November 13th, 2026 Something weird happens to people who are successful. They start to think they're gods. Actually accomplishing anything is obviously no strict pre-requisite of success. And maybe it's not so much "being successful", but rather "being rich". How do you become rich? Some people are just lucky. Lucky to have a physical talent, lucky to have parents able and willing to nurture your talent, and of course quite often lucky to have been at the right place at the right time1. Being lucky doesn't mean they didn't also work hard. But even—especially!—the Paris Hiltons of the world, the children of Hollywood superstars, the crooks starting their corrupt empires with "a small loan" (or a share of an emerald mine) from their fathers—they all strongly believe that they deserve their success and then conclude that anybody not as successful only has themselves to blame. This is especially the case for people in tech, where for years and years being good at programming has been equated with overall (and often: superior) intelligence2, and those illusory superiority effects then amplify rampant…
The Claude Delusion
In short
Tech industry success often encourages leaders to view their accomplishments as strictly merit-based, prompting them to assume unearned authority in unfamiliar subjects. In a New York Times interview, Bill Gates described challenging OpenAI executives to have their system pass an Advanced Placement biology exam, expressing shock when the model secured a top score of 5 on both the test and his own custom questions. Gates further declared that AI coding had reached a superhuman level simply because Anthropic's Claude models performed on par with his personal skills developed between the ages of 13 and 24. This tendency to equate individual proficiency with peak human capability continues to d…
Key points
- Industry leaders frequently mistake personal programming talents for broad domain experti…: Industry leaders frequently mistake personal programming talents for broad domain expertise across entirely unrelated academic fields.
- Evaluating artificial intelligence against an individual's personal skills inappropriatel…: Evaluating artificial intelligence against an individual's personal skills inappropriately frames private capability as the pinnacle of human achievement.
- Biased personal benchmarks set by prominent executives help fuel polarized narratives con…: Biased personal benchmarks set by prominent executives help fuel polarized narratives concerning the true impact of artificial intelligence.