If you could choose one polymath from history to guide you through life, who would you choose and why?
I think I would choose Benjamin Franklin.
Not necessarily because he was the greatest polymath ever, but because his knowledge was unusually practical. He was involved in science, invention, writing, publishing, business, diplomacy, politics, education and civic institutions.
Leonardo da Vinci might be the person I'd choose to teach me how to observe and think. Aristotle might teach me how to organize knowledge and reason. Ibn Sina might teach me how to pursue knowledge relentlessly.
But Franklin seems like the person I'd choose to teach me how to turn knowledge into a life.
So I'm curious:
If you could have one historical polymath as a lifelong mentor, who would you choose?
And more importantly: what specific skill, principle, or way of thinking would you want to learn from them?
