reply on: Comparing athletes across generations \ stacker news ~mostly

pull down to refresh

0 sats \ 3 replies \ @Coinsreporter 8 Apr freebie \ on: Comparing athletes across generations mostly_harmless

Great post with great arguments!

Yet, despite that, when I was at my peak in math I would have destroyed the likes of Isaac Newton and Pythagoras in a math contest. The math I learned in grad school wasn't even known when they were alive. Similarly, there are probably a lot of average physicists in the world today who actually know more about general relativity than einstein.

I disagree. We admire them because they were the pioneers for some or the other thing. The world used to know much less before them.

Let me give you an example. The 10-second mark had been widely considered a barrier for the 100 metres in men's sprinting. The first man to break the 10 second barrier with automatic timing was Jim Hines at the 1968 Summer Olympics. Since then, over 180 sprinters have run faster than 10 seconds.

Can you give me a solid reason why in 72 years previously to 1968 summer Olympics , we never had any athlete to break 10 second barrier?

And why do we have more than 180 athletes after 1968 to run 100 metres in less than 10 seconds?

This is about 'belief'. All the pioneers, including Jim Hines, Einstein, Newton etc. were there to prove the real possibilities to upcoming generations. But, you are doing it in the opposite way, you boast of your achievements but can never think that they are the result of our ancestors who illuminated a candle of new reality with belief.

Be boastful but never forget and flaunt the pioneers because they were there so we are here. There work was also the same as ours is. We need to carry forward the knowledge by making our contributions if we can.

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Voldemort OP 9 Apr

I agree with everything you said. To be clear, I am not bragging that I could beat Newton in a math contest. I believe unequivocally that Isaac Newton is orders of magnitude better than me at math. To paraphrase Dr. Dre, he would step on me and not even know it.

Using my metric of comparing people where they fall in the distribution of greatness during their "playing days," Isaac Newton was several sigmas to the right. I am not.

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @Bell_curve 8 Apr

Lot of new track and field records were established in 1968 because of the altitude in Mexico 🇲🇽 City. I believe it’s over 8000 feet above sea level

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Coinsreporter 9 Apr

That helped but after that those records were broken even in low altitudes.