This was a really good read. I disagree with the thesis at the end though that this could be the grand theory of the century.

I actually don’t think the “maxxer” is a new concept at all… every era has its monomaniacs (olympic athletes! virtuoso musicians! chess prodigies!). What could be the reason it’s come into the limelight as a term is that the internet allows people who’d otherwise belong in a 19th century vaudeville freak show to make money. (I remember watching a guy called Shoenice on YouTube growing up who got millions of views eating shoes and Elmer's glue - that was like 2012.)

IMO the bigger miss is that Sam Kriss barely engages with AI, which is the thing most likely to kill his own thesis. If AI makes every specialization disposable overnight, then the Scarce Thing becomes those things that he brushes aside: judgment, taste, synthesis - i.e. generalist capacities. Ours could be the century of the hyper-polymath!