What creativity research means by a creative polymath
Psychologists James Kaufman, Ronald Beghetto, John Baer and Zorana Ivcevic define creative polymathy as creativity in more than one domain. Their 2010 paper argues it is fairly common at everyday levels of creativity, and rare at the top mainly because reaching the top of any one field takes years of training. Physiologist Robert Root-Bernstein found the pattern among elite scientists: Nobel laureates were significantly more likely to keep an arts or crafts hobby than members of the Royal Society and the US National Academy of Sciences, who in turn were more likely than Sigma Xi members and the general public (Journal of Psychology of Science and Technology, 2008).
The quiz result uses the name in a narrower sense: it records 2 things you tell it, and leaves your creative output alone. The 2 answers: in question 1, that you have too many interests to pick one, and in the question about the next 6 months, that you want to “find flexible/remote work I actually enjoy”. That pair is the Creative Polymath.
Who gets the Creative Polymath result
686 quiz takers have received it, 1 in 20. Compared with the other 1,658 Multi-Passionates, they are older and further into their working lives: 31.9% are 35 to 54, against 21.6%, and 33.7% have 8+ years of work experience, against 26.8%. 6.2% are returning after a career break, close to twice the 3.5% in the rest of the family, and 18 to 24 year olds make up 40.1%, against 48.9%.
| Answer | Share |
|---|---|
| 18 to 24 | 40.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 23.9% |
| 35 to 44 | 21% |
| 45 to 54 | 10.9% |
| 55+ | 3.9% |
Asked how important remote work is to them, 39.7% said very important, against 20.6% of the other Multi-Passionates, the widest gap on any answer this archetype gives. 9.3% called it unimportant, against 25.2%. The value they pick as most essential follows the same line: freedom and autonomy at 36.7%, against 25.7%. Each of these gaps passes a two-proportion z-test against the other 3 Multi-Passionate archetypes at p < 0.05.
| Answer | Share |
|---|---|
| Important | 44% |
| Very important | 39.7% |
| Unimportant | 9.3% |
| Neutral | 5.2% |
| Very unimportant | 1.7% |
Flexible work starts with the occupation you pick
Among employed US adults whose job can be done from home, 75% work remotely at least part of the time (Pew Research Center, January 2025). The deciding step is the first half of that sentence: whether the work can be done away from a site at all. For a Creative Polymath with 8+ years behind them, that turns the career question around. The first filter is which of your interests can be paid for as remote or project work, and the passion question comes second.
The quiz report shows each matched career's work type (remote, hybrid, onsite or flexible) next to its pay range, so flexible and site-bound options are easy to tell apart. If the setting matters more to you than the field, the where should I work quiz compares remote, startup, corporate and agency settings directly.