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Michael Nielsen

Michael Nielsen

@michael-nielsen · 26 positions · On ppll ↗

Physicist, writer and researcher, co-author of the standard textbook on quantum computation and quantum information.

Michael Nielsen did not write this page.

We collected these quotes from things they published elsewhere, and every quote links to where it was said. They have no account here and have not endorsed this site. Quotes are word for word; the short line under each one is our own restatement, not their wording. Their own site. Is this you? Claim it or ask us to remove it. Or tell us what is wrong here.

4 of Michael Nielsen's claims fit 3 mental models. Most often: S-curves and diminishing returns, Bottlenecks, Specialise and trade.

Models they name

Their own words name the idea.

S-curves and diminishing returns

Most growth slows as it matures; the question is whether the curve is flattening or something new is restocking it.

Used by 23 others

Diminishing returns in science is a snapshot illusion: somebody keeps restocking the table, and new fields make progress easy again.

  1. Michael Nielsen Physicist, writer and researcher if somebody, you know, is standing behind the dessert table and is replenishing, restocking the desserts and keeps kind of you know, adding adding new ones in, it may turn out that you know, a little bit later a much better desserts appear. Michael Nielsen – Why aliens will have a different tech stack than usyoutube.com · 7 Apr 2026 · 1:00:16 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    if somebody, you know, is standing behind the dessert table and is replenishing, restocking the desserts and keeps kind of you know, adding adding new ones in, it may turn out that you know, a little bit later a much better desserts appear.

    Watch from 1:00:16 plays here

    ↗Michael Nielsen – Why aliens will have a different tech stack than usyoutube.com

    7 Apr 2026 · video · 2h 03m · spoken · machine transcript

Diminishing returns in research are not intrinsic to the world: they are what you get when the institutions around research stop changing.

  1. Michael Nielsen Physicist, writer and researcher If you're not changing it, if there's some kind of stagnation there, if you're not changing those external sort of circumstances, yes, like you may start to get sort of diminishing returns again. But that doesn't mean there's anything intrinsic about the situation. Michael Nielsen – Why aliens will have a different tech stack than usyoutube.com · 7 Apr 2026 · 1:20:56 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    If you're not changing it, if there's some kind of stagnation there, if you're not changing those external sort of circumstances, yes, like you may start to get sort of diminishing returns again. But that doesn't mean there's anything intrinsic about the situation.

    Watch from 1:20:56 plays here

    ↗Michael Nielsen – Why aliens will have a different tech stack than usyoutube.com

    7 Apr 2026 · video · 2h 03m · spoken · machine transcript

Bottlenecks

A system moves only as fast as its narrowest point; speed up anything else and nothing changes.

Used by 89 others

AI has moved the programmer's bottleneck from writing code to having good design ideas, and there is no verification loop for a design idea.

  1. Michael Nielsen Physicist, writer and researcher So certainly one thing that a lot of them seem to be bottlenecked on is now having interesting ideas and in particular having interesting design ideas. Michael Nielsen – Why aliens will have a different tech stack than usyoutube.com · 7 Apr 2026 · 0:48:51 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    So certainly one thing that a lot of them seem to be bottlenecked on is now having interesting ideas and in particular having interesting design ideas.

    Watch from 0:48:51 plays here

    ↗Michael Nielsen – Why aliens will have a different tech stack than usyoutube.com

    7 Apr 2026 · video · 2h 03m · spoken · machine transcript

Models we see in what they say

Our reading: their claim applies the idea without naming it. The claim is theirs; filing it here is ours.

Specialise and trade

Do what you are relatively best at and trade for the rest (comparative advantage); it holds until power or change breaks it.

Used by 12 others

Comparative advantage stops governing once the power imbalance is large enough: groups then switch into seeking to dominate instead of trading.

  1. Michael Nielsen Physicist, writer and researcher and part of it is just power, I think. Like, once there's a sufficiently large power imbalance, um, very often, not always, but very often groups of people seem to to sort of shift into this other mode where they just seek to dominate. Michael Nielsen – Why aliens will have a different tech stack than usyoutube.com · 7 Apr 2026 · 1:09:30 into the videoAll korrents from this video
    and part of it is just power, I think. Like, once there's a sufficiently large power imbalance, um, very often, not always, but very often groups of people seem to to sort of shift into this other mode where they just seek to dominate.

    Watch from 1:09:30 plays here

    ↗Michael Nielsen – Why aliens will have a different tech stack than usyoutube.com

    7 Apr 2026 · video · 2h 03m · spoken · machine transcript