Theo Jaffee Calls Speedrunning Waste of Smart Talent

Theo Jaffee posted that video game speedrunning misallocates human capital, with high-IQ people optimizing Mario Kart times instead of other work. Replies noted speedrunners decompiled The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time over two years to enable arbitrary code execution and a sub-10-minute run. Other posts compared the claim to Isaac Newton’s time on alchemy, observed that medicine once wasted talent, and argued many hobbies including robotics lack similar criticism. SummoningSalt asked what hobby qualifies as productive use of time. Emil Kirkegaard added that speedrunning attracts participants through open merit-based competition without committees.