The incredible success of a small group of Hungarians from one region and time has sometimes been attributed to the unique social situation in Hungary then. Part of which was linguistic. In the case of the Hungarian Jews, they were usually Hungarian speaking at home, and often from families of German or Yiddish-speaking background further back. Usually educated in German. Some were educated in Hebrew at religious school. In the case of Hebrew, Hungarian and German, that's three radically different languages, about as unalike as three languages can be. Maybe that has an effect on the mind?
Though as I recall, von Neumann's family was non-observing. So he was fluent in Ancient Greek by the age of 5, instead. So I'm not that strongly wedded to the hypothesis. Maybe they really were from Mars, as Leo Szilard once quipped.
I'm not sure whether I constructed my argument properly, but it was about the average person being less productive due to working in a language that isn't second nature to them. German probably was second nature to von Neumann. In other words, by native I didn't necessarily mean the one and only mother tongue.
Sorry. No. Your argument was well-constructed. I have acquired two other working languages and it took about 15 years of regular work. I appreciate your point. Still, speaking more than one language seems to have benefits for general intelligence. So perhaps it is both a blessing and a curse.
Though as I recall, von Neumann's family was non-observing. So he was fluent in Ancient Greek by the age of 5, instead. So I'm not that strongly wedded to the hypothesis. Maybe they really were from Mars, as Leo Szilard once quipped.