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How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

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Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#81

Post by pjungwir »

bootsz wrote: post #4

> 4. Smart people get bored easily. Being smart is not exactly the same as being curious, but if you have both these qualities you might find yourself becoming easily bored with executing the same behaviors over and over. Some types of success stem from creativity, but other types come from becoming an expert in a niche and performing a set of behaviors repeatedly. If you’re smart, curious, and have a love of learnin…

I think going deep on something is the key. It lets you keep learning without getting bored and needing to jump ship. One of my pet peeves is how programmers think "keep learning" means "learn another programming language". Not that that's bad, but after the twentieth or so, . . . instead try learning something "adjacent" to what you enjoy & do well. For example for a Ruby+JS web developer: read some HTTP RFCs, play around with SSL certificates, learn some admin/devops skills, get really familiar with some part of modern JS/HTML like your framework or build system or HTML5 canvas or video, read the Rails Github issues list and fix a couple bugs, try writing your own gem, try writing your own gem with some C/Rust implementation, go fix all the n+1 query problems in your app, learn how to use CTEs and lateral joins, learn some plpgsql, write your own Postgres extension, etc. Or pick something adjacent-but-non-technical, like marketing or SEO or sales or financial statements. Remember that careers are long, and learning pays compound interest. There is no reason to get bored!

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#82

Post by throwaway713 »

I remember reading once that students who excel in high school (valedictorians and salutatorians) are underrepresented as successful company founders, meaning that they occur at a lower rate than one would expect from chance alone. I think the hypothesis was that these people tended to develop a perfectionistic (or even people pleasing) approach, and that this strategy works really well for "doing what you're told". So they might often end up as a lawyer or a doctor, but they won't start the next big company.

As someone who did well academically early on without putting in much effort, I constantly try to avoid this trap of a "successful", but boring life. I think the problem with a lot of these people is that the first sign of failure total demolishes them, because their identity is strongly tied to "being smart" (like the article mentions). I know two people who became valedictorians in high school, mostly on natural talent. The first became a lawyer at one of the best law firms in the country, but she mentally cracked after a few years. She ended up quitting her job on the spot and stays at home now (and drinks way too much). The second finished his PhD and hasn't applied for a job in over a year. No one is really sure why.

I've had some personal hardships in my life (chronic injuries and death of close loved ones) that I think has put failure into perspective for me, otherwise I would probably respond the same way.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#83

Post by criddell »

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #9

honest question, has anyone ever improved their lives by reading articles of this flavor ? (e.g 10 things successfully ceo's do, 10 ways to increase your chances of building a successful company)

Yes. It's often a short article that piques my interest enough to do a deeper diver on a subject. It was articles like these that introduced me to meditation and fasting and machine learning.

Almost 20 years ago articles about David Allen and his Getting Thins Done book were popping up in my feed. That led to me reading the book and it has had a big impact on me.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#84

Post by thwy12321 »

throwaway713 wrote: post #82

I remember reading once that students who excel in high school (valedictorians and salutatorians) are underrepresented as successful company founders, meaning that they occur at a lower rate than one would expect from chance alone. I think the hypothesis was that these people tended to develop a perfectionistic (or even people pleasing) approach, and that this strategy works really well for "doing what you're told".…

I think it's actually that individuals with high levels of academic success don't need to start a company, they already have very good high paying career options. And so starting a company has a high level of opportunity cost.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#85

Post by CPLX »

throwaway713 wrote: post #82

I remember reading once that students who excel in high school (valedictorians and salutatorians) are underrepresented as successful company founders, meaning that they occur at a lower rate than one would expect from chance alone. I think the hypothesis was that these people tended to develop a perfectionistic (or even people pleasing) approach, and that this strategy works really well for "doing what you're told".…

My theory would be that those people have demonstrated they can succeed within the system. So they remain in the system. I'm sure they're well represented as CEO's or leaders of established organizations.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#86

Post by analog31 »

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #9

honest question, has anyone ever improved their lives by reading articles of this flavor ? (e.g 10 things successfully ceo's do, 10 ways to increase your chances of building a successful company)

I once heard a saying: "All self help methods work." The reason is that they all make you more conscious of your own behavior, at least temporarily.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#88

Post by andyidsinga »

> 5. Smart people sometimes see in-depth thinking and reflection as the solution to every problem. Bright people are accustomed to succeeding through their thinking skills, but can sometimes overlook when a different approach would be more beneficial.

This really resonated with me.

One of the "problems" with over thinking things and "figuring out all the potential problems" is that when presenting the ideas/concepts/solutions one doesn't leave enough room for response by the target audience. You end up with responses like "well - you're really smart - you seem to have thought of everything". Often we really do want and need the audience to have a chance to respond, poke holes, describe what they find to be useful / not useful.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#89

Post by kingkawn »

projectramo wrote: post #24
bootsz wrote: post #4

> 4. Smart people get bored easily. Being smart is not exactly the same as being curious, but if you have both these qualities you might find yourself becoming easily bored with executing the same behaviors over and over. Some types of success stem from creativity, but other types come from becoming an expert in a niche and performing a set of behaviors repeatedly. If you’re smart, curious, and have a love of learnin…

boredom is part of the human condition. It has nothing to do with being smart. Here are two tips: 1. get sleep 2. drink coffee

Boredom is part of living a sedentary life. Not the human condition.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#90

Post by josephjrobison »

wool_gather wrote: post #62
josephjrobison wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This part was also key: "Solution: Try taking a 30,000-foot view of when it’s worth tolerating some boredom to collect easy wins when it comes to your overall success. Instead of attempting dramatic change, decide when tolerating short periods (a few minutes or hours) of boredom could have a very beneficial impact on your success. For instance, devoting 5 hours a week to an activity that’s monotonous but lucrative. A…

Not quite exactly about "lucrative yet monotonous", but The War of Art is definitely an extended meditation on "putting in the elbow grease". It's not a manual of techniques about how to get things done, but it is inspirational for getting out of your own way, shutting up, sitting down, and writing. It's written by someone who mostly writes movies, but it applies to anyone who does anything remotely creative, where y…

Great book - I love that one, anyone who creates should read it (code, writing, art, marketing) - I agree!

Agree that it's a meditation/mantra-like book that can be read monthly to refocus.

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