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[return to "Child prodigies rarely become elite performers"]
1. happyt+ua[view] [source] 2026-02-05 03:52:03
>>i7l+(OP)
Natural ability (physical or mental) is not strongly correlated with the personality traits that enable a person to "perform", "succeed", or "achieve" in society the way it is structured. In fact, they may be inversely correlated (consider how often people in leadership positions are not apparently exceptional).
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2. kevinm+3c[view] [source] 2026-02-05 04:06:11
>>happyt+ua
There's a story about, I think, the kickboxer/fighter Alistair Overeem that he was playing Connect 4, and lost, and kept demanding rematches until he had the winning record. Just a refusal to be the loser. That matches every story I've ever heard about Michael Jordan.
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3. hacker+BP4[view] [source] 2026-02-06 14:40:49
>>kevinm+3c
I always think of a kid who was a friend of my daughters. He just really liked winning. I mean, when I was a kid and our team won a soccer game I was happy enough. This kid - if his team was playing a tomato can of a team and the score was 12-0 he was just as ecstatic about making the score 13-0 as was with that first goal. I honestly think he was happier about that kind of game then a struggle to beat a reasonable opponent. Heaven forbid they should lose.

Oddly he drifted away from sports (physically he was too small and honestly fragile - 2 or 3 broken bones before he was 12) and into the arts.

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