LeBron James 40K: Human excellence is a sometime topic here on the Savanna
My most systematic look is in a series of posts over the years about the MacArthur Foundation's so-called genius fellowship, which I eventually consolidated into a working paper: The Genius Chronicles: Going Boldly Where None Have Gone Before? In this post, the second in the series, I talk about athletes: The Hunt for Genius, Part 2: Crackpots, athletes, 4 kinds of judgment, training, and Cultural Context. I start with sprinters, who can be judged on a single dimension (fastest time at distance), then move through multidimensional disciplines (such as gymnastics, diving, or figure ...