Perhaps its no surprise since turning 30 in December 2024, Becoming Polymathic’s pieces have been more reflective. This week will continue that trend as two more milestones were crossed since the last piece. The first was a long-due ending, the other intermediate but increasing in significance. Furthermore, the latter offers a partial answer to the question posed in the title.
Milestone #1
In past pieces, most recently How Much Should We Automate?, I discussed my experience as a fledgling SEO agency owner. Two weeks ago, that pursuit ended. The sole client with whom I’d worked the past two years decided now was an appropriate time to move on. I agreed. The classic Roger Sterling quote “The day you sign a client is the day you start losing them,” rang in my ears. The relationship ended amicably. They’d appreciated the education and work I’d put forth, and I was grateful for the opportunity to persist through my first solo engagement. It couldn’t have gone better.
It was around the same time I began working with them I began a new career in AEC (Architecture, Engineering, Construction) technology consulting. It’s difficult to ignore the parallel timelines for as I was slowly onboarded into one, I was dropped into the deep end on the other. Sitting here writing, that parallel timeline has evolved into causality. Those extra reps with my agency correlated to a faster rise in consulting, a shift which has begun better than expected. For now, this sect of my life is secure.
Milestone #2
The 18-month anniversary of Becoming Polymathic recently passed. Again, an intermediate stage, though it’s significant when contextualized against the aforementioned milestones. I discuss its inception in my introductory letter one receives when signing up for the newsletter. Given the majority of this audience has either forgotten or not read said piece, I’ll summarize it. As part of an effort to legitimize my agency, I wrote a series of 14 posts cataloging the history of search engines beginning with the printing press and ending with the rise of Google. What I came to appreciate was my affinity for writing these posts was greater than that of menial SEO tasks. Additionally, in researching for them, I discovered many search engine pioneers garnered the prestigious “polymath” label – one who is highly skilled in multiple areas. Put two and two together, and here we are.
On the actual 18-month anniversary, I wrote about my observations from staring at a wall for 60 minutes and how I optimistically envisioned these sessions playing a significant role in determining Becoming Polymathic’s future. Since then, I’ve done four more. No, I don’t have any great epiphanies to share, though I am greatly enjoying the habit as a form of cathartic stoicism. It’s also enabling the predominant idea generator within to work through several ideas at great speed. Most have been discarded, though a few have stuck. More on those later.
Why I Write
In reference to the anniversary milestone, one reason I write is the same as why I stare at the same wall every Thursday – catharsis. If I’ve learned nothing about myself over the past two years, it’s my mind is not a sponge, but soil: absorbent of everything, yet can’t be rung out once saturated. Said another way, I don’t forget well. In fact, Forward originated from a nine year-old probing question. Even after a year of effort, it’s still unanswered, and probably will be until I finish the series’ final book at the end of 2026. The point is not that question remains unanswered, or that I still don’t know how to forget, but that writing is the only medium through which I can get close to answering it.
Building upon this notion, the process of writing forces one to be precise. As an example, it’s easy to decipher someone’s anger through their physical behaviors, expressions, or tonality. Describing it through words is far more challenging. Stating someone is “angry” will make you appear as an elementary school kid writing his or her first creative paragraph. Is the person “crestfallen”? Is him or her “boiling with rage”? Or, is the person “unmoving as his right index finger began to twitch, his face glass apart from his eyes now burrowing into those of the bystander, ready to strike like a ravenous lion.” Those four descriptions evoke four different images; your job is to choose the most evocative for the reader. Needless to say, it can be an incredible challenge.
How the Challenge Manifests
Rarely do challenges not manifest for those who voluntarily undertake them. Writing is no different. Precision in written language leads to precision in spoken language, which leads to better internal and external communication, which is the foundation for every venture in humanity’s history and future. I’d like to believe somewhere between altering humanity and better communication with myself, family, friends, and colleagues is where writing consistently will lead me. Though it may take many forms, and the cadence may fluctuate greatly, it will continue serving as a keystone. Should I become the next Michael Lewis, Robert Greene, Hemingway, or Stephen King, wonderful. They are no longer the goal, however, they are the exception. Continuing the underpinning habit is the goal. Finally, in addition to equivocating my mind to dirt, I’ve discovered another nature metaphor over the past two years.
Without the tree, there is no fruit.
Closing out this piece is an excerpt from Backward which concisely summarizes the prior 850 words and all those which led to them:
“He recalled proclaiming the night of his seizure writing was his way to make sense of the world. The opposite manifested. Through writing, a world which made sense unveiled itself.”
Be More.
Become Polymathic.