The Myth of the Secret Genius – By Brian Klaas

  • Just on the offchance that anyone cares, the PLUCHINO/BIONDO/RAPISARDA paper quoted in the article is a complete fraud.

    They use a model where, in each step, wealth is halved with p=0.5, and doubled with p=0.5*talent, where no individuals have a talent above 0.9. In other words, in the absence of randomness, everyone has zero wealth.

    Does randomness cause wealth in a model designed so that lack of randomness causes zero wealth ? The answer may surprise you.....