system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Harry Potter] Why were Dumbledore/ Voldemort so ludicrously powerful?

No-one really comes close in terms of magical ability. Sure they might be prodigies/ geniuses- but geniuses are not so rare for there to be only two anywhere near that level in the whole world.
gpt
Dumbledore and Tom were both willing to experiment and research old magic.  For Dumbledore this lead him down a path of a benevolent magical dictatorship until the death of his sister.  At that point he decided to halt his ambition knowing he would never be able to stop himself from amassing knowledge and his core morality wouldn’t change.  He learned more about the fundamental nature of magic than any living mage.  

Tom did something similar but he never had any attachment, so he just amassed power and knowledge to make himself the ultimate power.  That led him to lichdom, most wizards don’t have the skill and the ones that do don’t have the desire.  He had both because he had nothing else.