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Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

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Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#221

Post by alphanumeric0 »

Everyone is born with different privileges, traits, circumstances, and opportunities and I would separate intelligence vs skill vs knowledgeable.

I meet a lot of people who think very highly of themselves because they can recite a lot of information at me and can explain how something works. Generally I see these people as extremely knowledgeable but that doesn't necessarily entail they are somehow more intelligent.

The same can be said with skills. You may be the worlds best at a task or hobby but let's not automatically assume you are somehow more intelligent.

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#222

Post by carrolldunham »

mbrodersen wrote: post #220

Honest question: why do you care? What is it in your psychology that makes you want to do something that impresses the world? If you don’t like the struggle needed to achieve those things then accept that you deep down don’t really want what you think you want. Instead ask yourself: What makes you happy? What makes you be in the “zone” experiencing flow? That is what you really deep down care about.

>What is it in your psychology that makes you

it seems like you missed the punchline

>I'm bipolar schizoaffective and borderline.

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#224

Post by throway453sde »

Work on boring yet important problems, to maximize your impact.

Super smart people will work on interesting problems. They don't care if something important or not and as a consequence don't make much money.

Smart people work on interesting and important problems.

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#225

Post by stillblue »

foobarian wrote: post #33

I have these kinds of feelings a lot. It is hard to feel useful in this day and age of a ubiquitous globally connected society because for anything you attempt to do you have instant access to the top 0.0001% of the Bell curve who you have no hope of ever beating. I find comfort in that I am not alone, thinking of all the peasants and regular workers across history who didn't amount to much either, but still mostly f…

I don't know about others but this comment is pretty eye opening to me. My mind just went complete 180 degrees right now. Thanks. There is so much food for thought.

Have a good one!

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#226

Post by xiphias2 »

pedrosorio wrote: post #215
xiphias2 wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if getting a trophy at IOI is easier than making a kid? As for me it was...I got silver medal there, but I would have given it away easily for being able to date one of the many hot hostesses on the competition. My life would have been so much easier if I just spend my life in the gym instead of solving math and programming problems.

You do IOI in high school, so one would expect you to hit the gym regularly at that point. Also going to the gym is pretty easy, so if you know “the path to happiness” why not just take it?

,,Also going to the gym is pretty easy, so if you know “the path to happiness” why not just take it?''

I'm doing it but I'm 40 and the gains are not the same...my girlfriend left me for a younger and much stronger guy (and no, just younger wasn't enough in itself). Also in the 90s whenever I asked a girl if she likes muscular guys, they usually answered ,,not that much''. They are much more open nowdays about what they want from a man than 20 years ago.

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#227

Post by o2l »

I have had the same feelings for the last few years now.

I started strong at 18 with an explosive growth in knowledge and skill till about 23 years of age. I was praised by pretty much everyone around me and that had turned into a positive feedback loop.

The plateau started when I started giving time to other things in life like relationships and a few other changes.

I am sitting at 29 now feeling that I have not made any progress since I was 23 and I can't get myself to do something about it, much similar to you. I get started sometimes but do not follow through till the end which has now become a behavior.

Recently, after some self assessment and after talking with a close friend about this, I have observed that the things that led to my past success were - time available to commit to a single purpose, absence of any other priorities in life, youth and energy and the biggest one being social approval/appreciation, even if it was on a very basic level (being praised by teachers and friends who were regular people)

In my opinion, if I were to start socializing more in situations where I get to share my interests and knowledge and work with other people interested in the same field, I would start getting feedback again and can learn a thing or two from others at the same time. This would surely revive my interest and keep me motivated to do more, so I can share it with someone.

For us who work professionally, our words of appreciation/praise for others become shallow or emotionless over time and work becomes just work, hence work is rarely a place of motivation for most. (May be things are different at FAANG or fancy startups where people are more driven for excellence)

Another observation I have made about myself is that I have a tendency to day dream grandiose scenarios where I master a technology without anyone's help and build something so cool that the world is going to be in awe of me and I am going to get back to my glory days. This may be true in theory if I were to commit myself to learning or building something and keep making consistent progress but it never happens cause they are just day dreams.

I have a better chance at success if I put myself in a position where people around me are interested in learning and mutual growth. I haven't figured out what would be the right medium to do this yet.

I came across Andreas Kling's YouTube channel just yesterday while reading about SerenityOS on HN and I could relate a lot of my situation after listening to this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNT3VqZApsc

Hope it helps you too.

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#228

Post by bobblywobbles »

I too have felt this same feeling, it's normal that everyone experiences this in ebbs and flows in life. Ultimately though, there's hard truths I had to face in order to get through this hump:

1) I tolerate this pain, which is why I am not changing my circumstances. 2) I believe that I myself don't have control over my own happiness/life.

Once you have hit that point where you can't tolerate the pain, make the change. Say to yourself that you don't want to live your life this way, and start doing what you like without caring what others think about you. Hope this helps!

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#229

Post by mbrodersen »

mylons wrote: post #79
foobarian wrote: post #33

I have these kinds of feelings a lot. It is hard to feel useful in this day and age of a ubiquitous globally connected society because for anything you attempt to do you have instant access to the top 0.0001% of the Bell curve who you have no hope of ever beating. I find comfort in that I am not alone, thinking of all the peasants and regular workers across history who didn't amount to much either, but still mostly f…

there's a great bit from Louis CK on this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1-7AKx_4Ug "You get to read to kill a mockingbird." when he says it is hilarious and I often remember that when moments seem shitty.

Louis CK is a genius. One of a kind.

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#230

Post by thioordc »

chasebank wrote: post #217
biggestlou wrote: post #7

There's no such thing as "raw" intelligence. Those people you find so incredibly impressive who have done such worthwhile things? Every single one of them sucks ass at a multitude of things. Every single one of them would see something in your set of capabilities that would astound them. It takes a vast constellation of capabilities, including yours, to create and sustain our world.

"There's no such thing as "raw" intelligence." Well, that's sure a bold statement. I suppose in order to have this discussion, we'd have to agree on a definition of intelligence. For me, it's one's intellectual capacity to learn. Emotionally, physically, mathematically, etc. I'd argue that there is absolutely a thing of "raw intelligence". If we have mentally handicapped and Stephen Hawking, there must be a standard…

Yea but if you are a megamind in math that doesn’t mean you are a Shakespeare level writer. Intelligence isn’t general it’s specific
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