Q&A: If people have cognitive ceilings, then what’s an example of a topic that’s above most people’s ceilings, that doesn’t rely on domain knowledge they lack?

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I think it’s going to be impossible to find a topic that’s above most people’s cognitive ceilings, that doesn’t rely on domain knowledge they lack – impossible not because there is no cognitive ceiling, but because it’s a “soft” ceiling rather than a “hard” ceiling.

On one hand, you can typically break skills down into simpler subskills and/or train them in simpler contexts, and gradually build them up. There is typically background knowledge that you can acquire and you can typically make progress learning that background knowledge.

But on the other hand: the problem is that lots of people interpret that to mean anyone can learn anything. That the rate of learning doesn’t matter. Which is of course not true, the rate of learning DOES matter, because we don’t have an infinite time horizon to learn things. We have limited lifespans, and whatever we choose to focus on in life, we need to excel at it quickly enough to get a job that affords basic life amenities.

TLDR: there is a ceiling, but it’s a “soft” ceiling, not a “hard” ceiling, which makes it really difficult to come up with an example that everyone can agree clearly demonstrates it.

This argument is elaborated further here: Your Mathematical Potential Has a Limit, but it’s Likely Higher Than You Think

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