Hypothesis: White Matter Matters to Polymathic Ability

White Matter Matters to Polymathic Ability

Why is a polymath a polymath? What turned them into one of those unicorns that can learn lots, and connect the dots? It’s great and life-altering that the ability is there. But what’s the foundational enabler of these characteristics?

A Hypothesis: White Matter Matters

The hypothesis is that the structural integrity (the shape and density) of white matter in our brains matters and is one of the foundational biological enablers of polymathic abilities. White Matter matters.

What the heck is white matter? “White matter in the brain consists primarily of myelinated axons, long projections of nerve cells that transmit electrical signals between different brain regions and the spinal cord.”

More simply: “White Matter is the physical structure that connects regions of the brain and enables communication between them”

Just like the bandwidth available in computer network connections matters for data transfer, and it matters if there is a “break” in that computer network, the same could go for white matter in our brains. “There are indications that complex brain processes depend on networks and white matter interconnections” (1)

Wait what? It’s a NETWORK?

So… the structural integrity of white matter probably matters as a foundation. There’s most likely more to it (the quantum part of consciousness), but that’s a hypothesis for a different day.

(1) Lyons, D. M., Yang, C., Eliez, S., Reiss, A. L., & Schatzberg, A. F. (2004). Cognitive correlates of white matter growth and stress hormones in female squirrel monkey adults. Journal of Neuroscience, 24(14), 3655–3662. https://www.jneurosci.org/content/24/14/3655

More reading - especially if you read the links

(2) Medical News Today. (n.d.).White Matter: The brain’s flexible but underrated superhighway. Retrieved January 19, 2025, from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318966#Viewing-white-matter

Life Patterns for Polymaths and Prolific People | DataPsy Inc

Dabbling by Design

Life patterns for prolific, polymathic people vary from those for deep specialists. Learn about the four basic patterns that can help you achieve your multiple dreams.

Prevailing business and life culture says that you must have one and only one focus in order to succeed in life and business. This thought gets ingrained in us from the time we start school. Our education system then pushes us into specialized majors. We learn and are tested on subject-areas. Later on, we are expected to become certified in those deep specialty areas and hired to work only in specialized areas. Within that cultural context, memes and quotes such as these are interpreted to mean a single focus.

“One reason so few of us achieve what we truly want is that we never direct our focus; we never concentrate our power. Most people dabble their way through life, never deciding to master anything in particular ” — Tony Robbins

OUCH!!! For a Polymath, this sort of insprirational meme provokes interesting responses. Some people start thinking they are “wrong” or “don’t fit in” . They think - “That does not apply to me!.” Or they get angry - “How insulting to think I can only do one thing!” Why can’t I both dabble AND achieve? - the good news is that you CAN both dabble and achieve.

Start by re-framing the meaning of the word focus slightly however, put focus in the context of your “purpose” and how you choose to use focus in a pattern throughout your life can yield success in a way that you and you alone define! Focus is a tool that can limite you, or you can leverage it to empower you. Let’s dabble by design and choose how to focus it using some over-arching patterns.

Dabbling by Design

Are you a Polymath? Dabbling or learning about different things is a required activity for you. Your core mastery lies in being a specialist at "integration of disciplines". So to do this it’s required to master multiple disciplines and see the pattern similarities.

To the layperson - this can look like lack of focus, however it's not a lack of focus. It's a focus on integration of specialties - which makes polymaths particularly good at facilitating production of cross-disciplinary teams.

Life Patterns for Polymaths

Let’s look at some life patterns for the dabblers and make some sense out of them. There are many possibilities on how to combine career with interests, and the possibilities can flow and evolve over your lifetime. Four patterns for life design.

1. Singular Career with Multiple “Outside” interests

2. Sequential Reinvention

3. Two (Or Three) Sequentially

4. The Umbrella - Purpose aligned focus

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Singular Career with Multiple “Outside” Interests

This pattern means that the person with multiple interests has one primary strength that can serve as a money generator that funds the development of multiple outside interests - which could be hobbies or side-gigs. Eventually as the outside interests develop and mature, their income producing ability can increase and the need for the singular career can decrease.

