Attention is all we have: A conjectural theory of cognitive inequality

davidbessis.substack.com

24 pointsrzk6 comments

I think that important in this context is to consider Polgar's experiments on his own daughters: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A1szl%C3%B3_Polg%C3%A1r

This one is for the bucket "Geniuses are made, not born", and kind of supports the thesis that early habits are important.

> The experiment began in 1970 "with a simple premise: that any child has the innate capacity to become a genius in any chosen field, as long as education starts before their third birthday and they begin to specialize at six."

Another point the author misses is the medical trajectory. If you have ever done math under viral fatigue or low blood sugar, you can appreciate that many people probably operate their whole life under what others would consider "brain fog".

A set of [humans] start with a genetic baseline that allows them to more naturally jump higher or throw a ball faster than others. This is an indisputable fact. A different set have a more baseline genetic natural ability in other intellectual domains. This is also a fact.

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