I guess it depends on what the original point was--I took narrator's point to be that certain people have bigger chess smarts than others, where smarts is something that you're blessed with at birth. I may have read too much into that.
And yes, I agree that a sample size of three + massive survivor bias makes for tricky interpretation :) But I think the Polgar story is fascinating; Laszlo had a theory about how to develop genius, and he (rather creepily!) decided to test it out.
From Bounce [0]:
Realizing that the only way to vindicate his theory was to test it out on his own future children, he started corresponding with a number of young ladies, in search of a wife... A young Ukranian named Klara was one of those women. "His letters fizzed with passion as he explained his theories of to produce children with world-class abilities," Klara, a warm and gentle lady, a perfect counterpart to her husband, tells me. "Like many at the time, I thought he was crazy. But we agreed to meet."
What's more, Laszlo would take issue with saying his daughters were born geniuses.
As Polgar puts it: "If they had seen the painfully slow progress, the inch-by-inch improvements, they would not have been so quick to call Susan a prodigy."
And yes, I agree that a sample size of three + massive survivor bias makes for tricky interpretation :) But I think the Polgar story is fascinating; Laszlo had a theory about how to develop genius, and he (rather creepily!) decided to test it out.
From Bounce [0]:
Realizing that the only way to vindicate his theory was to test it out on his own future children, he started corresponding with a number of young ladies, in search of a wife... A young Ukranian named Klara was one of those women. "His letters fizzed with passion as he explained his theories of to produce children with world-class abilities," Klara, a warm and gentle lady, a perfect counterpart to her husband, tells me. "Like many at the time, I thought he was crazy. But we agreed to meet."
What's more, Laszlo would take issue with saying his daughters were born geniuses.
As Polgar puts it: "If they had seen the painfully slow progress, the inch-by-inch improvements, they would not have been so quick to call Susan a prodigy."
[0] http://www.amazon.com/Bounce-Federer-Picasso-Beckham-Science...