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Polymaths can pursue multiple careers simultaneously

Manage Two (or Three) Interests Sequentially

This pattern means that the life-liver is choosing to pursue more than one path at the same time. A person might simultaneously be a Food & Beverage Manager, as well as a Single Mother, as well as a teacher and an event planner

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Sequential Reinvention

This pattern is very familiar to those of us in technology who have been here more than ten years. This pattern means that the life liver periodically completely changes what they are doing. Someone might start out life as a poetry maker, then turn into a printmaker, then become a technologist. Multiple masteries spread out in a row.

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The Umbrella Pattern

Umbrella Focus is a Life Pattern for Polymathic People

The Umbrella Paern — An umbrella pattern can take several forms within its organizing principle. For example, this author’s de?ning of “umbrella” is a mission statement of “connecting people, processes, and technology in order to create new products.” This “umbrella” is broad enough to encompass both a day-job as an Information Technology Manager at the same time as a role in life as a serial entrepreneur. All of these activities ? within the one “umbrella” so this reduces potential for being overwhelmed — all that they do is part of the overall whole.

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Pulling the Patterns Together Over Time

Life patterns for Prolific People

Finally - there’s no rule that says that you have to follow a single pattern over time. This illustration shows a life progression where someone started out their career in one direction, kept doing that while they took a parallel path to reinvent themself, gained an over-arching purpose, and pulled all the paths together into an umbrella pattern.

Rapid VUCA Business Redesign Using Polymath Power

Long Established Large Corporate Structures Under Siege by External Factors

What happens when a Pandemic happens, and humans respond?

VUCA!

The new business normal includes only a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous environment (VUCA).    Business decisions that have traditionally been made slowly, now need to be made on an accelerated timeline.   Organizations that are habituated to make decisions through methodical process may not be comfortable or capable of making quick choices and their corporate survival may be at risk.  

Go Beyond the Limits of Corporate Hierarchy Design

Large company processes, culture and systems grew up slowly to support business operations within a predictable external climate.  

Most organizations have formed hierarchical management structures and corporate cultures that primarily empower specialized individuals (monomaths) to thrive surrounded by well-defined corporate process.  

But that’s not what we need to do right now - we need to very quickly cut through the complexity and re-design and adapt - and quickly. We don’t have the benefit of process to provide guidance right now.

Four Steps to Rapid Business Design

In order to survive and later thrive, business re-invention at a pace not previously seen needs to be performed. Leverage the power of the thought-styles in this four-step process for corporate reinvention. This process is an accelerated version of the enterprise innovation process described by Christine Kapp in the “Soft Factors Enabling Innovation” chapter in the Apple Academic Press Book - Ecosystems and Technology.

1. Hunker Down - Preserve Cash and Human Capital

   • Use your FInancial Specialists and Line Managers to identify how to preserve cash and minimize cash outflow while preserving your human capital.

   • Identify the generalists and strategists in your ranks that can help you think outside the box for immediate innovation. These may not be your line managers or current leaders

2. Evaluate Your Business Architecture - Identify Core Business lines and offerings

   • Leverage your Best Creative Senior Leaders - they will not be specialists

   • Leverage Your Polymaths for additional ‘out of the box’ thinking capacity

   • Do not use your specialized line managers

3. Re-Design Your Business Architecture - Define the new key interactions with your customers, seasonality and offerings

   • Continue to leverage Your Polymaths

   • Continue to leverage your Best Creative Senior Leaders

   • Have your specialized line managers assess and assist with defining operational gaps

4. The New Normal - Back to your regular process and your newly designed company

   • Specialized Managers in their operational roles

   • Find a way to keep your Polymaths engaged for continuous innovation.

Next Steps - Cosmic Teamwork

DataPsy previously identified some tips & techniques to help you find your generalists in “Recruiting: Finding the Elusive Polymath”. If you are not a generalist, the process may be difficult because of the “One-Way Mirror”. If you need help with your leader evaluation process, contact DataPsy here: We leverage a combination of assessment-based techniques and our innate talent to help you re-form your VUCA team for business innovation success.

