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What I've Learned About Smart People.

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Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.

#61

Post by JesseAldridge »

espeed wrote: post #27

Humility is the key to understanding, but hubris often prevents people from growing because they believe their understanding is right from the beginning. For a while I have understood that people see the world in fundamentally different ways, but about two years ago I had an epiphany that really crystallized it for me. Now I see people existing in either one of two camps: 1. Those who believe the world is the way the…

I remember having a similar realization.

When most people say that something is true, they don't mean, "I think that's an accurate reflection of reality." -- what they really mean is, "It is in my interest to accept that as true."

A lot of things made sense after that.

Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.

#62

Post by instakill »

kevinalexbrown wrote: post #35

What the article doesn't mention is that the smartest of people perpetually ask themselves questions regarding what they believe they understand. It is remarkably easy to convince yourself you understand something - a mathematical proof, the Halting Problem, advantages of some programming framework/style/language, when you're really just going through the motions and remembering what others have said, kind of memoriz…

Asking questions of yourself is a good way, in my opinion, to counter the Dunning-Kruger effect, should you unknowingly suffer from it.

Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.

#63

Post by celoyd »

redschell wrote: post #54
ryanwhitney wrote: post #3

Reminded my of this, from Gladwell's Outliers : "The way you were raised, namely with wealthy or less fortunate parents, also plays a role. Gladwell explains that when wealthy parents drive their children to the doctor, they tell their children things like, “Johnny, now if you have any questions, be sure to ask the doctor. This is your opportunity to talk to him about any health problems you’re having….” And so on. I…

Slightly off-topic, but I'm curious to hear more of what HN thinks about Gladwell. Some writers and scientists I respect, perhaps most notably Steven Pinker, have been vocally opposed to the "shoddy scholarship" of Gladwell's work, while others, including many bloggers I've encountered here, have quoted him with great enthusiasm (I believe Peter Norvig references his "10,000 hours to expertise" figure from Outliers i…

I don’t think of myself as the HN mainstream, but probably few do.

I synthesize these positions on Gladwell.

#1, he’s not a scientist and not a science journalist. He doesn’t apply any rigor to speak of: at best, he’s telling suggestive and insightful stories, not proving or really getting to the bottom of anything. He leaves out huge amounts of important information, especially when it would get in the way of making a catchy point. This is extremely irritating when it’s implied – usually by his readers, not by him – that he’s doing something more.

But #2, he’s good at what he does. If you approach it as engaging stories that highlight quirky research, it’s entertaining and thought-provoking. I’ve learned very little from Gladwell per se, but I’ve learned a lot from following up on the actual science that he refers to. That’s valuable.

So I think it’s fair to say that Gladwell’s scholarship is shoddy, and his writing is shallow and over-popularized and mostly anecdotal. But if you take him as a good storyteller rather than a bad scientist, it can still be worth reading.

If you want to like Gladwell but don’t, you might prefer John McPhee. He’s a little more on the hard journalism side of the science popularizer spectrum.

Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.

#64

Post by pestaa »

j45 wrote: post #23

Truly smart people have always come across to me as not needing to prove how smart they are Smart people don't care to convert me to their way of seeing the world. Be it using Ruby, Apple, or not, they are able to see a bigger, wider picture where everything is possible with the right amount of understanding and well placed effort. Smart people see the patterns and similarities in everything that unite, instead of th…

Bookmarked, thank you. May I ask the source?

Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.

#67

Post by ezy »

redschell wrote: post #54
ryanwhitney wrote: post #3

Reminded my of this, from Gladwell's Outliers : "The way you were raised, namely with wealthy or less fortunate parents, also plays a role. Gladwell explains that when wealthy parents drive their children to the doctor, they tell their children things like, “Johnny, now if you have any questions, be sure to ask the doctor. This is your opportunity to talk to him about any health problems you’re having….” And so on. I…

Slightly off-topic, but I'm curious to hear more of what HN thinks about Gladwell. Some writers and scientists I respect, perhaps most notably Steven Pinker, have been vocally opposed to the "shoddy scholarship" of Gladwell's work, while others, including many bloggers I've encountered here, have quoted him with great enthusiasm (I believe Peter Norvig references his "10,000 hours to expertise" figure from Outliers i…

He's a pop science writer who does a bit of synthesis. He has interesting ideas -- but they aren't super well substantiated. I've always viewed his works as launching points for further work or ideas to consider, but not really definitive. Most writers who write "accessible" science prose are like this, unless they have written some inaccessible work in papers first and are just trying to explain things to the layman. You take it all with a grain of salt.

With that in mind, I take two concrete appraoches to Gladwell's work. Unless I feel like reading a story, I skip the anecdotes -- this shortens most of his books to about a chapter's worth. :-)

And if I do hit upon an important point I might want to incorporate into my thinking, I look up the references to see how substantiated it really is.

Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.

#68

Post by yariang »

espeed wrote: post #27

Humility is the key to understanding, but hubris often prevents people from growing because they believe their understanding is right from the beginning. For a while I have understood that people see the world in fundamentally different ways, but about two years ago I had an epiphany that really crystallized it for me. Now I see people existing in either one of two camps: 1. Those who believe the world is the way the…

I couldn't help but notice a resemblance between what you are describing and a lot of machine learning algorithms.

It seems like the most successful ML algorithms are self-correcting ones, rather than ones that attempt to calculate the exact correct answer in one go.

Coincidence?

Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.

#69

Post by vectorpush »

itmag wrote: post #46
espeed wrote: post #27

Humility is the key to understanding, but hubris often prevents people from growing because they believe their understanding is right from the beginning. For a while I have understood that people see the world in fundamentally different ways, but about two years ago I had an epiphany that really crystallized it for me. Now I see people existing in either one of two camps: 1. Those who believe the world is the way the…

Some things that hammered home this understanding for me (in order of reputability): LessWrong.com, Myers-Briggs Type Indicators, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, PUA. These days, I mostly understand that there are always many perspectives and try to see wisdom as the art of picking between perspectives. But sometimes I get stuck in my old ways and search in vain for the "right" opinion/perspective/paradigm/whatever. Th…

But sometimes I get stuck in my old ways and search in vain for the "right" opinion/perspective/paradigm/whatever.

Then again, those who are convinced their way is the "right" way are often the ones who have the biggest impact on the world (for better or worse).

Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.

#70

Post by larrys »

edw519 wrote: post #42

Going to Harvard means I have the very unique opportunity to be around a lot of smart people. Good for you. Even better for you is the fact that you recognize your opportunity. How sad that so many people in your situation never do until it's too late. Now, when I say “smart people,” I don’t mean that guy who always wins trivia night. I mean, blazingly intelligent individuals who are regarded as the pre-eminent schol…

"please don't overlook all that you can learn from people that may not seem so smart."

I love that you said this. One of the things that smart people do is learn something from anyone they can about anything they can.

I met a bellhop once in Florida. He had moved his entire family to Orlando. I think he came from some less desirable place up north. But he had enough smarts to realize that if he was going to cart bags for a living it might as well be in a nice warm place instead of a cold city area.

I learned a few valuable theories that I've used for years of giving estimates from an electrician as a child. (I'm not suggesting that an electrician isn't smart only that they don't usually get picked as "pre-eminent scholars" that the OP is writing about.)

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