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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

#211

Post by soneca »

Isamu wrote: post #69
codingdave wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure your critiques invalidate the questions. This questionnaire isn't a value judgment on who you are as a person, it is simply exploring your behavior. Having good reasons for not giving the "right" answers doesn't mean the questions aren't poking at valid points.

I think you are right that they are getting to valid points, but I am saying they don't necessarily relate to a theory of intellectual humility.

Maybe that's why there are 9 questions, not one or two. So they together show a more exact picture

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#212

Post by oblib »

black6 wrote: post #131
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.

I've not seen that before but it is perfectly put.

That is exactly the approach I've learned to take. I honestly started out trying to disprove the notion because I was full of myself. But it really didn't take long to prove it and then doing that soon became a goal.

Canoeing is a good example. My first shot was with my wife on the Buffalo River in Arkansas. I was working my ass off and about 2 hours into our float the guy who shuttled us to the dropoff came gliding by with his wife pretty much effortlessly while I floundered and ricocheted from bank to bank.

Awhile later I saw them sitting on the bank chilling out so I paddled over and flat out asked him "How do you make this look so easy?"

He told me everything I needed to know in just a few minutes and the rest of that float was a joy.

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#213

Post by notduncansmith »

nemonemo wrote: post #124
toasterlovin wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I'm not sure that a curious temperament is materially different from intellectual humility.

I think curiosity implies intellectual humility but the converse is not necessarily true.

I think intellectual humility without curiosity is a form (or symptom) of depression.

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#214

Post by username90 »

dgacmu wrote: post #200
nolemurs wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for this. I read the title, and my thought process was: "I agree". Then: "There's no way the study backing the article is good enough to draw meaningful conclusions. This is clickbait." Then: "I guess if i'm going to be intellectually humble I should still read the article." I think based on your comment I can safely skip the read, and save myself some time. Intellectual humility is one thing, but I can go rea…

There's more to it than the excerpted quote. It's worth a read. The article does not breathlessly treat any of the studies it discusses as the word of the flying spaghetti monster, and it does a good job of presenting a broader perspective on the question.

One study showing the opposite result likely means that all of their results comes from confounding variables.

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#215

Post by btilly »

mjevans wrote: post #165
haecceity wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

It's also quite possible they lack the domain knowledge to receive a succinct explanation of the problem and evaluate if a solution actually solves it.

That is possible, but it is unwise to bet that way.

Why?

First, because far more things can be explained to an intelligent lay person than most of us realize, and figuring out how to do so improves our own understanding. Therefore it is worthwhile to make the attempt.

Second, because it is far too easy to fool ourselves into thinking that we're making a succinct explanation that requires domain knowledge when actually we're spouting just enough jargon to remind those who agree with us of shared and possibly unexamined dogma. There is a real cost to mental habits that make such mental mistakes easier to make and sustain.

So yes. The other person may be too ignorant/stupid/whatever to understand you. But the alternative explanations should be disproven before you conclude that.

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#216

Post by btilly »

haecceity wrote: post #210
mjevans wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also quite possible they lack the domain knowledge to receive a succinct explanation of the problem and evaluate if a solution actually solves it.

It's a classroom setting so the discussions are between peers with similar knowledge.

It is even more true in the real world when the discussions are between people with different knowledge. Do people recognize someone from another background as a peer or not?

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#217

Post by SubiculumCode »

hangonhn wrote: post #27
billman wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for Yeats

You two might not realize how happy that makes me feel. It's like when I discovered how popular the Master and Margarita is on HN. Never underestimate the depth and diversity of interests among your peers!

I just found another google search.

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#218

Post by cs02rm0 »

bitexploder wrote: post #185
te_platt wrote: post #134

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…

Same thing when I interview people. I don’t know is a sign of confidence to me. It is the right answer in so many situations. Unless you have a reasonable shot at deriving the answer on the spot, it’s what more people should be saying, and not only in interviews.

Agree. Although a better answer is (sometimes) I don't know, but... and some indication of how they might get to the answer.

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#219

Post by vishnugupta »

ogn3rd wrote: post #177
te_platt wrote: post #134

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…

As an interviewer at one of the FAANG companies I can confirm this is one tactic we use as well. A lot of people are very confident spewing trash for as long as you'll let them.

After they said "I don't know" I'd then encourage (or nudge) them to derive a solution. It gave me a very good insight into their thought process and their ability to apply their knowledge to solve an unseen problem.

For instance, students (during campus interview) would at some point reach a dead end while explaining process scheduler. However after encouraged to work it out about 70% ended up with some version of timer interrupt. It was fascinating to watch them go through the process.

Re: People with Greater Intellectual Humility Have Superior General Knowledge

#220

Post by zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #182
zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A wise person might also be aware that words can have multiple meanings, that "faith" is one of those words, and that equivocation fallacies don't make for good reasoning.

The general meaning of the word is belief in any idea that you can’t prove. Belief in scientific knowledge requires no more or no less faith than belief in any religious system.

Yes, I am aware that you can use equivocation fallacies to explain that we can't know anything and all claims are equally likely to be true. I was talking about what a wise person would do, though.
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