Yeah, I came here to make the same comment. It seems like the main possible dimension Dwarkesh doesn’t cover. With bands there are lots of examples of great first albums that contain all or much of the bands’ best work, and lots of stories about those people writing those songs starting 5 or sometimes even 10 years before the band’s first album was recorded.
I’ll wager that the same thing applies with scientists, even though the tasks are different. When Newton or Einstein or Darwin was younger, each perhaps had versions of many of their famous ideas already in their heads. At age 5, primitive versions, perhaps, but look, Darwin was clearly a guy who was obsessed all his adult life with the endless forms of living beings, so my best guess is he was asking the adults Why Why Why about those same subjects even when he was a small boy.
You spend your childhood thinking about these things, and also slowly picking up the mathematical and investigational tools you’ll need.
Importantly, when you get to be about 20, you also get to the point where people start taking you seriously. And then you publish and have a great year.
Another thing that happens all of a sudden when you get to be about 20: You go to Cambridge for the first time, and there are other people there, both professors and colleagues, who can tell you a lot of new stuff you didn’t know—fresh ideas. Perhaps your ideas in response to it are rapid. Perhaps they have a strong and immediate positive influence.
The careers of Nietzsche and Mozart are counter examples to what you guys are saying. Both of them were prodigies and had very productive careers. They produced their most excellent works at a very rapid frequency just before they tragically went crazy/died.
Yeah, I came here to make the same comment. It seems like the main possible dimension Dwarkesh doesn’t cover. With bands there are lots of examples of great first albums that contain all or much of the bands’ best work, and lots of stories about those people writing those songs starting 5 or sometimes even 10 years before the band’s first album was recorded.
I’ll wager that the same thing applies with scientists, even though the tasks are different. When Newton or Einstein or Darwin was younger, each perhaps had versions of many of their famous ideas already in their heads. At age 5, primitive versions, perhaps, but look, Darwin was clearly a guy who was obsessed all his adult life with the endless forms of living beings, so my best guess is he was asking the adults Why Why Why about those same subjects even when he was a small boy.
You spend your childhood thinking about these things, and also slowly picking up the mathematical and investigational tools you’ll need.
Importantly, when you get to be about 20, you also get to the point where people start taking you seriously. And then you publish and have a great year.
Another thing that happens all of a sudden when you get to be about 20: You go to Cambridge for the first time, and there are other people there, both professors and colleagues, who can tell you a lot of new stuff you didn’t know—fresh ideas. Perhaps your ideas in response to it are rapid. Perhaps they have a strong and immediate positive influence.
The careers of Nietzsche and Mozart are counter examples to what you guys are saying. Both of them were prodigies and had very productive careers. They produced their most excellent works at a very rapid frequency just before they tragically went crazy/died.
Agreed that there are plenty of people with long, productive careers!