Students today will enter a world of unprecedented challenges that were unfathomable a generation ago. The problems our students will face include artificial intelligence, political divisiveness, climate change, access to healthcare, growing economic inequality, and countless other issues. Addressing these social and political issues will require our students to learn how to solve “wicked” problems that are complicated, incomplete, and interconnected—ones that require complex solutions. Polymathic thinking will be increasingly necessary for our students to navigate this new world successfully.
Small liberal arts colleges offer our students the unique opportunity to engage in diverse experiences and study a range of disciplines. For many students, this experience might be the only time in their lives when they will have the luxury to do so. While many of our colleges are increasingly pursuing skills-based fields, such as nursing and business, often out of economic necessity, there is value in encouraging our students to pursue a wide range of studies and experiences across diverse fields. Many students can benefit from studying seemingly unrelated disciplines, such as religion, philosophy, literature, and the natural sciences, which allows them to develop polymathic thinking, or the ability to integrate knowledge across multiple disciplines. This skill is becoming increasingly important in a complex world, where interconnections among unrelated disciplines can yield more effective outcomes.
In Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, David Epstein advocates for this kind of polymathic thinking, arguing that in contemporary fields, individuals with diverse experiences and the ability to integrate knowledge across different disciplines outperform specialists. In ancient Rome, polymaths were highly valued for their exceptional abilities to excel in multiple fields. The Roman leader Cicero epitomized the polymath. He was praised as a brilliant statesman, as well as an accomplished orator, philosopher, and lawyer. Vitruvius, a Roman architect, engineer, and prolific writer, demonstrated that technical and artistic skills were not separate domains. Other prominent polymaths include Leonardo Da Vinci, who integrated art, science, and engineering; Benjamin Franklin, who was a statesman, philosopher, and inventor; and Buckminster Fuller, an American architect, inventor, and writer. These examples remind us that success and fulfillment do not come solely from specializing but can also be achieved through blending diverse abilities.
Epstein suggests that while specialization offers efficiency with clear guidelines, immediate feedback, and success for those who master repetitive patterns (like playing golf, chess, or firefighting), more complex or “wicked” problems require a unique way of thinking cultivated through sampling varied pursuits, embracing detours and setbacks, and developing a broader range of skills and experiences. As Epstein writes, “we are often taught that the more competitive and complicated the world gets, the more specialized we all must become (and the earlier we must start) to navigate it.” He argues that a journey of exploration with its twists and turns is not a weakness but a strength and that the ability to solve complex problems will become increasingly important in the future.
Epstein also provides examples of prominent polymaths to highlight the value of diverse experiences versus focused specialization. He uses musician Duke Ellington as an example to challenge the myth of the child prodigy. As a young child, Ellington showed little interest in the piano and hated his lessons. His teacher, Marietta Clinkscales, considered him a lost cause. His musical talent emerged as he explored drawing, painting, and baseball before fully dedicating himself to music. This broad exposure allowed him to blend various influences, resulting in his own unique musical style.
Vincent Van Gogh also exemplifies the twists and turns of a winding path. Van Gogh failed in multiple endeavors as a student, art dealer, teacher, bookstore clerk, and preacher before focusing on art in his late twenties. He attended art school but dropped out at age 33. Epstein argues that these failures were not wasted; his diverse life experiences inspired his paintings with emotional depth and a unique perspective. His works are impactful because they are rooted in a wide range of human experiences, often marked by pain. According to Epstein,
“Responding to lived experiences with a change in direction, like Van Gogh did habitually … is less tidy but no less important. It involves a particular behavior that improves your chances of finding the best match, but that at first blush sounds like a terrible life strategy.”
Epstein highlights Johannes Kepler as a scientist whose breakthroughs were driven by his polymathic thinking. Kepler’s discovery of elliptical planetary orbits was not the result of a narrow analysis; it stemmed from his willingness to connect disparate concepts, such as light, heat, odor, river currents, optics, balance scales, and magnetism, to interpret the universe in new ways, thereby challenging centuries of conventional thinking.
One of my former colleagues is a modern-day polymath. He started his career with a degree in journalism and worked in television broadcasting. He then attended a top law school and worked as a public defender. After that role, he taught courses in speech and communications in academia. Later, he attended divinity school and is now serving as an ordained minister. These seemingly unrelated experiences combine storytelling, advocacy, teaching, and faith, resulting in a fulfilling and impactful life of service to others.
These perspectives encourage us to reevaluate what it means to pursue vocation in contemporary society, emphasizing adaptability, broad knowledge, and self-discovery over rigid career expectations and skill-based specialization. Education economist Greg Duncan asserts, “Increasingly, jobs that pay well require employees to solve unexpected problems, often while working in groups.” This need contrasts with focusing solely on methods and procedures, an approach that was effective when the economy supported jobs that were repetitive or involved assembly-line work.
The Roman concept of the polymath and Epstein and others’ contemporary update of it show that the tools for a successful career need not be narrowly defined. Instead, by developing a wide range of skills and staying open to different disciplines and opportunities, our students can build fulfilling careers. We need to encourage our students that success and fulfillment do not only result from specialization, but can also be achieved by blending diverse experiences, disciplines, and abilities.
Paul Hanstedt, the author of Creating Wicked Students: Designing Courses for a Complex World, argues that we should design our courses to expose students to wicked problems as a way to prepare them for life after college. “When a student leaves college,” he writes, “we want them to enter the world not as drones participating mindlessly in activities to which they have been appointed, but as thinking, deliberative beings who add something to society.”
Readers interested in learning more about Paul Hanstedt’s work can read a review of Creating Wicked Students on NetVUE’s newsletter archive website. Readers might also appreciate listening to his interview on NetVUE’s podcast Callings.
While my application of these concepts is evolving, as a faculty member, I am trying to incorporate these principles into my teaching practices. For example, when reviewing business case studies, we discuss how polymathic thinking has led to many successful ventures. Apple’s founder, Steve Jobs, is a notable example of someone who integrated design, technology, and marketing. We also explore how business failures have resulted from individuals viewing their enterprise solely through the lens of their specialization, to their later detriment. These continuing steps are helping me and my students see more clearly the value of polymathic thinking in the classroom, in their future careers, and in their vocations.
David Youland is associate professor of business at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas. A native of Minnesota, he has also lived in Iowa, Tennessee, and currently resides in Wichita, Kansas. Before joining Southwestern College in 2018, he worked for 35 years in marketing and innovation roles with organizations ranging from Fortune 500 firms to smaller corporations listed on NASDAQ. During that time, he also held adjunct faculty roles at St. Cloud State University, William Penn University, Central College, and King University. He is a noted thought leader and consultant specializing in organic revenue growth and the author of Driving Organic Business Growth: Actionable Strategies for Smart Innovation and editor of Readings in Qualitative Market Research: Insights for Managers.