[1800GAMBLER]

I think this highlights something important:

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Here is an analogy. On one end of the spectrum, we have tic-tac-toe. It probably doesn't take much longer to figure out an optimal strategy for tic-tac-toe on one's own than it would take to read an essay on the subject. On the other end of the spectrum, we have stuff like geometry, physics, etc. Certainly, it is possible for someone to come up with something such as the Pythagorian Theorem on one's own (Pythagorus clearly did so at some point), but it saves years of study to read it in a book.

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So, if the question is that, if you have two equally intelligent people and one gets to read ToP while the other doesn't, who will end up better off, the answer is CLEARLY the guy who gets to read ToP

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I slightly disagree here because using 'equally intelligent people' is cheating in this arguement. Running with the math analogy, someone who teaches himself pythagorus is clearly more intelligent than someone who just learns it, sure the person who learns it themself will be years behind time wise but after that investment of 2 years he will be at a much higher level of understanding of math and soon take over. The same goes for poker. When cero_z refers to the old timers who have learnt what the books can't teach you, i think that is because of the above.