alyssavance comments on On the Power of Intelligence and Rationality - Less Wrong

13 Post author: alyssavance 23 December 2009 10:49AM

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Comment author: MichaelVassar 24 December 2009 03:52:04PM 4 points [-]

In term of impact, I'd say Ben Franklin beat Hitler. Rationality + energy vs. charisma + energy. Energy seems like the key unifier, shared by almost all highly successful people. Einstein was an exception to that, but I think he's uncommon. All of the above however, took major risks in life and show a survivorship bias. I think that energy is less critical for more mundane success.

Of course, energy can come in pills but those pills tend to sap one's rationality if it wasn't extremely high to begin with (and one's physical robustness). Erdos comes to mind, but also Kennedy, Nixon, Rand, and yes, Hitler. Pills in question mimic physiology, namely, excess adrenalin, so I expect highly successful people to have high adrenalin levels or rationality, but recognize that there is usually a trade-off. Where someone has both, extreme success becomes much more likely.

Comment author: alyssavance 29 December 2009 09:49:23AM 1 point [-]

"In term of impact, I'd say Ben Franklin beat Hitler."

Ben Franklin was extremely rational, but he also had Hitler's charisma. (I was not arguing that rationality was generally bad, just that it was not a large advantage.)