Taking the previous example to an extreme, what is a person who has great expertise in many fields, but who has never worked in any of those fields or published any papers? Should that person be considered to be a polymath? Can you be a polymath if you've never demonstrated your expertise in a field outside of the classroom?
And to push it ever further, what if you are self-taught? I.e., an autodidact? There have certainly been a fair number of polymathic autodidacts throughout history. Benjamin Franklin is just one. But that was a different era. Can an autodidact be considered to be a modern polymath?
Just something to think about over the weekend.
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