I argued in this post that the differences in capability between different political leaders are vast. Genghis Khan’s conquering of much of the known world or Alexander the Great’s conquering of Persia (and a number of other countries) are arguably at least hundreds of times greater than that of an average Angela Merkel or David Cameron.
While capability certainly correlates with impact, the two are not synonymous by any means. Impact is a function of capability and circumstances, often “by luck” chancing upon a subproblem behind which a large discovery is hiding. Just as I wouldn’t expect a modern day Genghis Khan to transform Italy into some conquering war machine, so it may be noted that Einstein chanced* upon fields of research that (in retrospect) were treasure troves of breakthrough discoveries.
* John von Neumann’s universal genius may be used as a counterexample, but then “capability” may be too one-dimensional of a descriptor, instead maybe there is some quality of “able to sniff out suitable problems to work on”, i.e. exceptional capability in task selection over exceptional capability “in general”.
With all due respect to Khan, I don’t think he could’ve done that much better in place of Merkel, and potentially could’ve done a lot worse if his talents weren’t all that great at politics and such.
In place of Hitler, sure Genghis would do a lot better, assuming that he’d somehow rise to power, which is not a given (truly insane speeches wouldn’t be something that a sane person is necessarily any good at imitating).
With all due respect to Khan, I don’t think he could’ve done that much better in place of Merkel
Yes. Which is why it wouldn’t make much sense comparing their respective “productivity”, or “capability”, when so much of it depends on the specific circumstances.
It’s more amusing to picture Genghis in place of Hitler. Or vice versa. Hitler in place of Genghis would never even have gotten past the encounter with Tatars, while Genghis in place of Hitler would’ve been marching German and Polish military towards Moscow after a failed invasion attempt by Stalin, possibly even with US and British help, followed by going all the way into China.
Compare:
While capability certainly correlates with impact, the two are not synonymous by any means. Impact is a function of capability and circumstances, often “by luck” chancing upon a subproblem behind which a large discovery is hiding. Just as I wouldn’t expect a modern day Genghis Khan to transform Italy into some conquering war machine, so it may be noted that Einstein chanced* upon fields of research that (in retrospect) were treasure troves of breakthrough discoveries.
* John von Neumann’s universal genius may be used as a counterexample, but then “capability” may be too one-dimensional of a descriptor, instead maybe there is some quality of “able to sniff out suitable problems to work on”, i.e. exceptional capability in task selection over exceptional capability “in general”.
With all due respect to Khan, I don’t think he could’ve done that much better in place of Merkel, and potentially could’ve done a lot worse if his talents weren’t all that great at politics and such.
In place of Hitler, sure Genghis would do a lot better, assuming that he’d somehow rise to power, which is not a given (truly insane speeches wouldn’t be something that a sane person is necessarily any good at imitating).
Yes. Which is why it wouldn’t make much sense comparing their respective “productivity”, or “capability”, when so much of it depends on the specific circumstances.
It’s more amusing to picture Genghis in place of Hitler. Or vice versa. Hitler in place of Genghis would never even have gotten past the encounter with Tatars, while Genghis in place of Hitler would’ve been marching German and Polish military towards Moscow after a failed invasion attempt by Stalin, possibly even with US and British help, followed by going all the way into China.