[aristus]

Depends on what you mean. To me it's not just someone who is very good at one thing and then writes a decent book about it. I know a few people who are more than merely competent in several fields, eg music, chemistry, and emergency medicine. Then there is the question of fame. None (well maybe one) of the people I'm thinking of have a Wikipedia page.

I'd say there are tens or hundreds of thousands of "polymaths" running around. They are not hard to find; just go wherever people are inventing the future.

[wow_sig]

I don't mean someone being good and writing a book. I mean it in the old sense of the word. Contributing to more than one non-allied fields. Like someone who's a painter and also a sculptor would not be called a polymath.

But someone who is recognised as a polymath. Jared Diamond for instance.

[aristus]

I dunno then, check Wikipedia. But I'd say there are far more who pass the test than are famous enough to rate a wikipage. The problem of finding polymaths is that non-allied fields are, well, non-allied. Often no one knows about the other stuff they are doing over in another field.

[neodude]

A short list from wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_been_ca...

[crasshopper]

Just go wherever people are full of themselves.