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Kralizec_81 t1_iz4cit1 wrote

The label on the x axis is missing, presumably centuries ?

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DrMike27 t1_iz4cnrc wrote

Already terrible source material for calling Elon Musk a genius.

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EspritFort t1_iz4dwdk wrote

I really can't get behind the terminology here. I mean, surely either you excel at everything - and, accordingly, are a polymath - or not? Why would there be specific categories of "polymath"? That seems totally oxymoronic.

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aaronmichels t1_iz4fp7q wrote

How does this track with population growth? That might be more interesting

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aruexperienced t1_iz4jggy wrote

Replying to EspritFort (#870,718)

If you speak one language you’re normal. Two you are bi-lingual. 5 you are polyliguist.

You don’t have to speak every one of the 7000 languages there are said to be just to be one. One guy (Mesic) apparently reported to understand 73. And another guy (Fazah) claimed 53.

Knowledge is a vast, vast domain and some people become competent or masters of one domain in a matter of several years.

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szachin t1_iz4jri1 wrote

The OP's genius 'continent' distribution:

Europe 382
North America 97
Other 28
Russia 17
India 6
Rome 3
China 3
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EspritFort t1_iz4pgf3 wrote

Replying to aruexperienced (#870,934)

>If you speak one language you’re normal. Two you are bi-lingual. 5 you are polyliguist. >You don’t have to speak every one of the 7000 languages there are said to be just to be one. One guy (Mesic) apparently reported to understand 73. And another guy (Fazah) claimed 53.

"Polymath" is not a neologism. It has an already established, very specific meaning. You do not need to derive its individual components. It's very decidedly not a synonym to "person who is very very good within this very narrow subject area" (that would be an "expert") - quite the contrary! That's why "polymath of economics" or similar is a contradiction.

> Knowledge is a vast, vast domain and some people become competent or masters of one domain in a matter of several years.

Sure? But the natural conclusion from that is that it is simply no longer possible for a human to become a polymath, since it is no longer possible to keep up with the entire sea of human knowledge. Being a polymath is, at best, a 19th-century thing. Changing the meaning of "polymath" in order to be able to use the word in a contemporary context again, which is what the source article seems to be doing, seems a bit silly to me.

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shmerham t1_iz5d871 wrote

Is the y-axis 600 BC to 1900 AD?

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bergercreek t1_iz6vqgs wrote

Replying to Busy_Ad2931 (#874,103)

You can dislike someone and they'd still be a genius. You know that, right? Like, your dislike for someone doesn't change their IQ. He could be a huge racist misogynist homophobe xenophobe blah blah blah and it wouldn't change the fact that he's also a literal genius. I've never even stated any opinion for or against the man himself, only the fact that he has a genius IQ.

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AristarcusRex t1_iz8602n wrote

I remember it as 'If you speak one language you're Trilingual, if two, Bilingual, if one, American.' :)

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AristarcusRex t1_izatpxu wrote

Replying to OG-Bluntman (#877,091)

Well it was a joke told to me by a European friend who was commenting on how Americans don't feel the need to learn additional languages when he and his peers all did. But to answer you - a trilingual American. :)

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Busy_Ad2931 t1_izgfd6o wrote

Replying to -Doctor-Nick- (#884,982)

Or, in Musk's case, if they have enough dickriders and market manipulators to spike his stock price to the point where none of his businesses actually have to turn a profit because he can simply continue securing loan after loan like every other rich asshole, kiting these loans around.

The ignorance of the truth is fucking astounding.

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