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

rzk 23 points 6 comments August 24, 2026
davidbessis.substack.com · View on Hacker News

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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".

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