Investing seems like a domain where charisma is particularly misleading. If you ranked billionaires in 2 ways, by how much their net worth has increased since the start of their careers (factoring in inherited wealth), versus how much they get talked about, what would you see?
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In (say) literary achievement or academia, the divergence between visible charisma and actual impact seems much less extreme, especially if you weight by critical discounting. So Gladwell is big, but is also more strongly discounted by critical perceptions than say Pinker.
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I guess the existence of a publicly active in-group serves as a check and balance against public charisma. What other writers or academics think of you matters in a way what other billionaires think of you doesn't. The "community of billionaires" is much more opt-in.
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And financial wealth, as opposed to intellectual capital, can be enjoyed much more easily in complete privacy. You can go billionairing on an island by yourself in a way you can't be a writer or scholar on an island.
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