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by notahacker 2173 days ago
Yep. Indeed you're better off not picking the grand label even if it perfectly suits you, because people are more likely to chuckle at your pomposity if you start describing yourself as one (see also self-described 'intellectuals', 'geniuses' and 'ninjas') than be impressed.

It doesn't help that for much of the post the author seems to conflate the concept of the Aristotle-type polymath making breakthroughs in multiple unrelated fields with standard career paths [engineer, manager, teacher, founder, advisor] and transferable career skills. All of which are entirely worth pursuing without the dubious label.

1 comments

Between this and that [0], it popped into my head that we should just go further and invent polymodal. Would specifically refer to the other comment's "only one thing" deep dive.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23808478