How do they perform their craft?
BONGI D D M RADIPATI* | Wednesday May 20, 2026 10:01
In the innermost sanctum of my heart, there lies only one thing I absolutely care about when writing. It is one sentence leading to another sentence. I am unable to think of my writing except as a series of sentences connected to each other to convey a human interest matter that has stolen my heart at that moment. But to get there, I hardly rely on some grueling routine or any fancy habit or any specialized skill. Instead, I rely on tiny, invisible prompts - classical music, nature, philosophy, or a lyric - that quietly turn a daily rhythm into the discipline of writing, typically every day.
My act of writing is always interspersed with reading so that the two become mutually reinforcing. I do the writing in long hand, by pencil, in a physical notebook, and thereafter, I transcribe it onto a personal digital device. This writing, and its continuous editing and review, are all really a yearslong quest for refinement with a desire that its fusion of imagination, creation and construction can bear the weight of time, lucidity, and public scrutiny. But, this is still an unglamorous, silent, and inefficient writing habit, really an ordinary man’s baseline of craftsmanship. Of course, it is also just one way of expressing oneself in one creative format. Obviously, there are several other ways other creative individuals employ to express their craft.
Yet, for some time now, I have often wondered how the elite creative individuals, call them creative polymaths or prodigies, express themselves in their craft. Importantly, how are they able to express themselves exceptionally better than every other person, call this excellence, in multiple formats such as a stage, screen, studio or through different musical instruments or different fine art material? There is experts’ consensus that they are able to do this through a strong combination of psychological immersion, with high-level cognitive mapping, and rigorous technical training. What does this mean? Instead of answering this question through abstract personalities, I will refer to the examples of active polymaths so that we have living legends from every corner of the world, to help make my notion more tangible.
The starting point must necessarily be that every one of these polymath artists has what is called the flow state. This is the actual seamlessness that the audience or reader sees when a talented artist has their skills perfectly match the challenge. When this happens, the self, that is the individual herself or himself, vanishes and the medium, irrespective of its size or format (television, the stage, the movie screen, the novel, the essay or the poem), becomes secondary to the act itself. It is not a suspension of disbelief for the sake of engagement or enjoyment. Rather, it is a true perception of the artist completely morphing into or making a total reality of the character they are presenting to the audience or reader. Sometimes, this vital pillar of excellence in artistry is called psychological immersion.
Unless they are naturally and massively talented, few artists will attain the requisite level of the flow state without technical adaptability. This is formal training at a well-regarded drama, art, or trades school. The training is organized through disciplined and structured practice by which the polymath artist will master the level of execution and competence required of a professional in that medium. Yet natural talent, whose technical term is innate sensory or cognitive propensity, is usually seen as the minimum level for any artistic excellence. But, independent research confirms that only about 26% of natural talent is required for artistic excellence: the rest comes from endless practice, unwavering commitment, and the raw desire for mastery. Additionally, natural talent is the speed of, not the destination, for acquiring technical skills in creative work. A naturally talented artist such as Stevie Wonder (born 1950-, American) does not practice less for his artistic performances. What he does is simply to extract more lessons from every hour of practice than a non-prodigy such as me might be able to do.
High-level cognitive mapping is the internal structure that an artist uses to organize complex elements of their creative work. For a playwright and novelist like Wole Soyinka (born 1934 -; Nigerian) or Margaret Atwood (born 1939 -; Canadian), it is the ability to track and maintain multiple themes and timelines as convincingly as the most doubtful of us would acknowledge to be true. For a performer such as Tony Leung (born 1962 -; Chinese) or Lupita Nyong’o (born 1983 -; Kenyan-Mexican), it is the mental map used to navigate a script or stage without necessarily relying on external prompts as I do.
Combined together, the three forms of ability necessary to be an artistic polymath will vary according to the medium of creativity and performance. In other words, each artist will allocate creative resources according to what is demanded by each specific role or song, or medium. For Soyinka and Wonder (a playwright and blind multi-instrumentalist, respectively), the high cognitive mapping is the most important tool. Soyinka must track dozens of symbolic characters while Wonder must discern several musical instruments simultaneously in his mind. (As an aside, since they are black men of African descent, their artistry is as much a tool for survival as it is a lesson about continuing struggle. This is a sharp reminder of the responsibility that often lies behind every craft and its polymath.) As first rate actors, Daniel Day-Lewis (born 1957 -; British-Irish) and Tony Leung rely heavily on high psychological immersion by believing that if the inner state of their acting is absolutely real, also called “becoming”, then the outer performance will follow naturally. Therefore, they spend less time rehearsing the role and more time living the thought of that role. Other accomplished performers, such as Isabelle Huppert (born 1953 -; French) and Lupita Nyong’o rely on high technical training. They apply their technical toolbox, which includes voice, breath, and micro-movements, not to become the character they seek to portray, but by building that character from the outside in. This requires that they obtain capability and mastery of the mechanics of the craft they are in, be it acting, modeling, or other craft.
Although natural talent is vital to reach the level of artistic prodigy, yet without the three pillars of creativity: craftsmanship, performance, and execution, as I listed them above, it will remain a latent potential never harnessed. Were this allowed to endure, that inchoate potential would regrettably fail to be applied as an active mastery of that talent. In other words, artistic polymaths express their craft as discipline, training, commitment, and accomplishment require. Ordinarily, they do all these every single day of their lives. In fact, no prodigy bypasses the labor and discipline required by their craft. Rather, every prodigy applies that labor and discipline at a higher frequency, where the daily sweat of their practice allows them to give us lifelong perfect performance.
We must consider ourselves lucky to continue to have polymaths, of every gender, race, and nationality in our midst. We must also consider it as our good fortune to enjoy their unique artistry even as they have the discipline to push themselves to the outer limits of human capabilities. In observing them, and in marveling at their dedication and level of artistry, maybe we may find the inspiration and direction to our own smaller, creative, and imaginative sanctums. Ultimately, it is clear that the best polymaths among us begin and continue the same way most of us do. They do one performative act of creativity that leads quietly to another. In other words, they engage, not in a random social post or story of the moment, but in the deliberate mechanics of their craftsmanship, time and time again.
*Radipati is a regular Mmegi contributor