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The New Polymath: Profiles in Compound-Technology Innovations (Wiley Professional Advisory Services)

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Having read an advance copy of Vinnie Mirchandani's The New Polymath, I have to say that it is a riveting read. It's SuperFreakonomics for us technophiles. Because, for better or worse, The New Polymath (who can be thought of as a modern Leonardo da Vinci) must also be an IT guru ... as it is information technology that is paving the way for a new generation of polymaths that have access to unprecedented levels of information across disciplines.

Rather than tell you that this fresh and inviting (Benjamin Fried, CIO Google) book is filled with incredible examples of passionate entrepreneurs (Marc Benioff, CEO [...]), that I am inspired by this book (Maynard Webb, CEO LiveOps), or that Mirchandani is one of the few technology analysts to realize that technology doesn't come in neat bundles anymore (Thomas H. Davenport, President's Chair Babson College), I'm going to talk about The New Polymath's ten rules for success which pop out at you if you read between the lines.

Why? One of the Polymath's chronicled in Vinnie's masterful manuscript is Brian Sommer, technology consultant extraordinaire of TechVentive and renowned ZDNet blogger, who asks "where are the 10 commandments for technology" as he struggles with the challenges of cyberethics that few dare to address. It's a good question, and one that I believe we are not yet ready to answer. Which leads me to ask, "how do we get there"? Well, the first step is to obviously become learned, and successful, polymaths well equipped to ask, and debate, the question. To this end, we need a guide ... a guide that, if you dig deep, is found within Vinnie's terrific tome. To get you on your way, and to inspire you to (pre) order your own copy of The New Polymath, I give you:

The New Polymath's Ten Starting Rules for Success
(because, in reality, there are more than ten ... but these are the biggies).

(01) 1-1-1
Adopt [...] 1-1-1 model: 1 percent employee's time; 1 percent equity; 1 percent product donation. A true Polymath operates in his community, not out of it, and makes a difference.

(02) 80 for 20
Aim for solutions that deliver 80% of the value of previous solutions for only 20% of the price. A new Polymath is about true innovation, not overstated renovation.

(03) Invisible UI
If your product requires a manual, it's not a product at all. A true Polymath produces solutions with UIs so seamless and so obvious that no manual is needed.

(04) Traceability
Every component can be traced back to the source ... even if it's software. (And if it is software, every data element can be traced back to the source.)

(05) Keep Score
Polymaths are responsible and drive for sustainability ... to the point where they keep track of how well they are doing and how much better their inventions are compared with predecessor technology. If it's not more environmentally friendly (and more cost effective, because true green keeps more green in your wallet), it's not revolutionary.

(06) Semantics
It's the age of "big data", and to make sense of it all, we need to find the data that is relevant to us.

(07) Decisions, Not Data
Because, in the end, the entire point of finding the semantically relevant data is to enable us to make better decisions than we could before.

(08) Adopt the "Shamrock" It's Lucky for a Reason
A "shamrock" organization, as envisioned by Charles Handy, is one that encompasses "core management, a long-term but contractual talent pool, and a transient, flexible workforce". We are in the age of networked person, who is used to working on the move, and tomorrow's polymath's will be flexible at the core.

(09) TiaS
Technology-is-a-Service. A Polymath moves beyond SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) and TaaS (Technology-as-a-Service) and embraces the concept that, like power and water, information technology must be delivered only as a service in the world of tomorrow. Just like the utilities deliver our power and water, tomorrow's technology enterprises will deliver our apps, data, and information on-demand as that is what is needed for businesses to truly reach the next level of operations, as technology is not the core competency of most businesses that make use of it today.

(10) The Turing Oath
Brian Sommer notes that we need a Hippocratic Oath for technology, and I agree. We all need to agree to respect and uphold the privacy of our users and their data to the utmost above all else. And I'm calling that the Turing Oath, after Alan Turing who gave us the first test to determine whether a machine had reached intelligence (and, would thus, need to be instilled with ethics from the get go ... and, hopefully, the the three laws of robotics.)

I strongly encourage you to read Vinnie's groundbreaking debut into the world of publishing (other than his prolific blogging over the years over on Deal Architect and New Florence. New Renaissance.) and do what it takes to become The New Polymath. The world of tomorrow needs you, and in fact, so does the world of today. If, like the polymaths chronicled in this book and Nathan Myhrvold (who was the cloth the new polymaths chronicled in the book were cut from), I encourage you to join the Humanitarian Technology Challenge. The world needs you!

