Dan Luu on Nostr: When a field matures, people simply know more about it and can reach greater heights. ...

When a field matures, people simply know more about it and can reach greater heights. Take climbing. All of the comments about how programmers used to all (or often) be enthusiasts, are self taught, etc., also applied to climbing 30 years ago.

And yet, if you look at a top 16-year old climber today, they're better than any climber in the world from 30 years ago even though they're not self taught (and the reference group of randos climbing is still there, so the total vairance is much higher).