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The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

paulgraham.com

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Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#411

Post by StuffedParrot »

jacques_chirac wrote: post #407
codetrotter wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I agree with his theory, but what I find particularly interesting is that I think most people do not have an obsessive interest in anything at all. I am not convinced that this is true. I think a lot more people are really interested or passionate about something than you may realize, but not all of them talk about those things to everyone. Alternatively, their passion might be what they do for a living. So for ins…

I have a hard time agreeing with this. In my experience people's single most interesting thing to talk about is themselves. Once you notice that, you see it everywhere. It's such a lure, it's almost irresistible. I've made it a habit to ask them a couple of open questions and then just let them have at it. In a few situations folks lost business with me simply because they were too preoccupied with talking about them…

People answering questions does not imply that their favorite thing to talk about is themselves. It’s simply an easy venue to conversation when you don’t know the other person.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#412

Post by nitwit005 »

throwaway713 wrote: post #191

I agree with his theory, but what I find particularly interesting is that I think most people do not have an obsessive interest in anything at all. And as someone who has obsessive interests in a lot of things (some “useful”, some not), that seems really odd to me: how can you just be satisfied to go to work, come home, watch TV, and go to bed each day? (Not saying that’s the wrong way to live, just saying it is surp…

Go look up what the average American or European media consumption is. It's difficult to see it as anything but an obsession. It's just that the obsession relates to things others are producing.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#413

Post by jacques_chirac »

StuffedParrot wrote: post #411
jacques_chirac wrote: post #407

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a hard time agreeing with this. In my experience people's single most interesting thing to talk about is themselves. Once you notice that, you see it everywhere. It's such a lure, it's almost irresistible. I've made it a habit to ask them a couple of open questions and then just let them have at it. In a few situations folks lost business with me simply because they were too preoccupied with talking about them…

People answering questions does not imply that their favorite thing to talk about is themselves. It’s simply an easy venue to conversation when you don’t know the other person.

>People answering questions does not imply that their favorite thing to talk about is themselves.

Nor does what I said imply your assertion.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#414

Post by BigJono »

prirun wrote: post #398
pm90 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is possibly the greatest argument for social safety nets ever made, really. The economy of today is so efficient and supply chains are so effective at moving things to people who need them, that it seems incredibly stupid to not use it to provide some kind of basic necessities to every human being, no questions asked. If the US were to do this today, there would be more innovation, less misery, a supercharged ec…

So if you spend 14 hours a day for 5 years on a computer project that becomes useful, and a lot of people want it and pay you for it, you are willing to fork over most of that to the government since they provided you with the basic allowance that let you pursue this project, and your success is how they fund a basic allowance for everyone - you included. While your friend, who did nothing for 5 years, maintains the…

Nobody on the planet has ever gone "oh fuck me I only made 300 million with my extremely successful business instead of 600 million. Well what a waste of time, I shouldn't have ever started it."

No rational person that isn't already well off would take a 1% shot at 1 billion over a 10% shot at 100 million.

Progressive taxation and social safety don't stifle economies, they make them thrive. They act as a negative tax on risk, and create a framework where actors are free to pursue higher EV bets without worrying as much about utility value. Literally the entire point is to create more pie for everyone.

Bludgers getting "free money" is just a side effect. You're not paying for them with your taxes, you're paying into an insurance fund with all the other innovators. Except this fund is +EV, subsidized by all the other countries in the global economy that aren't taking the same gains. You're the one getting the free money, and the leaners are taxing some percentage of that.

The only reason every successful country in the world isn't already doing it is because of this unintuitive "common sense" optic that you (and about a billion others, literally) are propagating: that somehow it breaks the rules of "fairness". The reality is it's got absolutely nothing to do with fairness, it's about maximizing the bottom line, just like in business. Governments don't give a shit about individual people, nor should they (at least not at the expense of society).

Also, I'd guess most first world countries could easily (and do) provide a world class social safety net without going over 50% taxation in any bracket, not even billionaires. Your example only applies if you're talking about taxation in the 70-100% range.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#415

Post by [deleted] »

tptacek wrote: post #148
sillysaurusx wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I probably should have specified “besides tptacek.” He’s a fascinating outlier. He once claimed he was worried some Russians were going to harm him due to his HN comments. I still wonder if he was just saying that to sound cool, but truth is often strange. That average does put things into perspective though.

I said what? If this was in person, I'm confident I was both drunk and joking.

[deleted]

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#416

Post by TeMPOraL »

dredmorbius wrote: post #376
t34543 wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone have a hypothesis on why William Sidis made such a interesting pivot?

Something of a political awakening about age 21: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James_Sidis#Politics_a... Seems to have opted out of society for the most part afterward.

That paragraph in Wikipedia seems to me to subtly imply his parents' attempt at "reforming" him could be relevant here.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#417

Post by prlin »

TheTrotters wrote: post #246

Relevant SSC post: https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/06/30/the-lottery-of-fascina...

Wow that was a very interesting analogy and theory. Thanks for sharing! I've also never heard of SSC before. I saw the top 10 posts SSC lists in the about page, but do you have any other recommendations for articles relevant to the HN crowd?

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#418

Post by vijayr02 »

GuiA wrote: post #396
t34543 wrote: post #373

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does anyone have a hypothesis on why William Sidis made such a interesting pivot?

Somewhat similar stories with eg Grothendieck and Kaczynski. As the article points out, one of the properties of genius is that it can’t really be deliberately focused.

Reminded me of https://magazine.atavist.com/promethea-unbound-child-genius-...

I think future generations will see our inability to provide opportunity to genius to rise up as a criminal waste of potential. I sometimes idly speculate how different human society would be if we raised our offspring communally, with every child given the same (high) opportunity to express their capabilities.

As usual Asimov has a riff on this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Deep_(short_story) - worth reading the original story though...

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#419

Post by TeMPOraL »

jacques_chirac wrote: post #407
codetrotter wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I agree with his theory, but what I find particularly interesting is that I think most people do not have an obsessive interest in anything at all. I am not convinced that this is true. I think a lot more people are really interested or passionate about something than you may realize, but not all of them talk about those things to everyone. Alternatively, their passion might be what they do for a living. So for ins…

I have a hard time agreeing with this. In my experience people's single most interesting thing to talk about is themselves. Once you notice that, you see it everywhere. It's such a lure, it's almost irresistible. I've made it a habit to ask them a couple of open questions and then just let them have at it. In a few situations folks lost business with me simply because they were too preoccupied with talking about them…

I don't think it follows. Obsession about a niche topic + good social sense = you're not likely to mention it during random conversations with regular people.

Re: The Bus Ticket Theory of Genius

#420

Post by TeMPOraL »

ip26 wrote: post #401
jaxr wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's the whole point. It's not about what is interesting and what not, but what truly obsesses you . What OP means is that cooking is not something he feels obsessed about. It's great if you are obsessed about cooking and have 10 hours a day to practice your cooking. But most of us, wish we had more time to explore the topics we are deeply attracted to. If they make a difference, all the better.

That said many topics are deeply fascinating in their own ways, and we just haven't stopped & looked close enough to discover it.

Manufacturing fascination is a hard mental task, doubly so if you try to do it to find a substitute for something you're already fascinated in, but can't find time to pursue - you'll know you're trying to cheat yourself.
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