It’s unclear what is being praised- is it the high working memory (and reasoning power) of those great men or the ability to have an open discussion about the merits of a case?
i think he was praising their ability to not bring in their egos to the discussion while trusting that best idea will win. best idea won without lot of inefficiency of repetition which often happens.
The memory one could be, depending on how much detail and new ground is covered. Imagine your first day as a developer and you hear their architecture for the first time, and you recall all the points if a discussion between 5 expert people there. You remember the words and build the mental model simultaneously. It would be impressive, unless your full time job is consulting in such meetings.
“ It would be impressive, unless your full time job is consulting in such meetings.”
There’s self section of individuals with high working memory into such roles. There are many managers who attend meetings all day and can’t synthesize what’s being discussed in real time, indicating that this isn’t about practice.