Been thinking lately about how the difference between understanding something & not understanding it can be so dramatic. Noticed my wife go through this as she learned how to play one video game (Borderlands 2) and now has the “gamer vision” that lifelong gamers take for granted

— Visakan Veerasamy (@visakanv) April 5, 2020

I have this in a few domains, but my main gift is “bullshit vision.” I can tell when something is pure BS within a few sentences, usually. It’s rarely failed me. So rarely that I can count the instances on one hand with fingers to spare.

That’s how I knew what the experts were saying early about Covid-19 was likely false, how I knew the claptrap about facemasks was too, and how in the past I’ve made wise financial decisions by using my BS vision.

I don’t know exactly how this facility works. It’s mainly from having a massive store of information from reading 20,000+ books, thousands of scientific papers, hundreds of thousands of articles and facts and such over the years. And, of course, possessing a brain good enough to do something with all that data and related errata.

Having this capability is indeed a gift, as long as you don’t reveal too much about it in person because being right all the time makes people angry.