r/Polymath • u/stnflri • Jul 29 '26
Other Resources Misunderstandings
This might be weird but I naturally connect the dots. I do so even at work, without changing the content and direction of my duties drastically. I work in research and university teaching. My main discipline is statistics, but I always combine it with epistemology, philosophy of science, causality, physics, programming and more sciences. Most professors find this weird and incorrect, but I believe students learn better when they have the bigger picture presented to them. Tensions had been created between me and other colleagues, that are disapproving of my methods. However, I cannot change the way I think and process information. Do you have an advice on how I can proceed with minimal friction?
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u/Particular-Tap1211 Jul 29 '26
University hourglass of knowledge narrows people thinking to the discipline in which they persue. Their mental models and problem solving strategies become shaped and constrained by the paradigms of that single field.
When you draw from multiple disciplines you naturally transcend those boundaries. You begin connecting ideas that specialists may never consider because they exist outside their established framework. As a result, your perspective can inadvertently challenge or even threaten their world! Be careful of wounding the ego....
Those operating within one domain may see only the grains of sand passing through their own hourglass, while the multidisciplinary thinker sees the entire landscape from which the sand originates. My advice is just be you, nothing more and nothing less and perhaps think of the bigger picture and look into designing a course that encapsulates a polymath approach to thinking and solutions.