I want to become like a Renaissance Man/polymath, widely read and extremely knowledgeable about a lot of things. What books can help me with this?
I'm already pretty knowledgeable about history and a bit of philosophy, so wanting to branch out into other things like art, literature and the sciences and I don't want to just read text books
How old are you?
Also, I think we're long past this age. Diminishing returns, volume of knowledge necessary in order to apply and so on.
20
Just because we're past the age of it and it's a lot harder nowadays doesn't mean I want to at least try, I love learning and want to learn all that I can
Do you know basic maths?
Yes, why wouldn't I?
Don't. Just read whatever you feel like reading. Just go with encyclopedias for general knowledge.
I guess if you really wanted to do something like this you should just pick up a general knowledge encyclopedia and just sit down and read it front to back, but I can't imagine this being much fun.
- Start following the Great Books reading list and the curriculum of a Great Books college like St. John's.
- Start reading Bloom's Western Canon list in any order, mostly ignoring the 19th century because it gets too dense and you need to focus on nailing the classics. Feel free to jump around, but you must ALWAYS be reading some literature. You can also read pulp literature you enjoy, as long as you are reading something every day, and as long as it isn't trash.
- Start reading the Bible ASAP. Break it up into strategic chunks, and supplement your main reading with a few Psalms, Proverbs, and one or two books of Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah every day (so that you don't have to read these as giant slogs but instead chip away at them.
- After the Bible, read the Gnostic and Apocryphal texts.
- Start learning mathematics ASAP. Euclid is optional; ever becoming a great proof-writer is optional; but you should try both. Your goal, as a bare minimum, should be Calc 1 and then at least trying your hand at linear algebra and analysis. Do at least 30 minutes a day of mathematics, no matter what.
- After you master Calc 1, master classical mechanics. Your long term goal should be to read Newton's Principia. (Chandrasekhar has a good guide to it.)
- Continue learning history and start systematizing your learning process. Develop the vital skill of figuring out the best overview books in any field or subject.
- Start reading through all the classical historians.
- Start reading one poem a day, or 20 minutes of poetry a day.
- Learn Latin and Greek immediately. Learn one other (modern) language. Do at least 30 minutes a day of each language, no matter what.
- Start reading philosophy in primary sources with the ultimate aim of having read everything in five to ten years.
- Learn the basic contours of art history ASAP. Drill chronology of movements and major figures. Go to any museum you can regularly and compare the art you see with its historical and philosophical context.
- For biology, start with histories of biology (Ernst Mayr has one) but start reading major primary sources (Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen, Vesalius, Harvey, Descartes, von Haller, Buffon, Bernard, Lamarck, Darwin, etc.) as soon as possible.
- Do the same for the history of chemistry (Priestley, Lavoisier, etc.).
- Start learning amateur astronomy ASAP. Get a beginner telescope (I recommend a OneSky Reflector) or good pair of binoculars and learn the constellations. Learn the basic history of astronomy.
- Start reading about the history of classical music; learn to read music (not hard); listen to at least 20 minutes of classical music a day.
- Start meditating 15 minutes a day (or 2x15).
- Start working out.
- Practice making a deliberately difficult schedule and actually sticking to it. Learn your weaknesses.
- Learn that time goes by much more quickly than you think, become terrified of lost time, kill procrastination in yourself.
>Euclid is optional
>after calc 1, master classical mechanics
>then read Newton's Principia
>study 3 languages at the same time
Why even pretend that you do any of this shit
Way too much for all at once, but I appreciate the input
Will definitely try and implement at least some of these
You should do it over 5-10 years and it's what I did. I'm basically advocating you study 4-6 hours a day, max. Probably more like 2-4. If you can't do that, you will never be a polymath and should probably be content with whatever cookie cutter sampler menu you get served at university.
I agree it's not for everyone. However the things you specifically took issue with are pretty minor. Children used to do Euclid. I think Euclid is not that great unless you have a specific facility for proof-based math, but you should at least do most of the first book and a few other things, and at least get a sense of what Euclid is.
Aside from that I don't see what your issue is. Anybody getting a math-based degree has to do Calculus 1, and a bright teenager can do it. I took Latin, Greek, and French in college at the same time and it turned out fine, and I added German and Italian as soon as I felt like it. I said understanding Newton's Principia should be your end goal if you want to be good at math and physics. I think you can go even further than that and should make studying Einstein and his precursors your REAL goal. But you need to be an actual mathematical mind for that.
