This is a phenomenal read and confirms the need for a new approach to education in the 21st century.I believe this is an essential reading for all educationalists, and in particular, business school administrators.This book doesn’t just call for change, but delivers a clear indication of what is needed, to equip the global citizens of tomorrow.

This is an interesting one. It’s meant to be sort of an argument that our present economic and educational systems are unjustly putting polymaths down and a sort of suggestion that everyone—not just the super-geniuses we normally associate with the term—should strive to be polymaths.I honestly find it a little bit difficult to review this one, because I find myself in complete agreement with most of what the author argues. We may quibble over a few points and I may question whether the average person can be quite as versatile as the author suggests, but I do think he’s looking in the right direction. And I think he makes a reasonably good, if brief, argument in favor of encouraging broader interests and more versatility.However, I think the book struggles in two primary domains. The first has to do with that very brevity I mentioned. Though the book is of fairly typical length at a little over 300 pages, the pages devoted to really making the core arguments are far fewer in number. Large portions of the book are given over to brief biographical treatments of a variety of polymaths throughout history, including some famous ones and some you’ve probably never heard of. There’s nothing wrong with that (though be forewarned that the biographies are brief and rather superficial), but it does mean that the bulk of the book doesn’t spend its time where I think it really ought to have: namely, carefully developing economic arguments about where the polymath fits in today’s society.Secondly, though I tend to agree with the author’s conclusions for the most part, I don’t think he does an adequate job of giving specialization its due. Yes, we may be in agreement that people ought to be more versatile, but we also have to contend with the idea that at least some degree of specialization enabled the modern world because we’re each able to outsource substantial portions of our lives. Similarly, some professions may be so technically demanding that specialization is called for. We don’t necessary want someone who “dabbles” in neurosurgery. These arguments can be overcome and the author does make some moves toward contending with them, but not at a level that I think holdouts who are not yet convinced by his thesis will find compelling.None of which is to say it’s a bad book by any means. I quite enjoyed reading it and I heartily recommend it, in that I think its ideas need wider discussion. But I do have to say, I liked the IDEA of the book more than I did its execution.

Thought provoking content. Very satisfied

Waqas Ahmed is Assistant Professor and Founding Faculty at the London Interdisciplinary School. This is an interesting critique of the tendency in education towards specialisation and argues in favour of promoting polymaths together with the advantages of the same. Ahmed looks at the history of polymaths to support his arguments, including reviewing their contributions to society, e.g. Benjamin Franklin and Leonardo da Vinci. All in all, it was a very interesting read that made me think.

Fantastic and I think everyone should read this book