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People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

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Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#131

Post by black6 »

oblib wrote: post #118

A good friend once told, after listening to me bitch about someone who loved to comment on my work, "You can learn something from everyone". I spent some time trying to dismiss that before considering that if he was right I'd already missed out on a lot, and that certainly humbled me because when I started looking for it I found he was right. The flip side to this is sharing what you know when it contradicts what oth…

“Every man I meet is my better in some way, and in that I learn from him.”

Ralph Emerson’s secret of the true scholar.

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#132

Post by mncharity »

oblib wrote: post #118

A good friend once told, after listening to me bitch about someone who loved to comment on my work, "You can learn something from everyone". I spent some time trying to dismiss that before considering that if he was right I'd already missed out on a lot, and that certainly humbled me because when I started looking for it I found he was right. The flip side to this is sharing what you know when it contradicts what oth…

Years ago I saw someone doing a community outreach lecture tour, for Next Generation Science Standards. On behalf of NSF I think. She was getting hostile questions, many of the too-broken-to-even-be-wrong variety. Ones where normally I'd just shake my head, perhaps think "nutter", and hope the speaker was able to move on without getting bogged down.

She addressed the questions with a grace, and insight, and empathy, that was awesome to watch. I'd not have thought it possible. I wish now I knew who she was, and had video. If anyone knows of this skill set being taught, I'd love a pointer.

So I no longer think of the quality of a question, and of a questioner, as being a worthy bound on the quality of an answer.

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#134

Post by te_platt »

A few years ago the guy I was sharing an office with at work was cleaning off his desk and found a stack of resumes. He said they were all from the batch that I was hired from and asked if I wanted to know why I was picked. Very cautiously I said yes. He told me I was the only one who when really pushed during the technical interview said "I don't know". Their initial strategy had been to start easy on some topic and just keep going deeper until they had a measure of what level the applicant was at. After a certain point they were just surprised at how far people would carry on into nonsense.

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#135

Post by nydel »

i try to remember: "i like liking thing."

this seems to help me avoid intellectual-ier-than-thou attitudes and behaviours. it's simple in its elegance to me:

1) i like to like

2) in order to like something, a manner of understanding is always involved (in maths it's empirical, in watching a magic stage show that fools you it's in a less direct understanding such as 'i understand there's a person attempting to create a sense of awe and wonder even though i do not understand the methodology of the trick')

3) so intention to like -> (as leads to) liking

4) and intellectual humility -> understanding

5) so intellectual humility -> understanding -> liking things

inversely,

intellectual arrogance -> ignorance -> not liking things

i don't want to do that thing. the ignorance and hate thing. it is - at least figuratively and perhaps moving toward literally - the only thing i actively do not like.

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#136

Post by rconti »

BWStearns wrote: post #50
rconti wrote: post #35

Using "aperçus" in an article about intellectual humility? Ironic, I'm pretty sure. Unless I'm just unfamiliar with inexplicable pluralization being appropriate.

I took it as a tongue in cheek thing, but if you look here https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%207-d&geo=... you might find the results amusing. Apparently a decent amount of people reading an article about intellectual humility are the type to google a word they don't know.

Good for them! I looked it up, too, to see if there was a common usage I'm unfamiliar with. I am a non-native French speaker, and the pluralization didn't make sense to me, but I thought maybe this was a case where I was unaware of a word being re-appropriated and used differently in English. It does seem to show up as plural, but without the accent. I still don't really know, though.

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#137

Post by haecceity »

Isamu wrote: post #28

A questionnaire from the article: 1) I am willing to admit if I don't know something. 2) I like to compliment others on their intellectual strengths. 3) I try to reflect on my weaknesses in order to develop my intelligence. 4) I actively seek feedback on my ideas, even if it is critical. 5) I acknowledge when someone knows more than me about a certain subject. 6) If someone doesn't understand my idea, it's probably b…

> 6) If someone doesn't understand my idea, it's probably because they aren't smart enough to get it. (reverse)

One of my high school teachers said something like: if someone doesn't understand your explanation, then you don't know it as well as you think you do.

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#139

Post by FrightHorse »

BeetleB wrote: post #121

Scanning the comments, I don't really see anyone discussing the value of "superior general knowledge". I like knowledge, so I find value in attaining it. However, depending on your goals, intellectual humility will set you back a great deal. Most people use confidence and certainty as a signal, and suppressing these means they'll pick someone over you (for a promotion, for a relationship, for a contract, for your kno…

One can very much be humble and confident.

Especially in an interview or promotion situation, I'm proud of and speak to my accomplishments and the skills and knowledge I've been able to obtain, but I can also speak with real honesty about the mistakes I've made, tend to make, and my own shortcomings. I talk about both without hesitation.

Though I know it's entirely anecdotal, I've found most of the time those traits were taken quite well in an interview context, and certainly I've appreciated people that display those traits when I'm interviewing them.

The key I've always found was the tone in which both your humility and confidence are displayed. After all, confidence is a totally different animal than cockiness.

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#140

Post by svachalek »

m0zg wrote: post #85

TBH I doubt this very much. In fact I doubt, in general, that such broad assertions can even be made. Anecdotally, I have worked at 2 research labs by now (one of them was MS Research, another relatively unknown), and of the few truly genius-grade people I met there none really had much "humility" on display. They know a staggering array of stuff really well, and they know they know it. If you don't know something, t…

Is it possible there were people in those labs that knew more than these geniuses, but you never noticed because they presented themselves modestly?
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