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We Are All Confident Idiots (2014)

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Re: We Are All Confident Idiots (2014)

#81

Post by PavlovsCat »

ggm wrote: post #47
i_feel_great wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wayne, is that you? I hated you at first for modifying the core libraries to break standard fuctionality, writing 500-line SQL statements full of string concatenations and using mutable globals all over the place, but now I see your point. Thanks, I have been earning an above average salary fixing your bugs and I will have a job for life. Still, fuck you man.

No, its not Wayne but he's my spirit brother. I can see us both in the forest, banging the drum of expediency while the world flails us with stinging nettles. "they also serve, who only stand and stuff up the codebase" Also, FORTRAN globals and variables called i,j and k ROCK!

> Also, FORTRAN globals and variables called i,j and k ROCK!

I always thought they're great in any language with globals, is there a reason they're especially good in FORTRAN?

Re: We Are All Confident Idiots (2014)

#82

Post by philpem »

wallace_f wrote: post #17
sandwall wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a parable... If you meet an a__hole in the morning, you met an a__hole. If you meet a__holes throughout the day, you are the a__hole. Moral of the story, if it's just one person, let them be. You don't have to win.

This is such a dreadful idea to spread. Many of humanity's most valuable individuals have died alone, become pariahs or were persecuted by their peer groups. This obviously also happens to entire groups of people, not just individuals. This happens all the time, even in ordinary places where it is clearly wrong. I can even remember back in primary school a couple instances of even teachers bullying unfortunate studen…

I agree -- you really only need Galileo as an example of this.

G: "I can prove the world is round!"

Everyone at the time: "Liar! Heretic!"

Later people: "Hmm. Galileo was right. The world IS round! In fact, it's an oblate spheroid..."

Sadly people are often easily lead. All it really takes is one person in good standing in a group to shout "Liar!" and suddenly the whole group is doubting the truth of what's being said.

Re: We Are All Confident Idiots (2014)

#83

Post by ukj »

intarga wrote: post #75
ukj wrote: post #46

I may have been faking it and making it till I caught on. I was faced with a trade-off I don’t know how to make. Do I prioritize urgent work or important work when not doing either has tragic consequences along similar timelines? Oh! We invented two words that mean the same thing so we can fake our own inability to prioritize? sigh

Urgent does not mean the same thing as important. Urgent tasks can be important or unimportant, but what makes them urgent is that they must be done soon/now rather than later, or that their value drops greatly if left to later. Armed with this knowledge, we can categorise tasks in four: urgent-important, urgent-unimportant, unurgent-important, and unurgent-unimportant. Urgent-important tasks are always the highest p…

This is a perfect example of faking it! The very thing this thread is about.

Instead of figuring out how to make the hard choice between UrgentImportant in the first place, you've drawn a distinction which lets you kick the can down the road.

Choosing between Unurgent-ImportantUrgent-Unimportant is exactly the same problem as choosing between UrgentImportant.

You have two tasks: A or B. Which one should you work on first?

The one which is most important/urgent/crucial/paramount/valuable/critical/indispensable/pressing/essential/serious/vital/exigent/burning/paramount/, obviously!

Is that task A or task B?

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool." - Richard P. Feynman

If you can't assign relative priorities to things - you can't implement a priority queue ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priority_queue ).

Re: We Are All Confident Idiots (2014)

#84

Post by heavenlyblue »

mapcars wrote: post #72
CPAhem wrote: post #3

Interestingly those who tend to be more realistic in their self expectations are more prone to depression. False confidence may be the route to happiness or at least optimism.

>those who tend to be more realistic in their self expectations are more prone to depression. No, depression comes when you are only applying logic to life and essentially seeing that there is no meaning to it. Logic can not live without meaning, but life is tremendously bigger that our limited logic, regardless how fanciful we make it. >False confidence may be the route to happiness or at least optimism. No, this co…

>> depression comes when you are only applying logic to life and essentially seeing that there is no meaning to it.

Depression is not a question of philosophy of your life.

Philosophy may help you approach the depression, but you can’t get depressed because life is too logical - you may get sad, on the other hand.

Re: We Are All Confident Idiots (2014)

#85

Post by BlackFly »

PavlovsCat wrote: post #81
ggm wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, its not Wayne but he's my spirit brother. I can see us both in the forest, banging the drum of expediency while the world flails us with stinging nettles. "they also serve, who only stand and stuff up the codebase" Also, FORTRAN globals and variables called i,j and k ROCK!

