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Ask HN: How do geniuses think? How do you think?

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Re: Ask HN: How do geniuses think? How do you think?

#31

Post by Mz »

thetylerhayes wrote: post #27
Mz wrote: post #10

(Warning: I have hardly slept. A family member is dying. I will likely regret this post. It seemed like a good idea at the time -- or at least a better idea than wallowing in self pity.) Do I think I am a genius? No. But I have been repeatedly told that I "stand out" from the crowd even when the crowd is pretty bright (which usually feels to me like I stick out like a sore thumb :-/ ). Do I think in a way that is dif…

While all of your thoughts are insightful -- thank you for that -- this one particularly stuck out to me: "Not getting sucked into group-think is the most valuable skill I have and probably the most offensive thing I do, socially." I think a lot of the people on this site can relate to that. Thank you.

Perhaps that's why HN has yet to issue me a one way ticket to Cyberia.

(Cyberia: A cold, frozen wasteland of Cyberspace.)

Re: Ask HN: How do geniuses think? How do you think?

#32

Post by Mz »

uptown wrote: post #23
Mz wrote: post #10

(Warning: I have hardly slept. A family member is dying. I will likely regret this post. It seemed like a good idea at the time -- or at least a better idea than wallowing in self pity.) Do I think I am a genius? No. But I have been repeatedly told that I "stand out" from the crowd even when the crowd is pretty bright (which usually feels to me like I stick out like a sore thumb :-/ ). Do I think in a way that is dif…

Comments from a stranger probably can't offer much comfort when coping with a dying family member, but I just wanted to reply to thank you for sharing your experience.

Thx.

Re: Ask HN: How do geniuses think? How do you think?

#33

Post by AjJi »

yalurker wrote: post #29
Udo wrote: post #17

Everybody thinks they're highly skilled and above average. A study on hubris in academia recently showed that 95% of all university professors think they are leading their field. (They are not.) Some of my coworkers constantly babble on how super-intelligent and gifted their children are. (I've seen their offspring, they are retarded and borderline autistic.) Listening to self-declared or celebrated "geniuses" on how…

While you are correct that almost everyone believes themselves to be "above average", the HN demographic likely is mostly above average individuals. Also, not everyone claiming high intelligence is just arrogant or deluded. I'd estimate myself at high intelligence for fairly simple reasons - scoring in the 99th percentile on standardized tests, graduating summa cum laude, etc. I suspect a good number of HN posters ha…

The problem is what is the correlation between intelligence and results in standardized tests?

I mean, why do you think having good results means that you are intelligent?

Re: Ask HN: How do geniuses think? How do you think?

#36

Post by rick_2047 »

1)I don't know if this is true but I have found that people who are very intelligent talk fast (not faster than people who are nervous).

2) I cannot comment on better, but ya I do think different (I take special pride in it). One of the few things I cannot understand about myself is my obsession with "the problem space". People have this tendency to solve the problem immediately after they have encountered it (at least the people I study with, can't say for HN guys). But I cannot start working on the problem till I have fully understood all the parts of the problems (from the first principles) itself. This has helped me a lot, because I can formulate solutions which solve specific parts of the problem and as these are usually byte sized I reuse them a lot.

Re: Ask HN: How do geniuses think? How do you think?

#37

Post by p4r4d0x »

dwwoelfel wrote: post #28
p4r4d0x wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like how many legitimate geniuses would actually describe themselves as a "genius"? I would say close to none.

Is one close to none? cperciva is a legitimate genius and describes himself as a genius: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=228444 Why would you expect otherwise for other geniuses?

Because geniuses tend to be particularly averse to labelling themselves as something that has connotations of extreme superiority.

It's the reverse Dunning-Kruger effect - idiots are less aware of their limitations and thus are more likely to be baselessly confident. Legitimate geniuses are the most aware of their limitations of anyone, and thus are less likely to trumpet the 'genius' title.

Re: Ask HN: How do geniuses think? How do you think?

#38

Post by sharvil »

First, I think one needs to define genius.

Do you equate people who have achieved great success/heights as geniuses? Do you think Tiger Woods is a genius golfer or that Warren Buffet is a genius investor?

Or do you equate the kind of people who for example, listen to a piece of music they have never heard before, once, and can play it flawlessly the next moment. I think these kind of people are more savant than genius.

If former is the case, then according to this article, genius is nothing but deliberate practice for periods of around 10 years. (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2006/...)

Re: Ask HN: How do geniuses think? How do you think?

#39

Post by blahblahblah »

People, genius or not, generally don't have any idea whatsoever how they think. This is one of the fundamental difficulties that has plagued the field of psychology since its inception. Just because you can do a thing doesn't mean that you really know anything at all about how it is that you do it. I beat my heart. I grow my hair. I stand upright on two feet without falling over. But, I don't have any first-hand experiential knowledge of how I do any of these things. I might have a little bit of insight into how I approach some limited forms of volitional thought, but I'm well aware that the overwhelming majority of thought isn't volitional. It just happens and I don't have any idea how it happens (and neither does anyone else for the most part).

Re: Ask HN: How do geniuses think? How do you think?

#40

Post by turbojerry »

I would highly recommend you read the Strategies of Genius series by Robert Dilts-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3D...

Also I would add a few incites (that was deliberate) of my own that get me labeled as that by some people, for example I-

1. do not buy into 'social reality' I look for a model of reality that works well enough to be useful even if the facts are contrary to what I am told by 'authorities'. This elicits responses from "You're crazy" to "Wow, you're a genius" to "But XYZ pundit/politician/personality doesn't agree'. The disadvantage to this is that most people do appear to be unquestioning sheep and you disturb them from their slumber at your peril.

2. think more in terms of processes than things, you'd be surprised how wedded most people are to particular concepts of objects (real world, not the programming paradigm)

3. am very self directed and when I want or need to understand a subject I immerse myself in it completely.

4. don't let my ego get in the way of a solution to a problem, and never let myself slip into the 'not invented here' mentality, I stand on the shoulders of generations of giants, and am thankful for it.

5. do not consider myself a genius, I'm just rather different from the norm.

EDIT:

Also 'genius' does not mean never wrong, a few examples-

1. Isaac Newton may have formulated the theory of gravity, but he also believed in alchemy.

2. Albert Einstein formulated the theories of Special and General Relativity but would not accept quantum mechanics, famously saying "God does not play dice with the universe".

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