whowhowho comments on Einstein's Superpowers - Less Wrong

30 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 30 May 2008 06:40AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (92)

Sort By: Old

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: [deleted] 12 March 2013 12:44:45PM 0 points [-]

But the overwhelming majority of the population (I won't bother to pull a number of 9s out of my ass) never become a top-level theoretical physicist nor a top-level painter nor a top-level novelist nor a top-level musician nor a top-level statesperson nor a top-level chess player nor anything like that. So, even without assuming that theoretical physics is any more g-loaded than painting, the fact that “Einstein probably wouldn't have made a Rembrandt-level painter” isn't a terribly good reason to doubt that Einstein's g was in the top 0.1%.

Comment author: whowhowho 12 March 2013 12:56:19PM 1 point [-]

The point was this: that Einstein was very exceptional was not a good reason for thinking he had a very exceptional g, because it's not all about g.

Comment author: [deleted] 12 March 2013 07:42:22PM 1 point [-]

I agree if by the second instance of “very exceptional” you mean “one in a billion”, but not if you mean “one in a thousand”.