Natalie Portman - Scientist • Hacker News Board

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#51

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 01, 2011, 6:13 PM UTC

jhamburger wrote: post #16

Anechoic wrote: post #8

He's not mentioned in the article, but Dylan Bruno from Numb3rs is an MIT grad (we both played on the football team) and, coincidentally, acted in a movie opposite Ms. Portman :) Woodie Flowers always used to say that we need an "LA Engineer" (a play on "LA Law for you younger folks) to bring science and engineering into the mainstream. I always cringe at shows like Big Bang Theory that portray smart folks as sociall…

Popular entertainment has tons of smart, cool people- Just none of them spend all their time with solitary, sedentary activities on a computer or in a lab. How many times do you see a 'mission impossible' type hero who goes around kicking ass for most of the movie but suddenly turns into a hacker when he gets to a computer terminal?

[deleted]

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#52

Post by roel_v » Tue, Mar 01, 2011, 6:16 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #45

Nice article. Two sentences jumped out at me. First: “There are very few who are as inherently bright as Natalie is, who have as much intellectual horsepower, who work as hard as she did. She didn’t take a single thing for granted.” then: If anything, stories like Ms. Portman’s show that great success, like DNA, is constructed of a few basic building blocks: tenacity, focus, and the old Woody Allen line about just sh…

Well, yes, intelligence needs to be trained, shaped, refined. But are you saying that there is no difference between humans when it comes to their maximum potential? I think everybody has an 'intelligence ceiling', and that ceiling can only be asymptotically approaches by study, hard work, circumstances etc. But that doesn't take away from the (imo) fact that there is a ceiling and that some people, no matter what they do, will never achieve the level some others do.

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#53

Post by roel_v » Tue, Mar 01, 2011, 6:17 PM UTC

brown9-2 wrote: post #27

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out another "scientist" (minor) actor not mentioned in this article: - speaks Swedish, English, Spanish, some German, some French, some Japanese, and some Italian - awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - has a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney (1982) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolph_lundgren

Man people like this make me feel so inadequate.

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#54

Post by jhamburger » Tue, Mar 01, 2011, 6:17 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #45

Nice article. Two sentences jumped out at me. First: “There are very few who are as inherently bright as Natalie is, who have as much intellectual horsepower, who work as hard as she did. She didn’t take a single thing for granted.” then: If anything, stories like Ms. Portman’s show that great success, like DNA, is constructed of a few basic building blocks: tenacity, focus, and the old Woody Allen line about just sh…

To this day, when I see phrases like, "intellectual horsepower", I cringe. We "smarties" aren't that much smarter than most other people, if we are at all.

I don't think this is true at all. People who are average intelligence or below can be very successful but have no chance of succeeding in high level intellectual pursuits. People who are smart don't understand this, because to them learning anything is just a matter of effort.

I think there is truth in what you are saying, because at a certain level of intelligence, hard work and attitude become more of a bottleneck than ability. This is supported by facts as well, studies have found that success increases by IQ score, but levels off or drops at a certain point where brainpower is more of a handicap to mental health than a benefit.

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#55

Post by zavulon » Tue, Mar 01, 2011, 6:18 PM UTC

burgerbrain wrote: post #6

I find this articles lack of hot grits disturbing.

I scrolled all the way to the bottom of the comments, getting more and more depressed thinking as I'm the only old codger who remembers this meme. I am happy to find out I'm not the only one!

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#56

Post by Jun8 » Tue, Mar 01, 2011, 6:19 PM UTC

btilly wrote: post #42

Jun8 wrote: post #29

"Hedy Lamarr complained bitterly that people would look at her face and assume there was nothing behind it. Perhaps it was a case of projection. “When you see a very beautiful face, it’s stunning, and you yourself become stupefied,” said Lisa Heiserman Perkins, who has completed a documentary about Lamarr. “So you project your own stupidity onto the person you’re looking at.” " Now, maybe I'm projecting my own stupid…

And yet, there is actually a positive correlation between physical attractiveness and IQ.

