Mmm...Stoke Those Inadequacies, Baby

This may be a first, posting a link to a list here, but it just so happens I came across what I consider to be the first really worthwhile internet list courtesy of Asylum (a pretty unlikely place to find it). So, here it is, a list of five ridiculous overachievers. Concerning Philip Parker, the man who authored over 200k books, yes, he has an automated program that sets into action the fully hands-off process of writing the tomes, but the man also holds three undergraduate degrees, two masters and one PhD. Zing!

The big whammy that floored me last night and got my brain juices bubbling--as they do when a pointless-yet-fascinating niche of this world reveals itself to me, plus considering my educational history--was the multilinguist Ziad Fazah, who claims mastery in 59 languages. Fifty. Nine. Throughout history only a handful have approached or breached this astonishing number. As somebody who struggles with only a single foreign language I can feel deep down what an achievement this is.

(Interesting factoid: J.R.R. Tolkien was fluent in 13 and knowledgeable in 12 other languages. I'm sure inventing the Elvish language was child's play to him.)

As it happens, statistically, most inhabitants of Spaceship Earth are polyglots, with the good ol' U.S. of A leading the way with most monolinguists per capita. Huzzah. If it feels like America's been getting dumber recently I think this may be the cause, or at least a good scapegoat since being a polyglot seems to increase cognitive abilities across the boards, according to studies. C'mon, American families, teach those kids Finnish already!

--Matt