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DataPsy consultants are serial entrepreneurs that are adept at building businesses from the ground up, If your business is struggling to re-start in the current economy, consider learning about the power of Cosmic Teamwork. We will help you identify the polymaths in your people portfolio who will power your re-invention and re-design your business by leveraging the building blocks you already have in place. It's time to eliminate bureaucracy, extra process and re-create agility. The Cosmic Teamwork approach leverages human “thought-styles” as building blocks for corporation reinvention Call (407) 847-8861 for an assessment today!

Use All Your Polymaths to Spark Your Next Innovative Success

Functional Networks in the Brain: A Polymathic Hypothesis

NOTE: DRAFT BLOG POST - PUBLISHED FOR FEEDBACK

Everyone acquires knowledge. During the acquisition process, a mind observes and interprets patterns of light, sound, and other vibrations and stores a representation of this data in our neural networks. After time passes, the same mind receives a question that it needs to answer. The responses to the same question by different people can vary widely.

This happens because people with different natural ‘thought styles’ answer in completely different manners. Specialists regurgitate the knowledge primarily in the form that it was stored - without modification. Memorize —> repeat. A polymath, on the other hand, will most likely synthesize knowledge from multiple domains in the process of answering the question. Someone who is a contrarian in their specialty (a Lone Wolf) may also synthesize knowledge, but they do so within their discipline not across disciplines.

A Business Scenario of Thought-Styles in Action

In this scenario, a new startup is determining a compensation structure for their contractors and salespeople. They need to determine whether to base the contractor pay on the profit that contractor individually generates, or on something else. They also need to determine how to set commissions for sales. Here are two answers to the question by people with different thought-styles and job roles:

1. A specialist - in this case a salesperson answers that the contractors should be paid in such a manner that the gross profit earned from each individual consultant is maximized, sales effort is minimized, and therefore commission is maximized. The salesperson has only the context of money and selling, and is lacking the knowledge of the human aspects of the contractors providing the work including ramifications of not paying them based on merit or performance.

2. A polymath, the VP of Operations, answers that the contractors should be paid in such a manner that the consultants are paid fairly per industry standards and experience, and that sales people should be compensated more highly for placing new contractors in new roles, rather than keeping the same contractor in the same role. The polymath’s perspective draws on information from multiple disciplines and takes a long term view. Contractors may leave the company if not paid fairly, and this will increase the cost of recruiting. Contractors who are paid fairly are more likely to be happy and happiness leads to a desire to help the company. In addition, salespeople will then not be paid forever for the same consultant without doing work. So in order for salespeople to be paid additional commission, they will need to continually work to get more customers.

A Human Mind is a System-of-Systems

What is the mechanism that is making these answers so different? To understand it, it helps to think of a mind as a complex system of systems. “A system-of-systems is an assemblage of components which individually may be regarded as systems, and which possess two additional properties:

• Operational Independence of the Components: If the system-of-system is disassembled into its component systems the component systems must be able to usefully operate independently.  That is, the components fulfill customer-operator purposes on their own.

• Managerial Independence of the Components: The component systems not only can operate independently, they do operate independently.The component systems are separately acquired and integrated but maintain a continuing operational existence independent of the system-of-systems” (Maier, 1998)

Functional Networks in the Brain (White Matter)

In a human mind, the component systems are comprised of modules residing in gray matter. Some components include the parts of the brain involved in memory - such as the cerebellum, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus. But the higher-level function is comprised of interaction between gray-matter components facilitated by white matter circuitry. White matter circuitry enables the assemblage of our brains’ component systems.

In a study of musicians, it was shown that a circuit called the arcuate fasciculus (AF) that connects the classical Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas showed “that musically tone-deaf individuals, who show impairments in pitch discrimination, have reduced connectivity in the AF relative to musically normal-functioning control subjects”. (link) So circuit efficiency matters!