True, but in most cases this IQ may be dormant, since from an early age attractive people learn that they can get what they want without working as hard as other people. It's like weight lifting on the moon!

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#57

Post by mbreese » Tue, Mar 01, 2011, 6:19 PM UTC

Anechoic wrote: post #8

He's not mentioned in the article, but Dylan Bruno from Numb3rs is an MIT grad (we both played on the football team) and, coincidentally, acted in a movie opposite Ms. Portman :) Woodie Flowers always used to say that we need an "LA Engineer" (a play on "LA Law for you younger folks) to bring science and engineering into the mainstream. I always cringe at shows like Big Bang Theory that portray smart folks as sociall…

I always cringe at shows like Big Bang Theory that portray smart folks as socially inept ... when in fact smart people are just like everyone else

I think thats what Big Bang Theory does best... portray smart people who are socially inept as someone that anyone can relate to. In the show, they are just regular people trying to get by, find love, etc... well, except for Sheldon.

To me, its amazing that a show that is completely over the top nerdy is incredibly popular.

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#58

Post by HSO » Tue, Mar 01, 2011, 6:21 PM UTC

poet wrote: post #30

HSO wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. I have no doubt she is very intelligent and _could_ have been a scientist if she had chosen to. But until she publishes her own peer-reviewed research or gets an advanced science degree, she is "an actress with a BA in psychology", thank you. She's impressive enough w/o artificial hype.

She has published peer reviewed research: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi... (her actual name is Natalie Hershlag). One of the co-authors is Jerome Kagan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Kagan . Seems good enough to me. Certainly not a career scientist; very few would be with another venture making millions. But she has walked the walk. There's no hype here.

okay, perhaps you and i have different definitions of "scientist". anyway, i don't want to overdo this here, if you want to call her "scientist", fine.

i know who she is since i saw beautiful girls and of course leon and she always stood out to me as a very, very smart person, but in my book one student co-authorship does not make one a "scientist". it's more like "very good student", "on the way" or "caught the attention of a famous prof and got a head start". none of which detracts from her, btw.

but hey, i suffer my own forms of hero worship, all of which is harmless fun, which is what hollywood is here for, i suppose. ;-)

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#59

Post by richcollins » Tue, Mar 01, 2011, 6:23 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #45

Nice article. Two sentences jumped out at me. First: “There are very few who are as inherently bright as Natalie is, who have as much intellectual horsepower, who work as hard as she did. She didn’t take a single thing for granted.” then: If anything, stories like Ms. Portman’s show that great success, like DNA, is constructed of a few basic building blocks: tenacity, focus, and the old Woody Allen line about just sh…

I thought that too until I moved to San Francisco and started meeting people that consistently see things that I miss. It wasn't that they had more domain knowledge or worked harder, it was that they were just better at seeing remotely connected things.

Re: Natalie Portman - Scientist

#60

Post by burgerbrain » Tue, Mar 01, 2011, 6:27 PM UTC

mbreese wrote: post #57

Anechoic wrote: post #8

He's not mentioned in the article, but Dylan Bruno from Numb3rs is an MIT grad (we both played on the football team) and, coincidentally, acted in a movie opposite Ms. Portman :) Woodie Flowers always used to say that we need an "LA Engineer" (a play on "LA Law for you younger folks) to bring science and engineering into the mainstream. I always cringe at shows like Big Bang Theory that portray smart folks as sociall…

I always cringe at shows like Big Bang Theory that portray smart folks as socially inept ... when in fact smart people are just like everyone else I think thats what Big Bang Theory does best... portray smart people who are socially inept as someone that anyone can relate to. In the show, they are just regular people trying to get by, find love, etc... well, except for Sheldon. To me, its amazing that a show that is…

On the other hand, I'm completely unamazed that a show that reinforces negative geek stereotypes while passing itself off as an accurate and fair representation is incredibly popular.