What is a Renaissance?

The Renaissance was a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas and achievements of classical antiquity.

As per the previous statement, Renaissance was nothing but a period of vigorous intellectual activity and creativity, marked by a surge of inventions and the beginning of modern science and it was back in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Now we are in the 21st century and now is the time when the second Renaissance can take place. To understand more about it we must first know what is a polymath or a renaissance man or homo universalis or generalist.

What makes someone a generalist/polymath?

All these terms like polymath or renaissance man or homo universalis or generalist refer to someone who has a wide breadth of knowledge and skills and also has deep expertise in several areas, who is open to broad experiences, can be a divergent thinker and solves problems in creative ways as a result.

As polymaths have more tools in their toolkit, they can combine, apply, and synthesise different information from different domains to develop novel and creative solutions and also can approach different problems more holistically and creatively.

This quote by Robert Greene summarises what I have mentioned above.

"The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in a creative way"

How can one become a polymath or renaissance man?

1. High energy levels

   As there are a lot of things to do and to do them efficiently one must have high energy levels. For gaining high energy levels one must exercise as exercise helps you to keep your mind clear and explore new subjects while making you a high-energy human being. Being fit makes your brain learn things faster.

   

2. Self -Education

   So the question here is what should one learn in this digital age?

   And the answer to this question is everything that comes under permissionless leverage.

   Permissionless Leverage is where you don't need other people or money or resources to use the skill in a way that provides value to other people.

   • Content Creation

   • Writing a blog

   • Making an application and shipping it online

   • Starting a podcast

   • Writing an e-book

   • Tweeting

   • Coding

   • Creating a job instead of searching for one

3. Meta Skill

   • Writing

     Let's take an example of writing as a skill.

     Writing makes you a clear thinker, more writing increases your critical thinking which makes you act. If you can think, speak and write you become unstoppable in the digital age. Writing helps you put your thoughts to action and you there are more chances of you executing them once you clear them out of your mind and write them down.

     Reading is also good, but reading is not acting, but writing is!

   • The ultimate meta-skill - Digital Literacy

     Being digitally literate does not mean one must know how to code, instead, it means one must be good at using computers to their fullest potential.

     Digital Literacy can include:-

     • How to use search engines to their fullest

     • Install and learn new software easily

     • Adapt to the latest technologies

       

As Steve Jobs once said -

"A computer is a bicycle for the mind"

Conclusion

Once you get a good grip on computers and all the latest digital technologies, it becomes easy for you to wider your skill set.

For example - If you are familiar with software like photoshop, premier pro, and PowerPoint, it becomes easier for you to learn other software in the same domain like blender, Figma and you can also change your stream to say web design, logo making, UI/UX designer, photography, cinematography and the scope gets as wider as it can.

So be open-minded, and curious, try new things, wider your scope of experiences and become digitally literate.

If you can't code, that doesn't mean you are digitally illiterate, there are several things to do on a computer apart from coding, just be curious find it out and keep learning.

1. Create your product

2. Make it public

3. Build an audience

4. Provide a value

5. And then boom! Monetise it!

Acknowledgements

Most of the content in this blog is gathered from books, youtube videos and tweets, here I list them out

1. Book - Almanack of Naval Ravikant (read it for free here)

2. Video - How Generalists Win In The Information Age

3. Video - Generalists Vs Specialists

4. Video - Should You Specialize or Be a Generalist?

5. Tweets - Tweets by Naval Ravikant

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Thank You for reading so far!