On: Is it possible to be a polymath these days?

[Tichy]

Thanks to the internet you can become an expert on any topic within a week or so.

[mattmaroon → Tichy]

You have a liberal definition of expert.

[Tichy → mattmaroon]

True - I was only half joking, though. With the internet we really can browse through new topics outside of our field very quickly. Not to become experts, but to find specific aspects of other areas of research that might apply to our problem.

Who knows what Leonardo would have done with the internet...

[mattmaroon → Tichy]

I definitely do know a lot about a lot of things now. I do often fear becoming a jack of all trades, master of none though.

[RiderOfGiraffes → Tichy]

Randall Munroe at xkcd has a comment on that:

http://xkcd.com/451/

[tokenadult → Tichy]

The formal study of expertise

http://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Handbook-Expertise-Expert-Pe...

suggests that it takes longer than a week to become an expert (by a reasonable definition of "expert") in any domain of significance.