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Comment by JoeAltmaier | Hacker News Reader

We're not all Magnus Carlsen. Some of us are hacks or very ordinary 'players', and can be replace without a ripple on the pond.

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I'd be happy just being Hikaru, whose busy seal clubbing his way to the spot on the Candidates.

Fair point but Magnus wasn't born Magnus. He became world champion partly by doing what the article describes: using engines for post-game analysis. A 1200-rated chess player who reviews their games with an engine improves faster than one who doesn't.

If I'm understanding this right his ELO was 2064 in 2001 when he was 11. I don't think he was using engines for post-game analysis at 11 or maybe he was, but he was certainly born better at chess than most people.

https://ratings.fide.com/profile/1503014/chart

I love the original article. Hey guys you just have to be the best programmer in the world to not be replaced by AI!

> Carlsen showed an aptitude for intellectual challenges at a young age. At two years, he could solve 50-piece jigsaw puzzles; at four, he enjoyed assembling Lego sets with instructions intended for children aged 10–14. His father, a keen amateur chess player, taught him to play at the age of five, although he initially showed little interest in it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Carlsen#Childhood

I don't know you could go as far to say he was born better at chess, but he certainly seemed to be smart early on, and with his father's influence and with a supporting environment that smarts got aimed at chess.

Some people have that talent, others do not. And then those who do have that talent and put in the hours studying theory can go very far without ever looking at a computer to help them with analysis.

Carlsen is that once-per-generation exception, someone who has a talent that somehow allows him to see a little further down the game tree than others. I grew up next to someone who was nearly that good, but there are so many people in that bracket that outside of NL he's not very well known. The distribution of skill at the high end of chess is highly non-linear.

I mean, I could build any lego at age 4, that didn't make me smart, just obsessed with lego, lol

I don't think that particular snippet of text is supposed to highlight how smart Magnus is because of being able to build LEGO at 4, but rather shows the kind of environment he grew up with to foster what he is today.

He was a grandmaster at age 13. In 2003.

everyone is the Magnus Carlsen of their own life, though. and humans are irreplaceable. sure, budget decisions are made that cause people to have to go find another employer. but there is no civilization without people in it.

> budget decisions are made that cause people to have to go find another employer

When those decisions are made en masse, incomes and even chosen careers can change dramatically. This is true even when there isn't massive changes in technology. I started my career during the time when many ended up leaving tech and not returning due to how competitive the job market became.

It's a big problem if they can't find another employer fast enough or if the new employer doesn't pay enough.

It's irrelevant who you are to yourself if you're nothing but a row in a database to the people looking for the earliest opportunity to replace you with a cheaper option. Those people are not acting in the best interests of long-term civilization.

Yeah tell that to the 1800s weavers obsoleted by machine looms. They didn't enjoy civilization's benefits after they (and their families) starved to death. One in four. Grim.

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