A friend recounted a conversation where he was talking to one of his friends, saying he couldn't understand how these people could be so dumb. (I don't recall what "these" refers to...) His friend said, "I don't think it's that they're dumb. They just aren't curious." That was an enlightened comment. I think that is one of the elements that is needed to do brilliant things, just as Csonger says he was interested in understanding why this was "not possible".
You Don't Need to Be Brilliant to Do Brilliant Work
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Re: You Don't Need to Be Brilliant to Do Brilliant Work
#22Although high general intelligence is common among hackers, it is not the sine qua non one might expect. Another trait is probably even more important: the ability to mentally absorb, retain, and reference large amounts of ‘meaningless’ detail, trusting to later experience to give it context and meaning. A person of merely average analytical intelligence who has this trait can become an effective hacker, but a creati…
How can one learn or acquire this trait?
Re: You Don't Need to Be Brilliant to Do Brilliant Work
#23I think brilliant, not-brilliant, idiot or any other judgemental terms spent on tagging someone or ourselves is just a waste of time. The greater the effort spent on something by someone, greater is the probability of a favourable outcome to them. But it is still a probability and not a certainty because of variables involved.
As long as people work to live, there will be a pressing demand for such labels, flawed though they may be. Top organizations will always want to hire the smartest/most brilliant/non-idiotic people they can afford, for various practical definitions of these terms.
If two people seem similar in every way, but Person 1 has demonstrated that they achieve greater probability of success compared to Person 2 given comparable time investments, then you'd probably want to hire Person 1. Real life is never this cut and dried, but the principle holds.
Re: You Don't Need to Be Brilliant to Do Brilliant Work
#24[deleted]
Re: You Don't Need to Be Brilliant to Do Brilliant Work
#25Although high general intelligence is common among hackers, it is not the sine qua non one might expect. Another trait is probably even more important: the ability to mentally absorb, retain, and reference large amounts of ‘meaningless’ detail, trusting to later experience to give it context and meaning. A person of merely average analytical intelligence who has this trait can become an effective hacker, but a creati…
How can one learn or acquire this trait?
just start drinking from the firehose.
the trick is to convince yourself not to care about the immediate utility of what you’re learning. And store pointers to data, it’s lighter weight.
Re: You Don't Need to Be Brilliant to Do Brilliant Work
#26I enjoyed the article, but I think the author learned the wrong lesson from his friend's success story. Csongor says: > Then learning the answer revealed that it's actually something that can be fixed --- as is always the case with these things if you think about them enough. The author focuses on the consequent, thinking long and hard about something, but misses the antecedent, acquiring a deep understanding of a pr…
Lots of people have one skill, few people have two, and only a tiny fraction ever put multiple skills to use at once.
So true. This is also the 'Dilbert Theory of Value Creation' that I have used to great profit. Scott Adams likes to say, he is not the funniest guy around but funnier than most people. At best, he'd be a mediocre comedian. He can also draw better than most but hardly a Picasso. And yet, by combining both skills he has something "rare and valuable" that has led to enormous financial success.
He also adds that it easier to do this (combining two or more skills) than it is to be the very best at one thing e.g. an NBA player--it is actually easier, statistically, to become a billionaire than it is to become an NBA player.
There are more than 2,000 billionaires worldwide but only about 480 NBA players (32 teams with roughly 15 people on the roster). And if you think about it, becoming a billionaire usually involves multiple skills (good at programming + business, bill gates. Good at research/analysis + cultivating a rare temperament that allows you to act on the insights produced by the research even when everyone around you is losing their shirt, Warren Buffett etc, etc).
Being an NBA player requires one skill at a minimum. Being tall!
Re: You Don't Need to Be Brilliant to Do Brilliant Work
#27More or less the same point which Richard Hamming makes in his talk You and Your Research : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1zDuOPkMSw&list=PL2FF649D0C... Except, of course, that Hamming gives a few more practical pointers.
“make friends with admins” is no joke!
Re: You Don't Need to Be Brilliant to Do Brilliant Work
#28This goes along with a study I read a while back that you can do practically any job with an IQ of 120. Higher than average, but not anywhere close to genius level. With an average IQ of 100 you can still preform well in something like 80% of jobs.
Software engineers have an average IQ of 110ish so most HN readers are capable of doing almost any job. It's really about effort and things that are harder to measure like creativity
Re: You Don't Need to Be Brilliant to Do Brilliant Work
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
How can one learn or acquire this trait?
just start drinking from the firehose. the trick is to convince yourself not to care about the immediate utility of what you’re learning. And store pointers to data, it’s lighter weight.
agree. read a lot. especially other people's source code.