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whowhowho comments on Einstein's Superpowers - Less Wrong
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Youre are edging into understanding why this is thread meaningless. Einstein-level g is rarish but not specatacular. Einstein-level domain ability is another thing. Being in the right place at the right time with the right idea is another thing again. Einstein probably wouldn't have made a Rembrandt-level painter.
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%.
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.
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”.