man does have a way of 'inflating' what he does but these are things he
claims to be.

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bhiggins
you have to be good at those things to count

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nibrahim
Point taken. :)

