Latest Becoming Polymathic Pieces

Cicero, IL is known for two things – Al Capone and the Hawthorne Works Factory. In the 1920’s, it became headquarters of the notorious Chicago Outfit. Simultaneously, the factory, operated by the prominent telecommunications manufacturer Western Electric, reached its peak capacity of 45,000 employees spread across 5 million square feet. For perspective, the Boeing Everett […]

This piece will be the 60th I’ve written for Becoming Polymathic. In of itself, that’s not significant. March 2025 also marks its 18 month anniversary. Again, insignificant in of itself. There’s been a gamete of topics covered in this time, a fact made especially clear as I return to old pieces and update them to […]

In 2024, 8.7 million people visited The Louvre. Furthermore, if you take Louvre Director Laurence des Cars’ word, 80% of them went solely to see the Mona Lisa. From that perspective, I was in the minority who couldn’t be bothered. Even at the end of January, the queue was tremendous. I steered to the right […]

This will be the second piece centered around Pierre Boulle’s work. Previously, we leveraged Planet of the Apes to discuss theory of mind. Similarly, this piece will center around human behavior, but rather than compare us to our primate ancestors, we will compare amongst ourselves. The Bridge on the River Kwai, which debuted ten years […]

We begin this week’s piece in a similar breadth as last’s. The influence of data on our lives is enormous, and therefore the ability to analyze it effectively an increasingly necessary skill. As its happened, this skill has been central to several of my past pursuits including engineering school, financial market education, and my SEO […]

During prime New Year’s resolution season of January 2024, I made a cliché proclamation; I was going to read more. It wasn’t the first time me and millions of others shared this hollow pursuit. Knowing history, and abhorring the desire to repeat it, I ponied up $45 and paid for Blinkist, an app providing 10-30 […]