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I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

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Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#171

Post by BuckRogers »

I'm also a "slow thinker" in this regard. It's not in my view anything other than your thoughtfulness being influenced by your personality. Folks like us are attempting to be thoughtful but without trying, and we have the capacity to hold back our impulses from the cerebral cortex. People who are "quick tongued", are not always coming up with the right answer, their personality is simply more dominant.

What's always struck me as odd, is that I'm vastly superior in creativity versus almost everyone I work with or meet. For me, it seems that no one has truly new ideas while they do come to mind for me, out of nowhere. I also get the sense when I'm out driving or walking around that I'm more "aware" of what's around me than others.

That's discounting that seeing people be dumb enough to walk and drive with their face in their phone though, guarantees if you're not one of them, that you have at least a 50 point IQ advantage. :) I can't even really explain the feeling of awareness, but I notice a lot more, a lot faster than most people that I know.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#172

Post by abcdcba »

mrkgnao wrote: post #152

Alexander Grothendieck, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th century, on cognitive "facility" and giftedness: Since then I’ve had the chance in the world of mathematics that bid me welcome, to meet quite a number of people, both among my “elders” and among young people in my general age group who were more brilliant, much more ‘gifted’ than I was. I admired the facility with which they picked up, as…

I always wonder when I hear this sort of thing if the person saying it is just super hard on themselves

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#173

Post by alex_hitchins »

vinceguidry wrote: post #165
arcticfox wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're underselling your talent if you think the capability to live off 3 months / year of work is generally available to people. Most people just aren't good enough at anything to work that little and get by, no matter how hard they try.

That's kind of what the 'dogged pursuit' is supposed to answer. Sheer persistence counts for more than talent, always has. Not being convenient doesn't make the option unavailable.

I strongly disagree with this thinking and think at worst, it could be harmful.

You wouldn't want your heart,brain,etc operation to be in the hands of someone who isn't that talented but keeps on trying.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#174

Post by soapdude »

EdgarVerona wrote: post #6

I feel similarly. I often find that I run into people who are eager to have a face-to-face debate about something, and who come up with opinions and rationalizations that sometimes end up being dubious. But I feel a strong desire to hear them out and I generally have a hard time piecing together what makes an argument fallacious until I have time to analyze it more deeply, so I generally just take whatever they've sa…

In The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt, the author extends a metaphor where humans act as a person riding an elephant. The elephant is strong and self-willed, and although it may be open to suggestions by the rider, it will ultimately be the prevailing force when dealing in immediate/reactionary circumstance. Over a period of time, the rider can influence the elephant such that it has a different "lean" in the future.

You seem to grapple with feeling hypocritical by not having a logical response to something you later find to be wrong, but perhaps your elephant simply wasn't "leaning" in the direction of the wrong-sayer.

I like the idea that the majority of forces acting on a humans actions/behavior are non-verbal; not necessarily big news, but it helps me to justify why I have trouble communicating with friends who are on the bleeding edge of social politics while I spend my weeks writing proprietary code and reading classic fiction novels.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#175

Post by throwawaymath »

usgroup wrote: post #139
usgroup wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve wondered recently if speed and intelligence have anything to do with each other at all. It does in IQ tests but Darwin by his account would have been average at best. Further, the argument goes that there exists a g factor, and performance in a test that is sufficiently complex will be predictive of performance at anything else sufficiently complex ... Yet if we allow time to vary this seems to be so obviously f…

I kind of think that an intelligence tests should moreso try to evaluate how “Turing complete” you are , rather than how quick the processor is at a narrow range ... Kind of reminds me of the programming language shootout dilemma . X is better than Y because it does Fibonacci sequences quicker ... mostly has no real world utility

Properly administered IQ tests with real psycometric rigor evaluate both, insofar as either can be empirically measured.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#176

Post by throwawaymath »

some_account wrote: post #107
usgroup wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve wondered recently if speed and intelligence have anything to do with each other at all. It does in IQ tests but Darwin by his account would have been average at best. Further, the argument goes that there exists a g factor, and performance in a test that is sufficiently complex will be predictive of performance at anything else sufficiently complex ... Yet if we allow time to vary this seems to be so obviously f…

I think most people with high iq are awful to work with since they obviously lose interest trying to explain things to less intelligent people. This makes people feel bad around them, and they avoid asking them things. I have seen nice people with high iq but I think it's more common that they are not great around people.

How could you tell the IQ of people you were working with? I'm struggling to see how you could arrive at this conclusion unless you've 1) worked with an inordinate number of both high IQ individuals, who 2) explicitly mentioned their IQ scores to you.

Personal hypotheses such as this one spread like wildfire online because they're easy to state, play to a narrative and are extremely difficult to disprove. They're stated confidently while skipping over so many little gaps - for example, I don't see anything obvious about how high IQ individuals would stop trying to explain things to low IQ individuals. It makes sense as a heuristic for explaining the behavior of one particular individual who is perhaps a misanthrope or has little patience. But it's very poorly generalizable.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#177

Post by zentiggr »

jacobush wrote: post #138
some_account wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most people with high iq are awful to work with since they obviously lose interest trying to explain things to less intelligent people. This makes people feel bad around them, and they avoid asking them things. I have seen nice people with high iq but I think it's more common that they are not great around people.

I also think some people with high iq learn to fake a lower iq and thus, go below the radar.

There are some times I wish I had gone with this option... would have made a lot of life so much easier than the "but you're so smart, how come you're having trouble with ______?"

Wow that sounds whiny but true.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#178

Post by vinceguidry »

alex_hitchins wrote: post #173
vinceguidry wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kind of what the 'dogged pursuit' is supposed to answer. Sheer persistence counts for more than talent, always has. Not being convenient doesn't make the option unavailable.

I strongly disagree with this thinking and think at worst, it could be harmful. You wouldn't want your heart,brain,etc operation to be in the hands of someone who isn't that talented but keeps on trying.

Nobody ever said you should always choose persistence, just that in the absence of a better plan, persistence will work.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#179

Post by zentiggr »

njarboe wrote: post #64
exrook wrote: post #3

It's interesting to compare this to the idea of the brain having two systems of cognition: a "System 1" process that is automatic and quick to respond, relying on memorized behaviors; and a "System 2" process that is more methodical, logical, and deliberate, but far slower to react. The author's point being that we should try harder to use our System 2 thought process at the expense of quick turnaround from the Syste…

And use your System 2 process to improve the responses your System 1 produces.

A couple of motivational / self-help people I have read before come from pretty much exactly this formula.

I'd like to say I listened to them and applied their ideas systematically, but then the failure to do so is one of the System 1 biases that they all mention... sigh.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#180

Post by JustSomeNobody »

Count me among the slow thinkers.

So, how well do you slow thinkers do on interviews. How do you prepare? I'm currently prepping for an interview with one of the larger, popular internet companies. The prepping is going well as far as remembering some of the CS[0] stuff I don't directly use day to day, but I worry that I won't get the solutions fast enough in an interview session.

I'm a respected developer where I work. My coleagues enjoy working with me and like the solutions I come up with. QA rarely has to send bugs back to me[1]. My technical boss, who I think is brilliant, respsects my solutions and generally never needs to change anything. When I am stuck, it's easy for me to ask for help. I say all this because I'm just not sure if it will come across during the interview process because I tend to mull things over a while.

[0] My degree is Computer Engineering so I didn't have as much exposure to CS material to begin with that, well, CS grads would have.

[1] I work with a really cool QA guy. I tell him I like to make him work for those bugs. We get along great and I actually engage with him frequently when I'm building my unit tests.

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