> Also, FORTRAN globals and variables called i,j and k ROCK! I always thought they're great in any language with globals, is there a reason they're especially good in FORTRAN?

FORTRAN has some "beautiful" implicit typing rules. Most FORTRAN programmers will disable this with an `implicit none` statement because nobody likes the type of the variable being defined by which character it starts with. So, if the implicit typing rules are in play, i,j,k are definitely integers, otherwise they can be something else.

Offhand, (it has been a long time since I programmed in FORTRAN) I do not know how the scoping rules regarding `implicit none` function with globals. Presumably i, j, k are integers (which would be the implicit type) so it might not be a problem, but they are also often used as basis vectors... so they might be vectors and `implicit none` becomes important.

Also possible, you are dealing with some really old FORTRAN60 compatible code and they are actually iteration control variables and a subroutine wrapped around an arithmetic if is advancing the control variables (which is why they are in global scope) and the outer arithmetic if is performing the branch control as an ur-for loop with gotos. This was the original spaghetti code.

Re: We Are All Confident Idiots (2014)

#86

Post by verinus »

blobs wrote: post #79

Our school system.. We don't dare to be honest we do not know stuff. For our entire youth we are punished for that with bad figures and bullying. Therefore the picture at the top of the article is so fitting. Especially lots of people that are graduated have some kind of air around them. Our educational system fucks the mind and ego. Is Einstein not enough prove for the 'being educated' fallacy? He despised the educa…

But tbh our school system just teaches a baseline of abilities we think our youths should know. I honestly don't believe pupils are expected to know everything besides what was agreed on...

Re: We Are All Confident Idiots (2014)

#87

Post by mapcars »

heavenlyblue wrote: post #84
mapcars wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>those who tend to be more realistic in their self expectations are more prone to depression. No, depression comes when you are only applying logic to life and essentially seeing that there is no meaning to it. Logic can not live without meaning, but life is tremendously bigger that our limited logic, regardless how fanciful we make it. >False confidence may be the route to happiness or at least optimism. No, this co…

>> depression comes when you are only applying logic to life and essentially seeing that there is no meaning to it. Depression is not a question of philosophy of your life. Philosophy may help you approach the depression, but you can’t get depressed because life is too logical - you may get sad, on the other hand.

>but you can’t get depressed because life is too logical

Can you elaborate? In my experience this is pretty much the only reason for depression, eg life does not happen how your logic tells you it suppose to happen.

Re: We Are All Confident Idiots (2014)

#89

Post by jnty »

romwell wrote: post #50
ggm wrote: post #20

Hey, I built a 40 year career on 'fake it until you have to leave or learn how to make it' -So don't knock this. And, all you young whippersnappers remember that its only old fools like me messing up in the code which gives you meaningful jobs fixing bugs in the future.

>Hey, I built a 40 year career on 'fake it until you have to leave or learn how to make it' -So don't knock this This comments illustrates the article, which has nothing to do with "fake it till you make it", and is all about how people often think they know something, when, in fact, they have little knowledge on the subject (in this case, the subject being the article in question). To clarify: "fake it till you make…

I don't think 'fake it till you make it' is as simple as that. The whole thing about imposter syndrome is that plenty of fully competent people 'know' they are incompetent (and conversely plenty of incompetent ones 'know' that they are the most valuable employee in the company.) Therefore, 'fake it till you make it' isn't directly about basically being a fraud, it's about presenting yourself as the competent professional you (hopefully) pretty much are.

Or, at least, the realisation that everyone else is probably faking it too.

Re: We Are All Confident Idiots (2014)

#90

Post by golergka »

romwell wrote: post #50
ggm wrote: post #20

Hey, I built a 40 year career on 'fake it until you have to leave or learn how to make it' -So don't knock this. And, all you young whippersnappers remember that its only old fools like me messing up in the code which gives you meaningful jobs fixing bugs in the future.

>Hey, I built a 40 year career on 'fake it until you have to leave or learn how to make it' -So don't knock this This comments illustrates the article, which has nothing to do with "fake it till you make it", and is all about how people often think they know something, when, in fact, they have little knowledge on the subject (in this case, the subject being the article in question). To clarify: "fake it till you make…

Faking something is the opposite from truly thinking it - in theory. In practice, faking something with ourward confidence, when met with success, sooner or later builds the confidence inside you as well. Human psychology isn't rational.
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