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Focus has become more valuable than intelligence (2018)

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Re: Focus has become more valuable than intelligence (2018)

#141

Post by AriaMinaei »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #131
AriaMinaei wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hope I don't come off harsh, as that is not my intention. > Why isn't it okay anymore to just do my job, have friends and watch movies? The reason you get to "just do your job, have friends, and watch movies," is because of the advances in science/technology/government/economics/art/etc that gave you and your ancestors enough surplus in productivity so you can afford spending some of your time watching movies. Thos…

Agreed. But the way I see it, the reason for all these sacrifices is so that other people can live a better, happier life. On the one hand, I'm with 'icelancer here - there's not enough driven people in the society (that is, driven to do things, and not driven to gain status by incidentally doing some things). The more they are, the faster things can improve. On the other hand, everything seems to indicate that there…

> everything seems to indicate that there will always be something to improve, so if everyone was driven like this, nobody would be left to enjoy the fruits of these sacrifices, making them ultimately pointless.

I agree. But to me, this is not a dichotomy. As in, you don't have to choose between complete comfort (do your job and watch movies) and total sacrifice (devote all your time to a cause). You can have time for friends and hobbies and still do great good for your community and the larger society.

Re: Focus has become more valuable than intelligence (2018)

#142

Post by DonHopkins »

newnewpdro wrote: post #37
redis_mlc wrote: post #31

"Focus is the new IQ" is the best expression I've seen of this. I'm lucky to have the gift of focus, and to know other people who also have it. I know I'm on the right track when I'm asked: * "You did that yourself?" * "How did you do that?" * "How is that possible?" One person with deep focus can change everything. Nikolai Tesla is the ultimate example of this - he made the modern world. My secrets? My only social m…

> I use a stick phone. What is a stick phone? I presume you're not referring to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Candlestick_telephone

A candlestick telephone that you can connect with your smartphone:

http://iseedeadpixels.nl/?soho_portfolio=bluetooth-candlesti...

Re: Focus has become more valuable than intelligence (2018)

#143

Post by dang »

redis_mlc wrote: post #89
edejong wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny thing is that Tesla made a lot of interesting inventions and discoveries, but was barely able to keep the focus to bring them to fruition. He had his lab busy with widely different experiments, oftentimes conflicting, leading to huge setbacks. Tesla is the prime example of a great mind with bad social skills and too many things juggling at the same time.

That's not even wrong. He got to do exactly what he wanted for most of his career, which was research, live in the Waldorf, and his patents were the foundation of Westinghouse. Ever look at a power substation and see all those Buck Rogers-looking transformers? Those are his original designs. Besides AC electricity generation and transmission, he also patented wireless remote control and was one of the earliest pionee…

> That's not even wrong.

Can you please edit swipey tropes like that out of your posts here? They lead to ill will and poison the well. The rest of your comment is just fine without that first sentence.

This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Focus has become more valuable than intelligence (2018)

#144

Post by cbsks »

freepor wrote: post #97
TeMPOraL wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Selection bias. Nobody says you have to be like that. Just ignore the article and move on. For me, it resonates, because the perspective of "doing my job, having friends and watching movies" sounds depressingly empty to me. I want to work on the next rocket to Mars (yes, I really do want to work on space rockets - because I care about space rockets). I don't buy into the pressure you're seeing either. If your heart d…

For me everything changed within 15 minutes of becoming a father. I used to want to change the world. Startups promotions etc. My son showed me a point on the line that was so far out that when I zoomed out, I couldn’t see the career stuff as anything other than a point on the origin. Now the only thing that gives me meaning is my children.

I’m the same way. I used to have grand career ambitions, but now I have a young daughter who has become my sole focus. I have a stable job which pays me enough to comfortably support my family, has a healthy my work/life balance, and gives me interesting projects to work on. That’s all that I need from my career at this point in my life.

Re: Focus has become more valuable than intelligence (2018)

#145

Post by Roritharr »

_ptgt wrote: post #112
sscarduzio wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been experiencing exactly this in the last 10 years without being aware it was a side effect of high focus. 10 years ago I was really bad at studying, then I had a peak of low self esteem, believing I was not intelligent. Ready to give up uni, my GF suggested I'd give myself only one more opportunity. So I started studying like it was the very last time I'd do it. Like, in an angry state, like I was demonstrat…

Does this resonate with anyone else? Is there any studies on this? I’ve had a similar experience over the past few years — a ton of work focus (at a FAANGM as an ML scientist/engineer) combined with limited social interaction and I’ve noticed my ability to have normal social interactions has declined greatly (“verbally inept” and “difficulty with empathy” pretty much hit it on the head). There’s potentially confoundi…

It resonates with me from a different direction. Up until I've become a dad I could crank out vast amounts of code and dive very deep into a given topic relatively quickly, producing extensive results when being able to focus, but since then I have a strict schedule, can't easily say "I'm coming home a few hours later today" or things like that to conserve momentum, I feel my output drastically reduced.

I'm currently looking for ways to reorganize my way of working so I get a better output and require less compromises of my family.

Re: Focus has become more valuable than intelligence (2018)

#147

Post by [deleted] »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #20

As someone that is "on the spectrum," I can report that focus can be pretty awesome. I generate vast amounts of code, in relatively short time, and am an insanely obsessive debugger. However, it don't come for free. If I get "roused" from my "fugue" (what I call "the zone"), I can be cranky. This has not always been helpful in my marriage. Also, I find that I can be "vocabularily challenged" for a few minutes after I…

[deleted]

Re: Focus has become more valuable than intelligence (2018)

#148

Post by syntaxing »

Roritharr wrote: post #145
_ptgt wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this resonate with anyone else? Is there any studies on this? I’ve had a similar experience over the past few years — a ton of work focus (at a FAANGM as an ML scientist/engineer) combined with limited social interaction and I’ve noticed my ability to have normal social interactions has declined greatly (“verbally inept” and “difficulty with empathy” pretty much hit it on the head). There’s potentially confoundi…

It resonates with me from a different direction. Up until I've become a dad I could crank out vast amounts of code and dive very deep into a given topic relatively quickly, producing extensive results when being able to focus, but since then I have a strict schedule, can't easily say "I'm coming home a few hours later today" or things like that to conserve momentum, I feel my output drastically reduced. I'm currently…

I feel the same. My attention span is half of what it was before I had a kid and learning new topics at work has significantly become harder. If you ever figure out a solution, I would love to hear it.

Re: Focus has become more valuable than intelligence (2018)

#149

Post by nine_k »

cutler wrote: post #104

There's so much middle-class context assumed in this piece I don't know where to begin. What if, for starters, you have a family and the responsibilities that come with it? "I'm only going to focus on my passion from now on" will probably lead to homelessness in pretty quick time unless you have a nest-egg to burn through while you reach profitability. What if you're in your 50s and stuck in a low paid job with a wif…

Pursuing one's passion can indeed lead you to ruin, and did so to many people.

But concentrating on something you're good at, and not spreading yourself too thin, is a pretty solid advice, middle class or not. It is by doing 100 things and not becoming good at any of them you end up in poor state without viable options.

Re: Focus has become more valuable than intelligence (2018)

#150

Post by rckoepke »

feanaro wrote: post #101
TeMPOraL wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not the one wasted day that will derail your life. It's one wasted day after another, after another, after another...

Yes, but it doesn't help to fear that one wasted day will lead to this chain.

For a year or two I had a mantra: "A day is a length of time that no man is rich enough to waste".

It wasn't grammatically/syntactically valid, but it worked well as a token for a concept that helped me immensely those years.

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