Is it impossible to be a polymath in the modern world?

[JayJohn85]

I mean in the traditional sense I know you can probably be a polymath in any variety of subjects. But I refer to those that are philosophy, mathematics and physics which naturally lead to engineering and probably computer science.

Now I don't mean a complete expert in each of these fields but someone who is talented enough and can use what I mean in my opinion the nexus which is mathematics. Then extends outwards into the other fields slightly and can use this culminated knowledge to spot relationships, innovate or invent something.

Or is there just too much knowledge in today's society for this to be possible. I am fully aware of the strengths of specialization but we got lots of specialization and it depends on how each of them specialists interect that stuff gets done. What about the glorified middle man?

I suppose engineers are polymaths in a sense I mean they got to extrapolate the practical applications of what the others discover.

 

[leroyjenkens]

Seems to me like the polymaths back in the day were actually contributing to each of the fields they were attributed to being a part of. I think you'd have to pretty much pick one field to focus on now to contribute anything to it.

 

[SW VandeCarr]

If you consider the degree of subspecialization in many scientific fields, it's getting impossible to be a "monomath" with some active areas of research like cell biology or neuroscience.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

What SW said. I'm a biologist and if you could plot graphically how much I knew about biology it would probably shock the layman. Specialisation is everything, today you can learn a lot about a little or a little about a lot. The latter is more useful for contributing to society in a research sense.

 

[Nikitin]

What about chemistry, OP? That discipline is so underrated at this forum..

 

[Chronos]

Chemistry is too hard.

 

[Nikitin]

I know. I wish I had a mind for chemistry instead of physics. Then I would be cool and dangerous, instead of just another nerd.

 

[leroyjenkens]

What SW said. I'm a biologist and if you could plot graphically how much I knew about biology it would probably shock the layman. Specialisation is everything, today you can learn a lot about a little or a little about a lot. The latter is more useful for contributing to society in a research sense.

I was asking my physics professor about some various physics questions I had, and I was surprised how he knew less than me on some of these subjects.
His focus of physics is nanotechnology and stuff like that, so questions of certain particle physics or astrophysics he didn't know. He directed me to the proper professor to talk to about that.
But there's so much information in every field, that to focus on one subject is becoming more and more narrow.
So contrary to what people may think, if you walk up to a physicist and ask them a physics question, there's a good chance they're not going to know the answer.

 

[JayJohn85]

Chemistry is too hard.

Seriously I thought quantum mechanics was in a way chemistry? I was also under the impression that physics was harder...Damn my brother did chemistry I better not let him know this lol.

 

[WannabeNewton]

Chemistry is definitely harder than physics :p

It goes: biology > chemistry > physics > math ;)

 

[Buckleymanor]

Chemistry is definitely harder than physics :p

It goes: biology > chemistry > physics > math ;)

No it's not physics is hardest everything else is just stamp collecting.

 

[ZombieFeynman]

"My discipline's phallus is bigger than your discipline's!"

Please. Anyone arguing (sarcastically or not) over this needs to read http://www.ph.utexas.edu/~wktse/Welcome_files/More_Is_Different_Phil_Anderson.pdf.

 

[WannabeNewton]

No it's not physics is hardest everything else is just stamp collecting.

Stamp collecting is insanely hard.

 

[MathWarrior]

xkcd already solved this! http://xkcd.com/435/

 

[lurflurf]

purity!=difficulty
if anything purity and difficulty are inversely related.

Another comic
http://abstrusegoose.com/544

 

[Buckleymanor]

Stamp collecting is insanely hard.

Yes it probably is.The actual quote was from Rutherford.

All science is either physics or stamp collecting.
As quoted by Rutherford at Manchester (1962) by J. B. Birks

No mention of how difficult it is to have a good collection but it is possible.

 

[ZombieFeynman]

We should also recall Vladimir Arnol'd's famed quote:

"Mathematics is the branch of physics where the experiments are cheap".

 

[WannabeNewton]

http://abstrusegoose.com/544

This made me lol so hard.

 

[Student100]

This made me lol so hard.

That was pretty great.

 

[lurflurf]

We should also recall Vladimir Arnol'd's famed quote:

"Mathematics is the branch of physics where the experiments are cheap".

Some experiments are cheap. If factoring a 1024 bit integer or million by million matrix are your experiments those are not cheap.