Yeah I try to study in whatever free time from work and working out I can
Definitely looking at it for the long run, nothing quick and over night
Thats still the best post so far.
I would only add to abstain from modern garbage like most of the internet to get more time for this curriculum and some small things like working on charisma, meeting (good) friends to sharpen your mind in discussions and think about hobbies like gardening, drawing and fencing, since those had been very often practised by Renaissance men.
Remember, Da Vinci still had time to sit in a caffee and talk about Dantes Inferno with friends.
Also for anyone following this-> you never try to do everything at once, that lets you fail spectaculary. Pick 3 at maximum and work till you gain good competence at them. So for example, learn to play a guitar, join a Karate Dojo and learn a language. Thats more than enough for anyone at the beginning. Once you get good enough at something that you decide its good enough for you, you can branch out, simply because it is far easier to keep a learned skill ( 15 min per Week reiteration) that to learn a skills (hours and hours for every little improvement.
>that picture
Cheers anon
Yeah definitely something to chip away at with daily progress and not too much all at once
I have done or am doing most of that.
I still feel like a useless moron.
Good plan but one should study weapons and have a physical education too
I think you would also need a creative outlet.
Some kind of sport would be a good addition to just working out. Maybe some kind of martial art or boxing.
Maths is pretty fun. I'd recommend going through linear algebra, analytical geometry, and calc 1-3. These show up in pretty much every engineering/general stem syllabus out there and are a good jumping off point for physics and the like. You can probably get through calc in a few months (calc 1-2 at least, I haven't finnished calc 3 so I can't say) if you set your mind to it. Paul's online math notes is a good resource for calc. To be honest, you can probably get away with going though syllabuses and then mixing and matching what interests you, getting the required books along the way. If you want up to date knowledge, you can probably skip the classics. At least in regards to physics/biology/engineering. Unless you're truly interested in all this, it's better to pace yourself and learn one or two things at a time. It might take longer but It'll be harder to get burnt out.
Keep in mind the pool of knowledge we have nowadays is very broad and very deep. In that way there aren't any real polymaths like there once we're. If you want to learn everything all at once you'll never reach half of what a professional in his specialized field is.
I say this but my qualifications are non existent. Second year comp. eng. student here.
Do you guys think girls like a Renaissance Man?
I don't think they do. They might say they do, but if they ever met one they wouldn't.
The Renaissance Man is not going with the flow, so its not hip for them.
>Renaissance Man
the Renaissance Man is homosexual to begin with, cf DaVinci.
Is it possible to be a straight Rennaissance Man?
Only if you're a genius or if you experience something life-changing like war.
Become a homosexual. Suck as many dicks as possible. Frick and get fricked. Only then you can begin to turn into a Renaissance man. Get into painting and read literature of the period.
Ignore the absolute sperg GRINDSET WORKOUT meme. Obviously it takes a lot of effort, but keep in mind a lot of these men were scholars of some sort for literal decades before they were well known, it was their job to know a lot of these things and a lot of them had patrons or were sufficently powerful enough to exist in Early Modern Academia. Just imagine doing a full time job but dedicating it to study, that's about how much work they put in. That isn't feasible for normal people over the age of 20 that aren't NEET's and remember, no man was so skilled to do everything.
Probably the only (near) universal among scholars of the period was Classical learning, that means the Ancient Greeks, Romans and the Bible too. Knowing Latin was essential, Greek was important, although still never as much as Latin. Some men went out of their way to learn Hebrew. If you can't be bothered learning languages, just stick to being able to critically read and analyse Classical texts, or really any texts in general and think about it properly which is the single most important thing you can do.
Read Gravity's Rainbow and follow up on all the tangents
literally this. how did Pynchon know so much? its almost unbelievable. anyone know how he did his research and where?
Learn the basics of set theory, chapter 1 of Introduction to Topology by Mendelson is great.
This lets you have a formalized approach to systematizing knowledge
Start with the books listed here.
https://x.com/whatifalthist/status/1769931765378863393?s=46
>Literally all but one of them is pop history
>Be born into massive wealth
>Get zero pussy
Step 1: live during the Renaissance
Looks like you already failed at that