A Polymathic Hypothesis

So let’s hypothesize - Could it be that people with a polymathic “thought-style” could have a brain that possesses highly efficient circuits to combine memory, plus they have a really efficient habit-loop formation mechanism? . We’ll develop this theory in future blog posts and start to back it up with some more neuroscience with any luck.

A Polymath connects the dots between widely disparate disciplines and creates something new

References

Maier, M. W. (1998), Architecting principles for systems-of-systems. Syst. Engin., 1: 267–284. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1520-6858(1998)1:4<267::AID-SYS3>3.0.CO;2-D

Loui, Psyche and Schlaug, Gottfried, Investigating Musical Disorders with Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA (https://www.musicianbrain.com/papers/Loui_Schlaug_Tonedeafness_DTI_nyas_04781.pdf)

Recruiting: Finding the Elusive Polymath

Let’s say that you are hiring for a position such as an Executive, a Software Architect, a VUCA team leader, or other position requiring broad thinking and ‘dot-connecting’ ability. Or you might need to identify a problem-solver that can handle working within a complex situation (VUCA) and not only thrive, but help others move forward.

You are looking for a Polymath If you are a specialist, you might not be able to see one without some tips. (see: The One-Way Mirror) The illustration above shows what is happening in a Polymaths' mind most of the time. They could be solving a problem, physically cooking, listening to a book on tape, and planning a project simultaneously. You might think that this is impossible, but for someone who is a polymath it is not impossible at all. Their brains process multiple things simultaneously - even though the body can physically only perform one task. Most Polymaths have a superpower of ability to think about multiple things at once. Note: Younger polymaths may still need to learn how to ‘listen’ while performing the parallel processing so they don’t seem distracted.

So how do you identify one if you yourself are a specialist? Here are some tips.

Tips to Identify a Polymath

Below are some things to look for, and questions to ask - if you don’t have another polymath handy to help you with the identification process.

• A Polymath resume’ could have a resume’ with a number of disparate jobs on it.

• They might have many interests outside of work and be highly productive at each of them. Words describe them through words like , “how do you do so much” , “how do you think on so many levels at once”

• They might be an artist of some sort

• A Polymath might have multiple advanced degrees from a College or University

• Polymaths dislike being pigeonholed, so don’t typically value certifications in their industry - they would prefer to prove expertise through demonstrated experience.

• They might be labeled as having ADHD,

• They might describe themselves as a hybrid - performing above average in whatever you throw at them

• They demonstrate continual learning and mastery of topics, without certification most of the time since that is associated with pigeonholing. They probably write blogs, books, or do presentations.

• A Polymath hates the interview question, “What made you want to be XYZ when you grow up”. Because the question is invalid for them. They didn’t want to be one thing, they wanted to learn and learn.

• You can’t categorize them into one discipline in your applicant tracking system because they fit multiple categories equally well

So if this is still challenging, DataPsy, Inc consultants can help you identify the polymaths in your candidate pool.

On BEE-coming a Polymath

Building Brains Through Play

Recently I spent an evening talking with some people born in the 1960’s and 1970’s. They were reminiscing about how they used to “play”. There were no devices, no screens. Just a ton of fun outdoors. They played in ponds, swamps, lakes, junk yards, cranberry bogs, at the creek - basically wherever we could find some combination of mud, plants, and interesting things. That’s where we played. It was just plain fun!

One of the people told a story of how he and his friends found a jackpot in the form of a spool of electrical wire that usually was mounted on a telephone pole. He and his friends decided to make a zip-line. They tied it to two trees on a hill. One on the top and one on the bottom. The first attempt where they put a pipe around the wire and grabbed it to ride failed miserably. Friction deterred them. Then another of the kids remembered that his dad had electrical lubricant so they coated the entire wire, and tried again. Brave kid number three grabbed the pipe, and zipped 40 mph or so down the hill until he slammed into the tree with feet slapping around the tree and his near-lifeless body dropping to the ground.

The other kids gasped. Then ran down the hill and poked him with a stick (yeah - we used to do that when one of us screwed up). The zip-liner woke up in a blur, and popped back to life.

