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Comment by adfisgnio1234 | Hacker News Reader

I think this post does a great job of arguing against its own thesis. This woman was apparently the rank one poker player in the world. She obviously has great natural ability and works hard at what she does. So why doesn't she stick with anything for longer than a few years? Why has she had an impressive start to four or five different careers without following through on any of them to real greatness?

She believes, or wants us to believe, that her personality has helped her overcome her modest abilities. Instead it seems that her immense natural ability has overcome a personality that should by all rights have led her to ruin.

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It's often said that to be outstanding, you should master two different fields then work at the intersection of those fields. For a lot of people the model of "real greatness" is Leonardo, who mastered about 7 fields.

To even get close to that you need to be the sort of person who changes fields every 5 years or so. I think this temperament is relatively fixed, perhaps because it's a feature of some kinds of neurodivergence. If ND and innate ability are both fixed, what you need to reach greatness is a bag of tricks like the author has so you optimise the many parts of personality and behaviour that are not fixed.

What I think is sad about modern times is, it's increasingly difficult and impractical to make a career change into a regulated profession. You can switch to CS, painting, or poker any old time. But if you're not a doctor by the time you're 40, forget about it. I bump into many people who are interested in medicine and would be great at it, but the switching cost is insurmountable. A shame because there's so much greatness to unlock at the intersection of CS, medical research, and clinical practice.

There has to be a high correlation between people who get bored and move on and people who can learn things fast (either by technique/personality or raw iq points or both).

I think you see moving around careers as a failure of some type. I disagree and see that as success, so there is no "arguing against your own thesis".

For some the real greatness is to be involved in a more than one discipline.

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