Last week I was stuck!
Scrolling LinkedIn, trying to rewrite my headline.
“Generalist”?
No thanks. Too boring.
Sounds like I’m okay at a lot of things and great at none.
But then I dug deeper and found an old idea.
Centuries ago, they had a word for this:
The Renaissance Man.
Think da Vinci. Galileo. Franklin.
Painter, inventor, engineer, writer… all in one lifetime.
The Equation
Curiosity × Many Skills × Bias for Action = Renaissance Man
And that’s when it hit me: this isn’t just history.
This is where the world is heading.
Modern Polymaths
…just a fancier word for Renaissance Man:
Elon Musk: Best known as the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, but also a physics nerd, software builder, neural tinkerer, tunnel digger, energy pioneer, AI guy… and meme poster.
Bruce Dickinson: Best known as the lead singer of Iron Maiden, but also a commercial airline pilot, competitive fencer, author, radio presenter, and entrepreneur.
Why This Matters
We’ve been sold the myth of hyper-specialisation:
“Pick a lane. Stick to it. Become THE ___ person.”
But today, AI eats narrow work for breakfast.
What’s left? The messy stuff.
The dots no one else can connect.
The problems that need art + science + guts.
Specialist × Specialist = Incremental
Polymath × Curiosity = Breakthrough
The Call
This is your permission to be more than ONE thing.
Read widely. Try weird projects.
Ship half-baked ideas just to see what happens.
The world needs more people who think broadly + act boldly.
Be that person.
My LinkedIn Fix
After all that digging, I landed on a simple solution:
I added “Curious Mind” to my headline.
Because if you can’t find the perfect box, create your own 🔲.
Curiosity × Courage × Action = The Future.
+++
Happy weekend everyone and thanks for reading.
~ Felix
For the record: polymathy is gender-neutral.
Renaissance Man = Renaissance Woman = Renaissance Anyone.
Just bring curiosity, guts and action!