THIS was our childhood. No screens. Just play and roughhousing - a combination of body movement, scientific thinking, and creativity that caused these kids to build the zip line in the first place and try it out. Were there consequences? Yeah - some of us did not survive childhood - but most of us did.

Did we all turn into Polymaths? Nope. But those of us that were fed a steady diet of activity, creativity, curiosity, and language skills sure did! At age four, with candy being thrown at me to eat when I got it right, I learned that “bicycle” was “la bicyclette” in French. Must have helped my Neural networks somehow!

Sensibly Build Your Neural Network

Hadear’s guidance is honestly saying that we need to engage all of our senses in order to build a functioning neural network. We are born with a programmable memory and our network-building instructions come, in part, from our interactions with the outside world. So paying attention to how we engage our sensors to sense, and our bodies to learn to react can set us up well for either later success or failure in life. The Bauhaus movement combining arts and crafts, and the Waldorf school combining handiwork with brain work are 100% accurate for our biological neural network development.

Sports

Physical sports in a set routine can increase the energy flow in your body

Meditation

Through meditation or other techniques to focus, you can deepen your experience of being in your body rather than being your mind. Treat events from a detached platform of observation. Try to create/widen the gap between events that are occurring and your response to it.

This helps you control your negative habits and responses to triggers. We want to increase our ability to use productive habits for efficiency, and decrease our automatic reaction to triggers that cause a negative habitual response. Meditation creates this detachment.

Art & Language Skills

*** Incorporate Boundary-less learning and info from language masterss…

Science

“The secret to teaching kids to be polymaths comes from 4 things: train the body by doing sports, the creative mind thought art, scientific thinking through logic and problem solving and finally learn languages! This creates a very strong Neural-network in the brain that can be used for anything ”

— Hadear Marzooque

T.B.D.

VUCA Teams

Volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments come in all shapes and sizes. The acronym VUCA was created in order to describe a post cold-war world after the 1990’s.

• Volatile - accelerating rate of change

• Uncertainty - lack of predictability

• Complexity - interconnectedness, cause-and-effect forces

• Ambiguity - high probability of mis-reads and misunderstandings

VUCA does not have to be huge either - it just has to have all four criteria. In fact, in the information technology industry, a complex system integration project requiring multiple technologies, vendors and staffing companies can create an environment that can be described as VUCA.

Suppose that you are creating an integrated criminal justice system that moves data between disparate vendor systems. Now imagine that each vendor producing each of the integrated systems uses a different approach to their projects. This is a complex, volatile, uncertain and ambiguous environment. Not only are there technology differences, but there are process and approach differences as well. Throw in an offshore vendor with a strict contract limiting what they can and can’t o and you definitely have a VUCA environment.

So how do you build a functional team in a VUCA environment situation? Most people start by looking for specialists in each discipline and throw them together into a team and hope the combination of people works out. But there are two simple steps that can help improve your probability of success. First, pick your team leadership and associated process. Second, pick your specialists carefully to match your team leadership to avoid gaps.

Team Leadership / Architects / Analysts

Best Method: Leverage A Polymath

The best way to create forward momentum on a team in a VUCA environment is to recognize that you need at least one individual in leadership role that is a broad thinker, a forward thinker, someone deeply familiar with multiple disciplines on a team, a dot connector, or someone that thrives in complexity and breaks it down into simple terms. This is a Polymath

Alternate Method: Leverage a Monomath

If you put a Monomath in a leadership role in a VUCA environment, then you will need to augment the team with enough other monomaths plus a defined process to get a result. Collaboration will be needed. You might want to also consider eliminating polymaths on this team unless they are extraordinarily patient because they will quickly become frustrated with the slow pace and the methodical tedious process (from their perspective). A collaborative process can be slow, especially with a large number of contributors to the planning process.

Team Contributors / Individual Contributors

On a VUCA team you will also need a series of specialists for each skill needed on the project. These people are going to thrive in the raw details of one aspect of a project. Pick these people carefully because you will need them to define the detail and be able to communicate those details to a Polymath to aid in adding the context around the detail.