This review was originally published on Sourcing innovation at:
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I was very interested in the topic and about polymaths in history and some that I have known, so it was with great anticipation that I bought the book. The book seems to be a collection of blog posts by the author, which leads to a book that is hard to track. He has a thesis, but the book is not organized in a way that it flows to support the thesis. It is agony to read. I read a few pages of interesting factoids, then pause to think, why is he saying that or what is the point. The general flow is: fact, unrelated tidbit, something innovative, implying that the subject, usually a company, is a polymath. Rinse and repeat. He overuses the word polymath so much that its grating. I disagree with the concept that a company can be a polymath just because they can be good a several things.

There are lots of quite interesting factoids and blogs in the book, lots of descriptions of companies that are innovative (with no point), but it seriously needs a real editor to try to make it readable.

I first ran into Vinnie Mirchandani's work in his "Deal Architect" blog, where he has developed a reputation for jolting enterprise software vendors with his skepticism over vendor hype and searing critiques of lazy business models. "Where is the innovation?" is one of his most common refrains. What I did not realize until recently was that Vinnie has taken it one step further, and thoroughly documented the kinds of innovations he is pressing vendors for. This is the heart of his "New Polymath" book - documenting innovations across industries, specific examples from more than 40 countries.

But if this book was just an encyclopedia of innovation, it would wind up on a shelf somewhere. It is more. Vinnie has put these innovations into a compelling narrative, a story of "grand ideas." To Vinnie, innovation is not a buzzword for spit-polishing a business model, it's a much higher stakes game. Vinnie seeks out and documents game-changing corporate initiatives - those that are rooted in community sensibility and sustainability - not simply in the ecological sense but in the broader sense of creating a better society while achieving significantly better business value. No simple task, right? Thus Vinnie's argument for the "New Polymath," the ability to "compound technologies" from eleven building blocks he details in this book - technologies that when smartly combined, enable this kind of business transformation.

This is not a pie-in-the-sky book, but a collection of case studies and specific examples. The sum of that is to challenge all of us to think bigger and pursue a more radical business purpose - not because it might happen someday, but because it's happening now. There is a roadmap in The New Polymath for us to follow, and many of the technical tools needed are readily available. No excuses. This is one book that spurred me less into reading other books and more into taking action. I would like to see more discussion of how individuals can become the "New Polymaths" the world needs more of - perhaps that will be Vinnie's next book.

Polymath is Greek for a Renaissance Man like Leonardo Da Vinci or Ben Franklin - someone good at many skills. The New Polymath, in the book's definition, is an enterprise good at many technologies and at leveraging multiple talent pools. It is an enterprise which has learned to blend 3, 5, 10 strands of infotech, biotech, cleantech etc. to come up with compound new solutions which we could not have delivered a few years ago.Vinnie, the quintessential polymath as defined in the book, starts by observing that for the most part today, most of us seem to specialize and highlights the fact that we are monomaths in a world of exploding knowledge and passionately argues for more and more polymaths to be nurtured both at the institutional and at personal levels. With monomaths around, Vinnie argues that many ecosystems are going through a phase aka the dark ages, where there was plenty of living, but there was little forward movement in terms of progress. It was defined by its relative "nothingness". Drawing a parallel to the current time, he points out, in the information technology space, there is lack of nutrition--so much of the spending is wasted. In sustainability, there is lack of agreement--there are so many rancors in spite of so many global concerns. In health care, it is about lack of availability--so much of the world does not have access to all the advances in technology--or even basic health care. The core of these problems Vinnie argues ,amongst others centers on monomath thinking and execution.

Rather than stopping at pointing to inhibitors, in the book Vinnie comes with a refreshing , practical and promising alternate approach -one that can be widely adopted at all levels, big and small enterprises, business and individuals etc. Vinnie points several successful "New Polymaths" in business that are getting at far-reaching results around the world. He insightfully observes that the broadening palette of technology components - many increasingly affordable, allows us to take a completely fresh look at many problems. The two biggest takeaways from the book are a) Stretch your stretch goals. and b) Adopt an AND not OR attitude towards technology -do remember that we have too many silos across IT, biotech etc. Even within IT we have so many silos. Throughout the book,Vinnie brings out the modern day success stories of polymath enterprises and individuals and argues that in them he sees the potential to capitalize on the promise that future holds for business and mankind. He succinctly points out to the fact that well-designed enterprises are taking individual monomaths, leveraging a wide array of technologies and becoming the new polymaths. What I see in the book are a rich set of examples and metaphors that talk the story of entrepreneurs, business leaders, and multinational companies innovatively leveraging technology to tackle big problems, "grand challenges," related to health, hunger, and natural disasters--and, of course, information technology. In their own ways, these big and small enterprises in their spheres of influence are reshaping the world . Vinnie highlights that examples represent a range from a triangle to an eight sided octagon to a ten sided decagon to a twenty sided icosagon to a 50 sided pentacontagon! The "more-sided" polymaths are trying to solve the really big, hairy problems. The "fewer-sided" ones are a bit less ambitious, but they are helping us run our enterprises and lives much better. Vinnie provides a framework to help enterprises adopt and improve the polymath framework - an important on for those interested to practice this.

