Hi Ryan, I think your comment is useful but incorrect as it’s written. Your comment implies that the intelligence or rationality of athletes is a major factor in whether this organisation will be successful. I’ve seen vaguely EA-related outreach to founders, poker players, and people who inherit loads of money. The thing these groups have in common are that they’ve got lots of money to donate that they got all at once, which athletes also have. I don’t think we should get hung up on “intelligence”, rationality or ability to think in bets.
I’ve seen vaguely EA-related outreach to founders, poker players, and people who inherit loads of money. The thing these groups have in common are that they’ve got lots of money to donate that they got all at once, which athletes also have. I don’t think we should get hung up on “intelligence”, rationality or ability to think in bets.
Founders, poker players, heirs, and sportspeople actually have vastly different levels of wealth. Founders have wealth ranging up to >$100B. Heirs up to >$30B. For sportspeople, it’s <$1B, much less on average. For Poker players, it’s <$0.1B. In other words, poker players are not among the biggest funders in EA anymore. Rather, if they are to have a really big impact, it will be by contributing their time and influence. Liv Boeree, for example, is doing a lot of social media, and some others are switching into research roles. In other words, they’re doing things where their intelligence and rationality is front and centre. The amount of funds of a typical pro athlete may be similar or less than that of these top poker players. So I would expect that the intelligence or rationality of athletes will be a major factor in their impact.
My intuition was that pro athletes have more “cognitive horsepower” than average (and are much more able/willing to work hard, which also seems like a really valuable trait). I searched “average iq of athletes” on Google scholar and found this meta-analysis from 2019 that looks at cognitive function of pro-athletes vs. non‐elite athletes, seemingly supporting this. From the abstract:
An extraordinary physiological capacity combined with remarkable motor control, perception, and cognitive functioning is crucial for high performance in sports. [...] Moreover, a growing area of research evolved in the recent past that is particularly concerned with the basic cognitive functions by means of neurocognitive tests in experts and elite athletes. The aim of this meta‐analysis (k = 19) is to quantify differences among experts and nonexperts as well as elite athletes and non‐elite athletes. In addition, it aims to assemble and compare previous research and analyze possible differences in cognitive functions depending on age, skill level, and used cognitive tasks. Overall, the mean effect size was small to medium (r = 0.22), indicating superior cognitive functions in experts and elite athletes.
It seems likely that pro athletes are more intelligent than average, but I’d be very surprised if they were as intelligent as pro poker players on average.
Hi Ryan, I think your comment is useful but incorrect as it’s written. Your comment implies that the intelligence or rationality of athletes is a major factor in whether this organisation will be successful. I’ve seen vaguely EA-related outreach to founders, poker players, and people who inherit loads of money. The thing these groups have in common are that they’ve got lots of money to donate that they got all at once, which athletes also have. I don’t think we should get hung up on “intelligence”, rationality or ability to think in bets.
For what it’s worth, I think that EA related outreach to heirs seems much less promising than to founders or pro poker players.
Successful founders are often extremely smart in my experience; I expect pro poker players are also pretty smart on average.
Founders, poker players, heirs, and sportspeople actually have vastly different levels of wealth. Founders have wealth ranging up to >$100B. Heirs up to >$30B. For sportspeople, it’s <$1B, much less on average. For Poker players, it’s <$0.1B. In other words, poker players are not among the biggest funders in EA anymore. Rather, if they are to have a really big impact, it will be by contributing their time and influence. Liv Boeree, for example, is doing a lot of social media, and some others are switching into research roles. In other words, they’re doing things where their intelligence and rationality is front and centre. The amount of funds of a typical pro athlete may be similar or less than that of these top poker players. So I would expect that the intelligence or rationality of athletes will be a major factor in their impact.
My intuition was that pro athletes have more “cognitive horsepower” than average (and are much more able/willing to work hard, which also seems like a really valuable trait). I searched “average iq of athletes” on Google scholar and found this meta-analysis from 2019 that looks at cognitive function of pro-athletes vs. non‐elite athletes, seemingly supporting this. From the abstract:
It seems likely that pro athletes are more intelligent than average, but I’d be very surprised if they were as intelligent as pro poker players on average.