The starting point can be a small intuition: “What if something I learned here helps me understand that?”
The Polymath method gives that question a path to follow. You can return to a step, change the project, or discover that the connection does not work. That learning counts, too.
01. Choose a question that matters to you.
Define something you want to understand or do. A concrete question helps you choose where to go deeper without resolving every interest at once.
Write down what you know, what is missing, and what would count as progress. AI can help map a field; compare that map with sources and people who work in it.
02. Find a connection that changes the question.
Bring an idea, technique, or model from another discipline. Ask what it lets you see and where it stops being useful. The connection needs a mechanism you can explain.
What does this second field contribute that I could not see from the first?
03. Build a small test.
It could be an object, analysis, experience, or argument. Choose a form that gives you information from the real world. Decide in advance what you will observe and what would change your mind.
Use AI where it reduces a specific friction: researching, explaining, simulating, coding, or comparing alternatives. Record its mistakes and the decisions you made.
04. Examine what remains.
Try to explain the process in your own words. Adapt it to a new situation. Distinguish what you can now do from what still depends on the assistant. Decide what deserves another round of depth and practice.
The transfer map brings together six questions to document your next connection.
Need a starting point? The home page laboratory suggests intersections and exploratory projects. Each idea includes a way to put it to the test.
FOLLOW THE CONNECTION
The atlas