Polymaths of Permies Unite!!

A polymath is a person who has lots of interests, skills, and learns about them. "Jack of all trades" "Renaissance man"  and "Too many interests" are all phrases used to describe them.  There are a lot of polymaths in permaculture, we tend to be drawn to the sheer wonderful possibilities inherent in the varied tasks of permaculture and thrive in this niche.

I'm a classic polymath, and many years ago I figured out my life goals: Learning/Practice/Teaching. Everything I have done, from run businesses, to trash picking, through making and  modifying everything I can, has been with those goals in mind.

So, a new fun thread for us polymaths to play in!

You Know You are a Polymath When.....
(decided not to make that the title of this thread to avoid confusion, but it is a good start to discussion)

I started the morning learning about how knitting machines work; got three squash that have been stored all winter cleaned, seeded, cut and in the oven, they are headed into the canner in a while; opened up my laptop to tighten a connection that's been making the screen all pink, cleaned everything I could, including the keyboard while I was in there; am currently headed to put breakfast quiche into the oven with the squash; while breakfast cooks I'll do some quick photoshop to illustrate a post I want to do about a neat piece of last night's dreams.

Your turn, let's play! Tell us how your polymath mind manifests in the world!
:D

OMGoodness I love this. People are always baffled by the range of things we can do. Some people refuse to believe it to make themselves feel better...doesn't underestimation just grrrrr dig under your skin? Ugh. I put apple grafts out, troubleshooted why the refurb fridge doors weren't staying on (a locking hinge is missing) and sorted thru blurry maker's diagrams to get the exact part to order. Looked for DIY plans to make a remote trigger for my Holga wet plate camera. Cut out some shorts to sew together.

"Yes, I sew well enough to alter my clothes, I knit well enough to make presents, I weld well enough to make a motorbike carrying trailer, I've built bathrooms from an empty room to plumbing and electricity... I'm probably best at electronics soldering but I'll have a go at building just about anything"

I work in the IT department, specialising in audio visual. I'm part way through a degree in theology. I'm seriously considering training in audiology.

I fixed a squeak on person A's bike.
Person B "Can you stop mine squeaking?"
Me "Nah, you've got a sealed bearing on that bottom bracket"
Person B "How do you know that?"
Person A" He's a *Surname*, he knows."

I like bikes, I can completely strip a bike down and rebuild it over a few days. Can't do that with a car. Although I have always done the servicing on the cars I owned and changed the clutch and head gasket on the motorbikes I owned.

Me "I've found Blender! I've been doing to scale house design in Inkscape but now I can do 3D!"
Person C "You can do that?"
Me "Yeah well, Grandad was a draughtsman. I just expect myself to be able to do it."
Person C "Of course you do."

I'm probably over stressed if I don't have 3 books on the go.
I'm dreadful at languages but remember enough to be able to dive into the roots of the more complex english words.

Of the 40kg baggage allowance I took to the place where I was working in IT for a year, I took a sewing machine that I converted to run direct on 12v, my own soldering set, my battery drill. Maybe 4 pairs of trousers and 2 pairs of shoes.

A relaxing weekend:

After arguing two court cases on Friday, I cleaned out and set-up my rain barrels and bird bath, planted seeds I had saved last year and dug up some native flowers to share, foraged wild spring greens, made meringues and lemon curd with my teen, played my favorite video game for a couple hours, wrote some "flash fiction" and a bit more of a novel.  Sometimes I think it'd be great to quit paid work entirely and just devote myself more to gardening, community activism and creative pursuits, and keep up my language skills b/c I used to speak several languages fluently and am getting out of practice.

But then I when I am actually doing my day job I think how my clients are constantly having their rights violated and SOMEONE MUST DO SOMETHING and so that's my job and when I'm working it's like there's never enough time to do all I want to get done there, but then I need to set a hard boundary and clock off in order to do all the fun regenerative activities.

Howdy, howdy

Yes, as well as an autodidact.  I spend most of my free time learning how to do new things.  The internet is both a blessing and a curse, given I can look up almost anything these days.