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Comment by robax | Hacker News Reader

I agree that this article was superbly written, but hubris really is the best word I can find to describe Max. Blundering a knight on move 11 is rookie chess. This is not an impressive feat. His pullup "success" is laughable. Lastly, can we kill the trope that solving a rubik's cube is impressive? It's deceptively simple and the algorithms are well within reach (google).

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Exactly. This part of the article stood out particularly to me:

"After eight moves, using his own limited chess ability, the unthinkable was occurring: Max was winning."

Pure dramatic bluster. White has a built-in but small initiative in every game that engines will evaluate as a tiny advantage. This is basically what Max has at move 8. It is not much closer to a win than after his very first move (1. e4). I have to believe the deception of the writer here is intentional, since they did indeed consult with experts (e.g. Polgar).

For me, its always the point when an article like this declares someone smart because they could memorize this or that at age X. Young children (~3 years old if I remember correclty) are the best in short term memory, slightly older is on average unbeatable in fact learning and so on. Nothing special about that, you are not the new Einstein just because you know 200 connected facts at age 7.

How bout landing a standing backflip. Isn't that impressive? I know robots can do it, but Max is just meat.

Learning to backflip is almost entirely mental. With the proper coaching just about anyone in average-to-good shape can learn it in an afternoon (though not necessarily with great technique).

https://youtu.be/eMKoU_I4F1A?t=34

In a month? Not particularly. There are plenty of youtube videos of people learning in hours/days.

Is there a substantive difference between a physical skill perfected, versus a mental skill?

the text is not superbly written at all. it's an advertisement with lots of plot holes and utterly absurd formulations of any kind. just the sleep/sister analogy is so weird and pointless it made me cringe ...

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