When In Search Of Excellence got published in 1981, It helped American executives look into the mirror and see that some of the things they were doing were not bad at all, that others were excellent, and that they could borrow excellent ideas from each other. That, in turn, paved the way for many wannabes to create successful business. With the examples showcased in The New Polymath, Vinnie is again demonstrating the extraordinary ways in which the New Polymaths of business are winning in the international arena - he tops it by laying a robust framework for others to get there. When we extend these concepts to new strata - the likes of the emerging world, the non profit institutions etc. the results shall turn out to be much more significant. A very important reference book for business, entrepreneurs, management students and all professionals who dream and are working to create a better world.
(Note :I read the physical copy version of the book.)

Polymath is Greek for a Renaissance Man like Leonardo Da Vinci or Ben Franklin - someone good at many skills. The New Polymath, in the book's definition, is an enterprise good at many technologies and at leveraging multiple talent pools. It is an enterprise which has learned to blend 3, 5, 10 strands of infotech, biotech, cleantech etc. to come up with compound new solutions which we could not have delivered a few years ago.Vinnie, the quintessential polymath as defined in the book, starts by observing that for the most part today, most of us seem to specialize and highlights the fact that we are monomaths in a world of exploding knowledge and passionately argues for more and more polymaths to be nurtured both at the institutional and at personal levels. With monomaths around, Vinnie argues that many ecosystems are going through a phase aka the dark ages, where there was plenty of living, but there was little forward movement in terms of progress. It was defined by its relative "nothingness". Drawing a parallel to the current time, he points out, in the information technology space, there is lack of nutrition-so much of the spending is wasted. In sustainability, there is lack of agreement-there are so many rancors in spite of so many global concerns. In health care, it is about lack of availability--so much of the world does not have access to all the advances in technology--or even basic health care. The core of these problems Vinnie argues ,amongst others centers on monomath thinking and execution.

Rather than stopping at pointing to inhibitors, in the book Vinnie comes with a refreshing , practical and promising alternate approach -one that can be widely adopted at all levels, big and small enterprises, business and individuals etc. Vinnie points several successful "New Polymaths" in business that are getting at far-reaching results around the world. He insightfully observes that the broadening palette of technology components - many increasingly affordable, allows us to take a completely fresh look at many problems. The two biggest takeaways from the book are a) Stretch your stretch goals. and b) Adopt an AND not OR attitude towards technology -do remember that we have too many silos across IT, biotech etc. Even within IT we have so many silos. Throughout the book,Vinnie brings out the modern day success stories of polymath enterprises and individuals and argues that in them he sees the potential to capitalize on the promise that future holds for business and mankind. He succinctly points out to the fact that well-designed enterprises are taking individual monomaths, leveraging a wide array of technologies and becoming the new polymaths. What I see in the book are a rich set of examples and metaphors that talk the story of entrepreneurs, business leaders, and multinational companies innovatively leveraging technology to tackle big problems, "grand challenges," related to health, hunger, and natural disasters--and, of course, information technology. In their own ways, these big and small enterprises in their spheres of influence are reshaping the world . Vinnie highlights that examples represent a range from a triangle to an eight sided octagon to a ten sided decagon to a twenty sided icosagon to a 50 sided pentacontagon! The "more-sided" polymaths are trying to solve the really big, hairy problems. The "fewer-sided" ones are a bit less ambitious, but they are helping us run our enterprises and lives much better. Vinnie provides a framework to help enterprises adopt and improve the polymath framework - an important on for those interested to practice this.

When In Search Of Excellence got published in 1981, It helped American executives look into the mirror and see that some of the things they were doing were not bad at all, that others were excellent, and that they could borrow excellent ideas from each other. That, in turn, paved the way for many wannabes to create successful business. With the examples showcased in The New Polymath, Vinnie is again demonstrating the extraordinary ways in which the New Polymaths of business are winning in the international arena - he tops it by laying a robust framework for others to get there. When we extend these concepts to new strata - the likes of the emerging world, the non profit institutions etc. the results shall turn out to be much more significant. A very important reference book for business, entrepreneurs, management students and all professionals who dream about a better future and are working to create a better world.

