Rise of the polymath

As the material cost of living falls, more and more of our expenditure goes on what Maslow called self-actualisation. We seem determined to do more with our lives than our ancestors and this self-imposed activity is the source of much of our extra stress and increased pace of life. But self actualisation is a key factor in our self image and gives us a purpose in life that is worth all the stress it causes, so we are not going to stop any time soon.

IT is helping people to do far more in self actualisation terms. For example, although I am a rubbish musician, I am just about to buy my 7^th keyboard. It will have far more capability than its predecessor and hugely more than my first one in 1983. With it, and some basic software on my computer, even I can compose and play music, store it, edit and mess about with it, and make something that I can be proud of. And I still can’t even read music! Other people are using computers to learn new languages, learn to play chess and other activities.

But the really big advance is that people from all walks of life are discovering that the software available off the shelf today, coupled to numerous web sites, allows them to run home businesses or become social entrepreneurs. People who never thought they had any business acumen at all are now enabled. All they need is an idea, or even just something to sell on ebay, and suddenly they are doing a second job. Hobbies are being upgraded to professional standard by this extra IT. The network puts people in touch with others that they need to fill in the gaps in their own expertise, so that collectively, people can link into virtual enterprises and take on some of the market that was once only addressed by big business.

As artificial intelligence progresses over the coming years, we will see an increasing level of entrepreneurship open to everyday people. AI can essentially do the job that was once done by the company, so that people can concentrate on the bits they want to do and leave the rest to the machine. By starting with hobbies, and bringing them up to professional standard by adding AI capability, we will enable the rise of the polymath. Many people will become highly competent across a range of skills. They may still have a ‘day job’, but also operate on a number of other platforms too.

The consequences of this will be that the economy will develop, and so will society. People will start more business, business turbulence will increase and poor quality businesses will be wiped out. Society will benefit because many people will use exactly the same skills to develop activities helping society. We are already seeing a significant increase in social entrepreneurialism across the UK.

One piece of good news in the recession is that it is sharpening people's skills and survival instincts. Many companies that were slowly dying anyway have died earlier, and the economy has therefore benefited a little by getting rid of some dead wood. The companies that are still alive will emerge better, and the companies being formed will be formed on a better footing. But on a personal level, everyone is becoming more adept at more things, and that is good news for all of us.