The Dilemma of Polymaths on Social Media
Social media is built around clarity. One niche, one message, one recognisable identity. Photography gives me that clarity, but every time I consider sharing something else, I am not sure about it, if I am ‘allowed to’. Not because it doesn’t belong to me, but because it doesn’t belong to the platform’s logic and to what people expect from me.
Most people know me for my photography. That’s what my Instagram shows, what performs well, what the algorithm understands. It’s the reason people follow me, and the reason a large part of me stays invisible.
But photography is just a tiny part of me, my interests stretch much further.
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I make music, work in design and programming, play video games, spend time hiking, living out of a van and go surfing whenever possible. None of these feel like side projects. Together, they shape how I think, how I create, and how I move through the world.
Online, however, only one of them seems to fit.
The anxiety of sharing something else.
Social media is built around clarity. One niche, one message, one recognisable identity. Photography gives me that clarity, but every time I consider sharing something else, I am not sure about it, if I am ‘allowed to’. Not because it doesn’t belong to me, but because it doesn’t belong to the platform’s logic and to what people expect from me.
The Quiet dilemma
This is the quiet dilemma many polymaths face. Showing the full picture risks confusing the system and slowing growth. Staying narrow protects reach but slowly disconnects you from yourself. The frustration isn’t about lacking focus. It’s about being broader than the structures designed to categorize you.
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Photo by Shutter Speed on Unsplash
What makes this harder is that polymathy isn’t randomness. These interests inform each other. Photography sharpens my sense of composition in design. Music influences rhythm and pacing. Programming encourages structured thinking. Time in nature resets everything. The connections are obvious when you live them, but invisible to algorithms that only recognize categories, not context.
Social media is a useful tool, but a poor definition of identity.
Maybe the mistake is measuring success the same way for everyone. For polymaths, progress might not mean maximum reach, but meaningful resonance. Not relentless consistency, but sustained curiosity. Not perfect optimization, but integrity.