More than ‘jacks of all trades’, the likes of Moore and Plimpton were instead ‘masters of variety’. Spreading thin does not necessarily make one any less polymathic. Each experience, however brief, and especially if it is in a field completely new to the person, adds to his roundedness and overall personal, professional, intellectual, physical and

Two Rules to Live By Marc and I are both huge fans of Steve Martin’s autobiography, Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life. Marc highlighted one takeaway: “He says the key to success is, ‘Be so good they can’t ignore you.’” TF: Marc has another guiding tenet: “Smart people should make things.” He says: “If you just have those two principles—that’s a pret

He attributes his success to one skill that has served him over the years – his ability to take in new knowledge from all types of people, identify patterns in this knowledge, and devise new models for decoding the world.