I guess I've always known that I have the mind of a teenager. I'm always looking for new things, new ideas and new experiences. This keeps me young at heart and, equally interesting, it keeps me market relevant. I want to be more of a renaissance man as I could see that someone who doesn't embrace change, as disturbing as it can sometimes be, gets obsolete fast. In my business, I trade in the currency of ideas, insights and knowledge. How successful could I be if I was still hawking some concept that someone pioneered 40 years ago? Not very.

I believe in the concept of the renaissance man/woman. Our business world just moves too fast and is too dynamic to have the luxury of non-changing constancy. Sure, I'm sure we'd all like things to slow down sometimes - it won't happen. We'd like to see our competitors slow down their pace of innovation - it won't happen. We'd like to spend more time just `vegging out' - but we can't. If we pause and fail to expand our thinking, we stagnate and lose relevance. When we're no longer relevant, we cannot compete as effectively. We cannot charge premium pricing. We lose our advantage in the global market.

Business leaders need to be renaissance people as their organizations are the creators of innovation; designers of more productive processes and equipment; and, the people who support the re-vitalization of their businesses. If they don't do this, jobs disappear, economies stagnate and standards of living fall.

This preamble is my way of introducing Vinnie's book, the New Polymath. A Polymath is a renaissance person.
Vinnie did an amazing job of researching this book. His companion blog, the New Florence [...], was certainly a great source of material. When you read this book, it could inspire you and make you feel that your firm isn't doing enough. And that's okay because even if your firm has done a lot, it needs a little healthy dose of paranoia and should worry about the newer things others are bringing to the market soon.

Vinnie lays out a lot of examples that he organizes via a mnemonic that spells out Renaissance. Since Vinnie's not as prescriptive as I am, I was waiting for him to tell us, the readers of his book, why we should become a Polymath and how we become one. Vinnie lets the examples, and there are a lot of them, convince you that becoming more of a polymath is a competitive necessity.

When you read his book, you should feel humbled as you read of so many great things, great ideas, etc. so many others are discovering, learning and creating. That's Vinnie's plan, I believe.

I called Vinnie this weekend to tell him that I finished reading his book. I also asked him when he's going to write the companion "How-to-become a Polymath" sequel and he groaned. I think he wants a bit of a break between books. But, that step is only important once people realize they, too, need to be more of a renaissance person.

I know there are millions and millions of people on this earth who just want a job that they only think about from 8am - 5pm Monday through Friday. To them, a job is the end goal not a career. Once they finished high school or college, they don't ever want to read another book for the rest of their life unless it's some brainless romance novel or other guilty pleasure. These people aren't renaissance people and they can't be forced into becoming ones. However, this attitude towards continuing education is dangerous and economically ruinous as skills and educations have ever shorter life spans. If people don't re-invent themselves periodically, they become obsolete.

The world won't stop for these people just because they don't want to learn anymore. That sort of thinking was a luxury in a different time when economies weren't global, communication wasn't cheap, the internet ubiquitous, etc. Today, the world changes at a blazing clip and people must possess a change capability equal to this.

If you don't want to become irrelevant or obsolete, then you must become more of a polymath. If you need inspiration on becoming one, read Vinnie's book.

Many technology and business books suffer from dry statistics and charts. Mirchandani understands that people learn best via examples and case studies, and this book is rife with them. My favorites concerned [...] and BMW. Mirchandani weaves together a tapestry of stories about how companies in many industries are innovating along many different levels. The book's practical nature is a refreshing departure from IT books that come across as preachy. The New Polymath's "show me don't tell me" approach proves that large corporations need not be hamstrung by internal obstacles and "the problem of being big." Great read. You'll learn a great deal.

You can imagine that on my desk I have several (today 21) books to choose from to read. I was really peeved when I picked up Vinnies book when it first arrived for a quick scan. I could not put it down. But I had tons of work to do on other projects! But this book is too important to not read immediately. If you work in Tech and intend to do well , you must read this book . One reviewer called it a fire hose of information on what is here and what is coming. Plus it is just a delightful read. His interviews and examples are concise and relevant. this is an author who has really done his homework. I can not imagine how hard he worked on this book. Run out, buy it and read it this summer. He has two blogs, [...] They are both great.