
We’re not all unidimensional
Gilbert Gottfried was best known as a comedian, but he was also an expert on Hollywood history. His podcast Gilbert Gottfried’s Amazing Colossal Podcast! remains a treasure trove of (mostly) straightforward interviews with actors, directors and historians about the stories behind movies. Give it a listen. His final episode with the creator of the Hollywood history podcast You Must Remember This is wonderful, ranging from discussions of Lon Chaney Jr., Fatty Arbuckle, and William Randolph Hearst.
Let’s talk about people we know or admire who are not just good at one thing but another. For example, I have an uncle who not only went to art school but became a math professor, and was actually able to continue to work on both sides into retirement. He had a fun little exhibit once combining the two subjects into a demonstration of the appearance of mathematical patterns in nature as shown through watercolors.
Gioachino Rossini was not only famous for composing operas, but he was a master chef. Hedy Lamarr was not only a successful actress but she shared a patent for a frequency-hopping guidance system for torpedos that avoided signal jamming.
Let’s talk about a person in our family tree who succeeded at two wildly different things like baking and bass playing, people we knew in college who were not only awesome discus throwers but also became orthopedic surgeons, or actors like Paul Newman who went into auto racing. What makes them interesting? Did these skills have anything in common despite the differences? Where did their true interests lie?
Brian May of Queen, also Dr Brian May Astrophysicist.
He is the first one that came to mind as a well known one.
I never knew that. That is very cool.
You hear a lot about successful pop artists who make a ton of money and then burn out on tour. It’s a little surprising more of them don’t figure out something else to do when money isn’t an obstacle.
Me?
I nearly dropped my major in electrical engineering and went into history, but I sobered up and stayed in engineering school. I still dabble in history and gave my old bar trivia team a scary advantage of being able cover several giant subjects at once.
One of the things being good at both does is give me perspective on how science affected history and visa versa. The other thing is that we need both to become a better species.
We engineer types used to joke about artscis not being able to get jobs unlike us engineers (eye roll) and used to shit on philosophy types (in particular) but the truth is that without philosophy we don’t get science and thus engineering. I see philosophy as the human mind’s operating system.
Does that area of history relate at all to engineering? I think that knowing how the application of engineering fields — civil, electrical, nuclear — relate to the history of a place makes outcomes better.
It does, I think. We learn from our mistakes, but it is a lot less messy when we learn from the mistakes of the past.
I’m a lazy guy philosophically and prefer not to re-invent the wheel. I prefer to go with what works.
My dad was a champion college wrestler & being young & naive wanted to become apro wrestler. Once he realized that pro wrestling was a show & not real, he quit & joined the Marines. He became a very decorated fighter pilot & squadron leader in Vietnam & had opportunities to be a general but knew our family was spoiled in Hawaii & didn’t want to move to DC. He retired & sold himself to an airline as an executive without any training in airlines. He quickly became a top executive there until realizing politics would keep him from being the top dog there. He reinvented himself again & took over running some big project coordinator jobs in LA. I also watched him hypnotize people growing up. I didn’t really believe that stuff until I saw him do it to several people. It was some pretty crazy stuff I wouldn’t have thought he would be interested in but he was always about mind over body.
Wait a sec — a wrestling hypnotist executive? That’s absolutely wild!
And top gun pilot! He was recruited to be in Blue Angels but declined as he thought it was frivolous.
The Greater Santini!
He loved that movie but was WAY nicer to us. He had a huge heart & family was always first, at least in his mind if not always in the execution.
Wow, he was impressive!
Dr Randy Gregg. Randy Gregg played 10 seasons in the NHL and then retired to complete his residence in sports medicine.
Wayne Morris. Hollywood leading man who left to join the US Navy in WW2 as a naval aviator. He shot down 7 Japanese planes. Returned to Hollywood.
Ted “I’m Ted Fucking Williams” Williams. Well known baseball player and USMC pilot. Was an instructor in WW2 and flew in Korea for two years. One tour as a wingman to John Glenn.
Mayim Bialik, actress and PhD neuroscientist.
Danica McKellar, actress and mathematician.
It’s always interesting to me to see people like this who make a mint and then move on. Peter Weller after Robocop got a PhD in Medieval Studies too. Having that kind of freedom must be liberating.
But then you have even more people in the mode of Pete Rose or “Sunset Boulevard” who can’t seem to take advantage, and I’m not sure what holds them back.
In many cases that’s all they are. Pete Rose wasn’t ever not going to be a gambling addict baseball player. As a person he’s got one dimension and that’s it.
That’s based on my experience with hockey players (I was a terrible hockey player, but I did play with one guy who made it to the NHL, got traded for Mark Messier and ended up being a color commentator.)
I wonder if it has something to do with the drive to success weeding out all your friends and family, so nobody is left to tell you the thing you’re doing isn’t making you happy any more.
And what’s more, you really should try this other thing instead.
These examples are generally just people who have more than one career. Which is cool and admirable, but also not particularly uncommon.
I’m trying to think of someone like Da Vinci level and I’m not getting anywhere. Clearly I will not be on this polymaths list given my own mental aptitude. 🙂
I’m impressed by anyone who makes a go at something different. Colonel Sanders didn’t get into the restaurant business until he was 40 and his business seems to have taken off some years later only after some kind of shootout! What? Still, the switch from ferryboat operations to chicken tycoon is something to consider.
I know quite a few multi talented people but nobody that’s a true polymath.
Semi-math is still pretty cool.
Dennis Tek of the band Radio Birdman was also a navy fighter pilot and an ER surgeon. Still records music at age 69.
I’ve heard a little Radio Birdman over the years, but knew nothing about him. Pretty wild story there.
I used to work with this other audio engineer who had the most amazing ability to learn and become quite good at almost anything. I think one of the reasons why he was so versatile (besides being a fucking genius) is that he was endlessly curious. If he didn’t know something he would ask questions of those that did until they ran out of answers. I always admired him and his total lack of self consciousness in being able to say he didn’t know something and was happy to learn.
The willingness to admit you’re a beginner seems like it’s much more valuable in the long run than the Elizabeth Holmes fake it til you make it mentality. It seems like the curves don’t start out in the same place but the fake it curve is almost always going to end up playing catch up.
in my family tree? i dont have anyone that was wildly succesful at different things (that i know of) my mum was one of the first nurse practicioners in the country…made the news and everything…
and my uncle was a world famous (i use that word loosely here) jazz musician
tho considering he spent a good chunk of his time playing in places like japan…i guess famous isnt a stretch
anyways…..between the two of them i figure ive got one dexter holland!
rocking out and curing aids
i guess ill have to invent my own hotsauce tho