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It's not clear what being 99% among people who play very casually actually gives you. In many cases it's not a lot. Take chess, for example. By practicing regu

It's not clear what being 99% among people who play very casually actually gives you. In many cases it's not a lot. Take chess, for example. By practicing regularly on Lichess, you can achieve a skill level that will beat 99% of casual chess players. However, you'll almost never play against this people. You'll play against other folks on Lichess, who all play regularly, and a top 1% of all chess players can easily be in the bottom 50% of the people you'll play on Lichess. It's not clear what you gain from being better than 99% of people who don't play on Lichess with any regularity, and you'll therefore never encounter.

jvanderbot 5y ago
I think the point of the article is more in line of: "If there's something useful you want to be excellent at, rest assured it'll take much less effort than you think". > Take chess, for example. By practicing regularly on Lichess, you can achieve a skill level that will beat 99% of casual chess players. > However, you'll almost never play against this people. You'll play against other folks on Lichess, who all play regularly, and a top 1% of all chess players can easily be in the bottom 50% of the people you'll play on Lichess. Yes, that's in line with TFA and my comment (being middling against top 10% makes you excellent against 90% of people). > It's not clear what you gain from being better than 99% of people who don't play on Lichess with any regularity, and you'll therefore never encounter. You gain the ability to say "I'm probably in 95%-le of people who play chess". and "Oh you play chess? We should play!" and you will soundly defeat them. If you don't soundly defeat them, you can rest assured they have studied and practiced and regularly compete, since you do those things. Maybe you can organize chess clubs. Maybe there are in-person tournaments you'd like to compete in. Maybe it'll make you friends or a spouse or open up job opportunities or be a decent interview discussion to show "extra curricular activities". Who knows. It's not as clear an advantage in every-day situations as, say, practicing a martial art or car maintenance or long-distance running or cooking, where the 10%/95%-ile tradeoff becomes painfully obvious. The problem is that chess isn't very useful. So, being 95%-ile at chess just doesn't get you much.

jvanderbot 5y ago

I think the point of the article is more in line of: "If there's something useful you want to be excellent at, rest assured it'll take much less effort than you think". > Take chess, for example. By practicing regularly on Lichess, you can achieve a skill level that will beat 99% of casual chess players. > However, you'll almost never play against this people. You'll play against other folks on Lichess, who all play regularly, and a top 1% of all chess players can easily be in the bottom 50% of the people you'll play on Lichess. Yes, that's in line with TFA and my comment (being middling against top 10% makes you excellent against 90% of people). > It's not clear what you gain from being better than 99% of people who don't play on Lichess with any regularity, and you'll therefore never encounter. You gain the ability to say "I'm probably in 95%-le of people who play chess". and "Oh you play chess? We should play!" and you will soundly defeat them. If you don't soundly defeat them, you can rest assured they have studied and practiced and regularly compete, since you do those things. Maybe you can organize chess clubs. Maybe there are in-person tournaments you'd like to compete in. Maybe it'll make you friends or a spouse or open up job opportunities or be a decent interview discussion to show "extra curricular activities". Who knows. It's not as clear an advantage in every-day situations as, say, practicing a martial art or car maintenance or long-distance running or cooking, where the 10%/95%-ile tradeoff becomes painfully obvious. The problem is that chess isn't very useful. So, being 95%-ile at chess just doesn't get you much.