What does it mean to be a polymath? To put it simply, it is
to be the opposite of a specialist. It means possessing skills in a wide range
of fields or disciplines without any overt specialization. It entails
possessing the ability to be useful in a broad spectrum of endeavours.
Some people are of the opinion that human beings were
designed to be natural polymaths, but societal demands and education gradually
erode the natural disposition towards polymathy. One of the more relevant
fathers of psychology, Carl Jung, was of the opinion that he could create any
type of person out of any type of child. Although the basis for his assertions
were different, they do point to the natural human tendency to become
polymaths. After all, if the innate ability to morph into any type of person is
absent, behaviour modification techniques will be rendered useless.
Polymathy basically points to man’s ability to learn any and
every thing; skills and behaviour alike.
A couple of weeks ago, my friend and author of this blog, David Adeleke, reached out to me
regarding writing a piece on any type of growth I may have experienced. Off the
top of my head, I couldn’t decide what to talk about. My physical growth was
the most obvious, but who on earth would want to me hear talk about how I lost
weight, gained it back, grew taller, and developed a deeper voice? I finally
decided on sharing my growth experience in terms of my learned abilities and
how they have been transformed over the years.
Whenever I meet new people and they ask me to tell them
about myself, I almost always entertain the fear that they won’t believe me and
that they’ll assume that I’m lying to sound cooler than I really am. How often
do you meet people that sketch, write short stories, blog, produce music (in my
own amateurish and steadily improving way), design graphics, engage in social
psychology research, muse philosophically, play sports and analyze them, have
skills in events management, attempt architectural plans and want to be
president someday? Maybe you do meet them every day, but for me, those
conversations usually involve lines like “seriously?” and “really?”. Sometimes
I picture eye rolling on the other end of the network if it’s on social media.
The truth is that I genuinely am interested in all the
things I listed above and more. For as far back as I can remember I’ve always
been this way. From early on, my talent in art was obvious. My mother wasn’t so
excited about having a son gifted in art; after all, she had two ahead of him
who were blazing the academic trail with results that were almost legendary. The
only time she ever displayed interest in my art was whenever she wanted me to
design a banner for a children’s church program. Don’t get me wrong, my mother
is amazing, but art for her was something she had little care for. She once
told me how her grades in the school of nursing and midwifery were affected
because she couldn’t draw diagrams in her examinations, which almost always
went like “with the aid of a well labeled diagram…”.
My father on the other hand wasn’t around much to support my
talent; work carried him across Nigeria while his family settled in Lagos, but
I can swear I got this je ne sais quoi
from him. I once saw his old sketch pad which included sketches of lions and
the plan of our first house in Lagos. Yes, my father, a banker with a degree in
business administration designed the house his family lived in.
Over the years, I gained interest in an ever growing list of
things. After art, came science and my father was able to foster this one. When
I was in primary school, we had an ancient Windows 98 running PC which my
father installed software called “Dangerous Creatures” on. This software
program became my life. I watched clips of every animal on the software and
knew their names by heart. I took my “experience” out into the field and hunted
down lizards and snails and grasshoppers, sometimes attempting to dissect them,
but the fear of mother’s slippers
kept all our blades away from them. I read all my brothers’ biology and
chemistry textbooks, just hungry to know more.
Secondary school was a hassle. For starters, my grades
weren’t exactly what my parents were used to with my siblings. I didn’t get
beaten for poor performances (by family standards) but I got a lesson teacher,
which at the time was the most horrible thing to do to me because my free time
was cut short and spent looking at math formulas I was bound to forget in the
face of Discovery channel. My lesson teachers tried to teach me English but
they, first a lady and later on a male university student in LASU, dropped it
when they noticed I was probably better than them at it. One fateful day in
2005, I returned from a week long excursion to Benin Republic and met my
brothers mulling over some new software on my eldest brother’s PC. The name of
the software was “Fruity Loops 3”. That heralded the beginning of something
magical in my life. For the life of me, I was too pleased that I had found an
outlet for the tunes in my head and set to work, much to the annoyance of my
brothers who I disturbed incessantly to be allowed to use the PC, creating
“masterpieces”. Anyone who has listened to my works will notice loads and loads
of melodies. That is because I hear them everywhere. I’m not trying to be fantastical
here, I literally hear the melodies I create on software, and you can trace
that back to my early days on Fruity Loops. By SS1, my creativity was full
blown. I was sketching comics daily. My English essays, especially in story
writing, were highly sought after, literally. I once had a teacher who
confronted me about stealing my storylines from movies; I didn’t know whether
to feel insulted or grateful. When test and exam scripts came back in, my
stories had wait lists. My classmates, and some from other classes, would read
my stories in turns, sending my script from class to class to be read.
