Polymathic Being Podcast

Today's topic ties together some of my experience in the Army and how it helps with the very same Systems Thinking in technology and business that we’ve covered here before. Simply put it’s the idea that, in war, you have to look up and across at targets both right in front of you and also those targets that you can’t even see over the horizon to be successful.

Today's topic plays around with an interestingly complex problem about human existence. Often we are told that what humans are doing is not natural. Yet this quickly becomes an interesting problem because it implies we are somehow separate from nature and what we are doing differs dramatically from nature.

Today's topic squares off on a long-touted platitude that leaders are trained, not born. Out of the gate, this makes logical sense; my Army Officer training made me a much better leader. Also, no one just emerges from the womb as the next Martin Luther King. Yet is that training all there is to the equation? What risks or limitations exist that the simple platitude hides? We cover all that today in understanding leadership.

Today's topic is part book review and part exploration into the foundational elements of the Polymathic Mindset. Namely that innovation occurs across and between domains and disciplines and is, more often, not found in silos of expertise. It’s a finding that’s only counterintuitive because of the myths about innovation permeating our cultures. Yet these myths end up falling apart on closer scrutiny.

This is Part 5 of the Keys to Innovation Series. You can find the other Keys here:

* Part 1: Embrace the Divergents

* Part 2: Face the Fear

* Part 3: Rethink the Wisdom of Crowds

* Part 4: Brain Stretch

Today's topic attempts to crack the code of how so many conversations can get sidewise despite our intent. We’ll look at how some people respond in ways that just seem out of sync with the topic. Then we’ll flip the focus back on ourselves to see when we might be guilty of the same thing. It’s a dive into psychology and how we interpret things.

Today's topic is a twist on a challenge I’ve faced in the Autonomy / AI world for half a decade. It’s based on the No True Scotsman Fallacy and is a continuous shift of the goalposts as systems get smarter. We’ll also tie back into some of our previous looks at the opposite reaction where we claim AI is already cognizant and self-aware. In doing so, we can hopefully avoid two of the major logical pitfalls around our emerging technology.

A Call to Action

Today's topic addresses one of the more frustrating retorts I sometimes get on social media. “Never trust someone who claims to be a polymath.” To be fair, the title of Polymath is one we bestow on some of the intellectual greats from the past and it does seem a little hubristic to claim myself among those ranks. Yet this essay will delve into how I don’t think any of us should claim we’ve reached the status of Polymath but instead, aspire to what a Polymath is and adopt the philosophies and thought processes that make this aspiration so powerful.

Today's topic focuses on an odd behavior we have as humans where we are incredibly picky about providing money to those in need while not thinking twice about overpaying for indulgent, and largely unnecessary surplus. We hold back on paying fair prices to some while forking over crazy money for a Tesla that makes Elon Musk one of the richest men in the world.

Today's topic dives straight into something many would like to overlook: Beauty. The problem is we might like to overlook it but we look at it all the time. And we judge it. We’ll have the difficult conversation about what ‘looking good’ means and then attempt to unpack so much more of the implications and deep-rooted attraction we have to good looks. Hang on for an interesting ride as we look into a mirror of the paradox of beauty.