Thus, we can estimate that Shakespeare knew approximately 66,534 words. According to one estimate, the average speaker of English knows between 10,000-20,000 words. via kottke.org My personal opinion is that he was a genius.

When the nest must be defended, its eldest residents — with the least long-term utility remaining to them — become the most suicidally aggressive, “obedient to a simple truth that separates our two species: Where humans send their young men to war, ants send their old...