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Disclaimer: I'm completely ignorant about this, so just personal impressions, or discussion starter. - A quotation comes to mind, ~"for math you only need penc

Disclaimer: I'm completely ignorant about this, so just personal impressions, or discussion starter. - A quotation comes to mind, ~"for math you only need pencil and paper". Indeed, Hungary is not the most resourceful nation, but sciences (and sports) that didn't need big upfront investment did/do well. Maybe for football, all you need(ed), was a ball. Nowadays it might be more industrialized, so competition is higher. But in sports that attract not much media, like canoeing and fencing, I heard we are still near top. - Hungary is geographically at intersection of cultures - not west, but not completely east either. It was often partitioned, either physically or mentally, between camps - Turks vs Austro-Hungary, Austrians vs Hungary, Soviet Union vs Hungary. This might evolve people who can cope with ambiguous situations. Not sure if this can translate directly to scientific mindset... but more practically, maybe lets some minds with great insights to escape to the West during troublesome times, giving them opportunity to show themselves. On a related note, maybe success needs not only academic excellence, but also navigating delicate politics? - We have Ulti (not so popular today) - https://www.pagat.com/marriage/ulti.html https://www.pagat.com/marriage/ulti.html. Said to be a card game greatly challenging for the mind. Ok, more trolling here, probably various nations have their akin games as well. - Jewish focus on education. IANAJ, but read that the culture fosters prioritizing education of children above others. While some people might spend a fortune buying a fancy car, Jews would invest into personal tutoring of children etc. Read that the Polgár's lived in a stock concrete flat under not flourishing financials, but still got a full chess book library for the daughters, personal trainers etc. And not all, but many of the emigrants seem to be of Jewish origin.

ahoka 4y ago
Polgar is a huge outlier here, because he basically did a human experiment on his two children. He literally created a newspaper ad that he needs a mother for an experiment about creating experts by starting focused teaching before the age of three. He choose chess, because he was also a chess teacher.
- manymanydots 4y ago
  Interesting. Not sure if being an outlier disqualifies, but I see your point. I read originally he had in mind to show 3 areas - chess, maths and piano - to prove the point. But it proved too expensive to furnish a library and private education, so went with chess for the other daughters too, since that was already established.

ahoka 4y ago

Polgar is a huge outlier here, because he basically did a human experiment on his two children. He literally created a newspaper ad that he needs a mother for an experiment about creating experts by starting focused teaching before the age of three. He choose chess, because he was also a chess teacher.

manymanydots 4y ago
Interesting. Not sure if being an outlier disqualifies, but I see your point. I read originally he had in mind to show 3 areas - chess, maths and piano - to prove the point. But it proved too expensive to furnish a library and private education, so went with chess for the other daughters too, since that was already established.