[MBTI General] Susan Polgar

[FemMecha]

I'm watching this program right now, and she strikes me as a pure example of INTP. Her peaceful, relaxed demeanor, analytical and intuitive thinking seems to be a rather distilled example. I also wondered INTJ, but she has such a laid back demeanor it seems more like the descriptions of INTPs. Plus she has acute visual memory which might be Si? Anyway, she is an interesting person. Enjoy.

[youtube=4VlGGM5WYZo]Susan Polgar[/youtube]

 

[Wonkavision]

WOW. That was badass!

Its amazing the way those chess pros make such quick decisions and move the pieces so fast.

Her story about how she discovered chess as a kid was inspiring too. It seemed kind of romantic and magical.

Also, the video made me see the interaction between intuition and thinking in a new light. It's more creative and "artistic" than I realized.

Mad respect for NTs!!!!!

 

[ygolo]

The Polgár Sisters were a phenom in the chess world, and also an interesting case study in human excellence.

Their father was very interested in teaching methods and used them to train the sisters. He strongly believed "geniuses are made not born," and provided his daughters as proof.

Though all the sisters took to the game early on, the middle daughter, Zsófia, lost interest and reached only the International Master level. The oldest, Susan, is a great chess player, but the youngest one, Judit, is considered to be the world's strongest female chess player.

I don't know what their types are. They could be anything. The main thing was that their father trained them at a young age--and Susan helped train Judit. That's what made them good.

Incidentally, one of my co-workers beat Susan Polgár at his board in a Simul. exhibition (Polgár was playing multiple games at once, one of which was against my co-worker). She just out-right dropped a rook--goes to show even Grandmasters can make basic mistakes (though it was in a simul.).

 

[mippus]

Why do you see her as I?

Nice to hear her calling blitzmoves a form of guessing

 

[Verfremdungseffekt]

Oh, hey. Full program here. Apparently freely available, as sometimes happens on Google Video.

 

[Litvyak]

The oldest, Susan, is a great chess player, but the youngest one, Judit, is considered to be the world's strongest female chess player.

Judit is one of those rare examples when I'm actually proud of a compatriot. She's around 2700-2750 Elo-points IIRC, and - interestingly enough - I wouldn't say that she's a genius.

Nor would she.
"I don't feel a strong connection between my success in chess and my mental abilities."

 

[Sentura]

NT for sure. what she explains is basically an algorithm with a high likelihood of a best case scenario. intuition is just that. i would go so far as to say she is N dominant, but i can't say more than that. she could be I, which would leave her at INTJ, but there really isn't enough data to demonstrate that exactly.

what bothers me though is the narrator bullshitting the audience. there is no real proof on anything she says, and it bothers me to no end.

 

[ygolo]

what bothers me though is the narrator bullshitting the audience. there is no real proof on anything she says, and it bothers me to no end.

Which part do you consider bullshitting?

Neuroplasticity is a well documented phenomenon.
"Chess memory" is a well documented phenomenon.
"Chunking" is a well documented phenomenon.
The role of "deliberate practice" in human excellence is a well documented phenomenon.
The history of the Polgár Sisters is well known.

 

[FemMecha]

The philosophy of training children to be geniuses has some validity. There is one key point though that speaks to the role of nature. It is found in a statement in the youtube clip provided.

"First of all, it is very important for the child to love the specific field, which in our case was chess."

I teach at a music school that has genius children along with "average" children. This is indeed the distinguishing factor. The children who perform concertos at age 10 love playing piano so much that they do it every day for hours at a time, even when they are five and six years old. What is that quality that inspires a child to love a subject that much? Most children do not love any given subject that much. If they did, then the results would be remarkable. I have no doubt about that. My hypothesis is that a natural inclination to succeed at processing a particular sort of information is the quality that inspires this sort of passion and focus. This is the step in the process that cannot be taught.

 

[Sentura]

Which part do you consider bullshitting?

Neuroplasticity is a well documented phenomenon.
"Chess memory" is a well documented phenomenon.
"Chunking" is a well documented phenomenon.
The role of "deliberate practice" in human excellence is a well documented phenomenon.
The history of the Polgár Sisters is well known.

the entire men are better than women/women are better than men, intuition is of woman only use, the cortex always being more developed in women. it's a generalization that every brain looks the same in every individual; even though we know from other natural sciences that such things can only be tested empirically.

oh, and the entire thing that you can train your mind to become intuitive? or train any child to become a genius? somehow i don't believe that.

besides, the episode part about "hijacking" the "facial" recognition center in order to use it on chess is absurd; that center is used for object recognition in the first place, not only faces.

the part the children and the girl/boy experiments also pissed me off since again, not every brain is the same. case in point: if it were, we would all have the same memories and the same skills as everyone else.

 

[groovejet02]

The philosophy of training children to be geniuses has some validity. There is one key point though that speaks to the role of nature. It is found in a statement in the youtube clip provided.

"First of all, it is very important for the child to love the specific field, which in our case was chess."

I teach at a music school that has genius children along with "average" children. This is indeed the distinguishing factor. The children who perform concertos at age 10 love playing piano so much that they do it every day for hours at a time, even when they are five and six years old. What is that quality that inspires a child to love a subject that much? Most children do not love any given subject that much. If they did, then the results would be remarkable. I have no doubt about that. My hypothesis is that a natural inclination to succeed at processing a particular sort of information is the quality that inspires this sort of passion and focus. This is the step in the process that cannot be taught.

It's called entelechy and it's one of the key defining traits of giftedness.