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How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

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Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#201

Post by leonroy »

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'd say that what you get out of these pieces is what you're willing to put in. For example with this HBR article (which is pretty good) there are some actions you could take and if you wrote them down, re-read the piece periodically and practised its recommendations then sure you'll get a lot out of it.

Some of those '10 habits of successful CEOs' fluff pieces don't really have many actionable insights so you're not going to get much out of them no matter how hard you try. But a good book like 7 Habits, GTD, Richest Man In Babylon, etc. - you re-read those and study even one and you'll probably get a lot.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#202

Post by beaconstudios »

OnACoffeeBreak wrote: post #143
beaconstudios wrote: post #14

Currently working my way through "Grit" by Angela Duckworth, it has some interesting things to say on smart people and why they can often grow up into underachievers. In school, the more average kids have to study hard to achieve good grades and thus learn a strong work ethic. Smart kids can often "coast" through school and thus don't pick up the same attitude to working through boring, hard, or long-lasting work. It…

I haven't read the book or really know much about Angela Duckworth's research. I just recall reading somewhere that much of her conclusions have been found to be incorrect. Quick search results from NPR: https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/05/25/479172868/angela-...

having read your linked article, it doesn't seem so much that her conclusions were incorrect but that she exaggerated (intentionally or unintentionally) their impact. Expanding on the subcomponents of big five traits like conscientiousness seems like valuable work to me. Nonetheless when I'm reading self-improvement books I always take the claims with a pinch of salt because most of them over-hype their contents anyway. I'm still finding the book interesting and educational nonetheless.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#203

Post by ataturk »

Maybe it isn't the individual sabotaging their success but rather outside individuals who have ego issues?

I know from my own experience that I have had many back-biting, back-stabbing people attempt to steal my ideas, take credit for my work, and generally make my life hell because the people who actually do the work are easy targets by those attempting to usurp and manipulate.

All I can say is that Eastern philosophy, especially the concept of Zen, and eliminating one's own ego, have kept me sane all these years. You have to remember that we are a tiny spec of dust in the universe and not get all wrapped up in these trivialities. Some days it is harder than others to realize that one truth.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#204

Post by whack »

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 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've tended to notice that as well. Perhaps it's because being a startup founder is a financially irrational choice. If you're extremely smart, you can go into medicine/finance/law/comp-sci and make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, potentially over a million. You don't ever have to shoulder significant risk or periods of "poverty". You would spend your entire post-college life enjoying the social status and perks associated with having a high-prestige job and boatloads of money. Why would you give that up to be a founder?

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#205

Post by motohagiography »

antocv wrote: post #198
motohagiography wrote: post #114

Seems survivor bias explains why many ostensibly successful people are boring. What is the anti-pattern in our organizations that produces leaders who lack competence and charisma? It's like somehow we've managed to collectively optimize against producing people others might actually admire. Arguably much of what the author calls "relationship building," manifests in many organizations as "ability to conspire to unde…

Easy to say "take risks", but many of the talented ones can not really afford to take any risks, those from poverty.

I'd say if you can afford it, it's not real risk.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#206

Post by joelx »

pjungwir wrote: post #81
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…

This article makes fundamental errors. School performance is NOT a great indicator of intellect. The most successful people I know did just enough to get by decently in school and spent the rest of their efforts on activities that made them happy or were more productive. People who drove themselves crazy working as hard as they could in school generally didn't get anywhere in the real world.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#207

Post by gfs78 »

The title is wrong. It should have been: How Intelligent People Sabotage Their Success.

But is all filler anyway. Current western societies are amoral. So dumb vs intelligent is out of the question. If you don't have any regrets about f.u.c.k.i.n.g people and luck is on your side, you win. And big.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#208

Post by crimsonalucard »

pjungwir wrote: post #81
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…

Its mindnumbing to learn the extraneous details about something that's basically understood. I dont want to master x86 assembly when I already get the concept of what it represents. I want to learn new concepts. Make a lambda based computer for example.

Browser development is the worst. Hacks and compatibility details galore. I hate the fact that to get into front end development I would have to master how to get around someone elses mess.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#209

Post by josephjrobison »

CPLX wrote: post #94
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…

> Anyone know of a book that goes into this in detail? As cheesy as it sounds, the best book I've found on this topic is Getting Things Done. I struggle with a lot of the issues in this article, and resisted that kind of thinking for years, but learning how to break up the insane overload of ideas and things in my head and bring them into manageable chunks, living in an outside system, has really really helped.

Great recommendation and good to be reminded. Have been reading it here and there but need to finish it and get it done.

Re: How Smart People Sabotage Their Success

#210

Post by crimsonalucard »

joelx wrote: post #206
pjungwir wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

This article makes fundamental errors. School performance is NOT a great indicator of intellect. The most successful people I know did just enough to get by decently in school and spent the rest of their efforts on activities that made them happy or were more productive. People who drove themselves crazy working as hard as they could in school generally didn't get anywhere in the real world.

Anecdotal evidence. Data shows success in school correlates with career success.
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