Some people know a lot about a variety of topics, and having a conversation with them can give you a glimpse into how their minds work. As they connect seemingly unrelated things in a way that somehow makes sense, you may feel like you’re watching a magician at work. These people are known as “intellectual omnivores.” You may know an intellectual omnivore or may be one yourself.
So what is an intellectual omnivore? An omnivore consumes a little from every category, not feasting on just one food group. Intellectual omnivores do the same thing, but with subjects.
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Having an ‘interest in everything’
“Intellectual omnivore” isn’t a scientific or educational term. The first documented person to use this term was Amy Gutmann, who once served as the U.S. ambassador to Germany and the president of the University of Pennsylvania. In 2015, when her former Princeton colleague, Angus Deaton, won the Nobel Prize, Gutmann described him as “an intellectual omnivore” because of his “interest in everything,” according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
This term resonates with many people who have ADHD. The hyperfixation that often comes with the condition causes a person to focus on one thing or topic for hours, days, or weeks at a time. What will spark the hyperfixation is generally not something that can be controlled, which is why many people with ADHD have in-depth knowledge about a plethora of topics.
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Intellectual omnivores and neurodivergence
“So apparently there’s a new term for neurodivergent people,” Instagram user Nichunterreal says in a video. “We’re called intellectual omnivores. I’m sorry, but we’ve been doing this since childhood. One minute it’s black holes, the next it’s Greek mythology, and then we’re on to quantum physics, then the mating rituals of octopus, then somehow the Roman Empire. And yes, we still know all of it for absolutely no reason.” Later in the video, she laughs and says, “I’ve been collecting facts like a cognitive raccoon for years.”
“In all seriousness, maybe our brains were never broken,” she reflects. “They were built to connect dots that other people didn’t even know belonged on the same page. Maybe because innovation doesn’t come from staying in one box or from bending the spoon. Because the box was never real, and there is no spoon. Neurodivergents don’t have hobbies. We have rotating PhDs, but I guess we’ll accept intellectual omnivores.”
But “intellectual omnivore” isn’t just a title for people with ADHD. It applies to many types of intelligent people with an ability to retain information from multiple topics and make connections to unrelated situations.
Steve Jobs and making unexpected connections
When speaking about intelligence in 1982 at the Academy of Achievement, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, explained, “It seems to me, a lot of it is memory, but a lot of it is being able to zoom out like you’re in a city and you could look at the whole thing from the 80th floor down at the city. And while other people are trying to figure out how to get from point A to point B reading these stupid little maps, you could just see it in front of you. You can see the whole thing.”
Being an intellectual omnivore doesn’t seem to be innate to one or two groups of people. It requires a little curiosity and a love of learning, then taking a step back and thinking outside the box to find unexpected ways things can connect. To some, an intellectual omnivore may sound unfocused or scatterbrained, but with people like Steve Jobs, these minds make way for innovation.
