Wed Jul 09 2025

tags: draft

Tetris was invented in 1985, it came out on the NES in 1989, but the best way to play was only discovered in 2021.1 Previously, players would just try to tap the buttons really fast (“hypertapping”), until a 15-year-old named Christopher “CheeZ” Martinez realized that you could actually press the buttons faster if you roll your fingers across the back of the controller (“rolling”). CheeZ went on to set world records using his technique, but he wasn’t on top for long. Other players soon perfected their rolls, and CheeZ lost in a first-round upset at the 2022 Classic Tetris World Championship to another “roller”, a 48th-seed named BirbWizard.

I love this because it shows how low-hanging discoveries can just sit there for decades without anyone seeing them, even when thousands of dollars are on the line. (Seriously—the first place finisher in the 2024 championships won $10k.) People spent 40 years trying to tap buttons faster without ever realizing they should be tapping the other side of the controller instead.

But I also hate this, because:

What's the problem with this?

Why are Roger Federer and Christiano Ronaldo uber-cool, Magnus Carlsen somewhat cool, and "CheeZ" and "BirbWizard" not cool at all?

[09/07, 16:57] lieu: here’s a possible synthesis of my worldview, why I think it’s great to be good at “physical” sport but a big waste to be good at mind sport or esport, and why that Twitter screenshot resonates with me.

in our world, you can either have a good brain or you can have a good body (or both of course). Modern society (let’s leave the upcoming AI-apocalypse aside for now) gives great returns to having a good brain, near zero returns to having a good body (since we have mechanisation, industrialisation, what have you). And hence if you’re one of those with a good body, the only way you can take advantage of that talent in our modern world is to do those sport things: running fast in straight line, basketball, etc.

Whereas people who are good at chess and NES Tetris are obviously “good brainers”, they have so many more options to do something actually “useful” and “productive” with their talents. The ones that are being oneshot by video games or nerd games are bad because the counterfactual potentially is that they start some brainy startup or do a PhD or whatever, and instead they do this stuff [09/07, 17:03] lieu: A type I IQ shredder was defined by Spandrell:

How many bright Indians and bright Chinese are there, Harry? Surely they are not infinite. And what will they do in Singapore? Well, engage in the finance and marketing rat-race and depress their fertility to 0.78, wasting valuable genes just so your property prices don't go down. Singapore is an IQ shredder.

Type I IQ shredders shred intelligence genes. They are very dangerous for the long term because they decrease the overall intelligence of the next generation. Type II IQ shredders destroy intellectual output now by distracting high IQ people from real pursuits, or via other means. Tlon is a good example of a type II IQ shredder. If Tlon worship doesn’t effect high IQ reproduction, then it is only a type II IQ shredder, because it grinds actual intellectual output to a halt by distracting everyone intelligent. Likewise, if everyone went to San Francisco or Singapore to improve human knowledge, but they didn’t reproduce due to housing prices, density, liberal culture, etc, then San Francisco and Singapore would only be type I IQ shredders, because they adequately use the intelligence they are given, but deprive it from the next generation.

In reality, Singapore, San Francisco, et al. are both type I and type II IQ shredders, because not only do the people who go there suffer from reduced fertility — they also spend all day interacting with the intellectual Matrix, the Tlon that are computers. [09/07, 17:07] lieu: > Type II IQ shredders destroy intellectual output now by distracting high IQ people from real pursuits, or via other means. Tlon is a good example of a type II IQ shredder. If Tlon worship doesn’t effect high IQ reproduction, then it is only a type II IQ shredder, because it grinds actual intellectual output to a halt by distracting everyone intelligent. Likewise, if everyone went to San Francisco or Singapore to improve human knowledge, but they didn’t reproduce due to housing prices, density, liberal culture, etc, then San Francisco and Singapore would only be type I IQ shredders, because they adequately use the intelligence they are given, but deprive it from the next generation. [09/07, 17:07] lieu: doesn’t matter [09/07, 17:07] lieu: the point is that video games are a type 2 IQ shredder [09/07, 17:08] lieu: if you devote your time to speedrunning super mario bros 2 or whatever [09/07, 17:08] lieu: that’s a huge shredder [09/07, 17:08] lieu: actually i think this concept is nontrivial, i should write about it [09/07, 17:08] lieu: like “why is sports cool, why is vidya lame" [09/07, 17:08] lieu: not just lame but why is it a waste [09/07, 17:08] lieu: because of the counterfactual