The Arts

Leonardo da Vinci was a part time painter, Alexander Borodin was a part time composer.  Polymaths often engage in one or more of the arts as an important component of their finely crafted polymathic life.  Today, that could mean painting, sculpting, novels, literary or video, music, game design fashion design, and more.

Kevin Kelley of Wired.com fame penned an article entitled 1,000 True Fans in which he suggested that if artist could get 1,000 fans to support them to the tune of $100 per year, the artist could make a decent income.  While true, that just isn't all that easy.  In fact, one could spend the whole proceeds of $100K acquiring the 1,000 true fans and end up netting nothing.

Let's look at The Polymathic Institute to illustrate the problem.  Our members come from the upper 99.94% of the population or one in 2,150 people.  But, while they come from that group, we find that only about one in 100 will join.  That means that we need to wade through 215,000 people to find one member.  Using targeted advertising, we may be able to advertise to about 12,000 in order to get one member.  At a minimum, this will cost $100.  If our goal is to get $100 of support, the work is immense and the result is no better than to break even.

The notion that a person can engage in an artistic endeavor part time and through sale of work product or patronage make a reasonable living, sounds inviting.  But the practical reality is that, unless you can get cost effective access to a large number of highly targeted people, the results are likely to be horrible.  In other words, you need to find a way to find your audience.  The Polymathic Institute understands this and is dedicated to the proposition that part time artists should be able to find their audience.

This is really the power of Leonardo.  Not only does it isolate the top 5% or so of the population in intellectual sophistication, within which most of your audience should reside, it also will segment that audience 340 different ways.  Somewhere in there should be a cost effective route to your 1,000 true fans.  Get one of the Leonardo bloggers to be your true fan and you can very likely get your 1,000 true fans quickly, easily and profitably.

This is an import element when considering Institute membership.