In SS3, I teamed up with two friends and created a rap group
we called LOC. At the time, we had no idea there was another group of young
boys like us potentially with more talent called LOS, but we released two
tracks and then called it quits when University came calling. Owing to my
unique nature, I was clueless about what to major in in the university. My
chemistry was weak, and so was my Physics and Further Maths, effectively ruling
out Engineering and Medicine for me, but my Biology, Geography, Agricultural
Science and English Language scores were superb. Basically, I was flourishing
at the subjects that required expression and that I had ease visualizing, but
they were not so related and left me hanging. By some stroke of good fortune,
my brother remembered a friend of his who studied Psychology in school and
suggested the course to me. After a quick Google search on the average income
of psychologists, I began my applications and soon gained admission to Covenant
University, where everything changed for me.
My first year in University was challenging to say the
least. I found myself outclassed at every turn. I met people like Charles Bass
and SkweiRD who used fruity loops better than me. I also met people in Mien Art
(an art group) who were miles ahead of me in terms of sketching and art. I then
suffered from a new type of insecurity; the insecurity of perceived
irrelevance. I figured that if I wasn’t good looking or book smart enough to
hold a first class result, I should at least be blessed in other departments.
It turned out that the world was full of people better than me at every turn.
In blind desperation, I sought for a field where I would be unrivaled. I began
delving into my passions, learning whatever I could. I tried my hands at the
basketball I had abandoned in secondary school and was making good progress
until I realized that I didn’t have the time to evolve into a better player
than the likes of Tobi, 50 and Deji, neither did I have the physique (at best I’m
6-feet tall). I turned to Photoshop in my second year, only to discover boys
like Niyi Okeowo and Tope “Topaz”. I delved into the world of Apologetics and
began listening to apologists like Ravi Zacharias and Stuart McAllister but my
mates were praying weather changing prayers, healing the sick and raising the
dead. Then Decoration Unit absorbed Mien Art and I entered the world of events
management, but then again there were boys like Odiaka Kosi, Abikoye Femi and
Adebayo Samuel, who between the three of them, could create concepts fit for
heaven. I turned back to music production but I had been left behind by the
other producers. I wrote philosophical pieces as they came to me, but the stories
about a mentor during his undergrad days revealed that I wasn’t even close
enough to being more philosophical than him. So there I was; a jack of all
trades, master of none. To me at the time, it was a horrible thing and it hurt.
I was angry at myself for not sticking to one endeavour and mastering it. I
figured that if I had been putting in effort into my music production since
2005 when I started, no one in the industry would be close to me now. I blamed
myself for taking for granted my ability to learn rapidly and efficiently and
as a result, my insecurities bloomed.
It took me almost two more years to realize that being a
polymath was what I was designed to be, and for that reason, I didn’t need to
be the best at everything I was doing. Humorously, being the best at something
may even suggest specialization, the very opposite of polymathy. Some of you
may be wondering what is so great about being a polymath. The answer lies in
life itself. The ability to experience the world from different angles is God-given,
that’s why we’re designed this way; able to become (to adapt, and change to)
whatever it is we want to be. God gave Adam dominion over the earth and gave
him managerial duties. For him to be effective, Adam must have known about
plants and animals, seasons and the weather. He must have been well rounded in
his knowledge of life for him to experience the best of life which God promised
him. Although things went awfully wrong there, we have the opportunity to try
our hands at new things, to see life in new ways and learn all that we can so
that on getting to heaven, we can say with all confidence “I used up every
ounce of ability I was given down there and it was worth it.”
The point of all this grammar I’ve written isn’t so that I
can blow my own trumpet. The truth is that I still have a couple of
insecurities I have to bring under subjection so I’m not one given to
self-praise. The point of all of this is to put it to you that we can all grow
to be polymaths by taking responsibility. The life of a polymath is a life of
continuing responsibility towards learning all that you can, and a lot of
times, it doesn’t give you the freedom to indulge in the frivolous pleasures of
life we all want, but it is worth it. I took up that responsibility
unconsciously and out of a selfish desire to be the best, but since no
knowledge is lost, it has been turned to my good. I’m not where I want to be
yet, but I am also not where I once was. I’m hoping to learn more things and
sincerely wish people around me do the same. Imagine having a husband who can
build car engines and still make you up or having a wife who’s absolutely
brilliant at first person shooter video games and also is a baby whisperer.
Imagine living in a world full of walking paradoxes like that.
We can create that world. I know some fields won’t be all
that appealing to everyone but we can learn from the ones we’re interested in
and build our interest by learning about those fields. I really hope I’ve
inspired someone somewhere. My objective here will be complete if only a single
person, after reading this, is inspired to try their hand at something new
towards becoming better.
As for me, I’m looking to learn computer programming next.
Till next time, Grace and Peace to you and yours.
-Polymath
Very interesting to read 😁
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