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Ask HN: Where do the smartest people you know work?

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Ask HN: Where do the smartest people you know work?

#1

Post by debacle »

I was cruising LinkedIn this afternoon trying to find the name of someone I interviewed about a decade ago. Of course, he's moved across the country and now works at Microsoft.

Which put a thought into my head: A lot of smart people I know work at startups, but all of the smartest people I know work at FAANG/MAMAA. In fact, none of the smartest people I know, to my knowledge, have ever pursued a startup.

Does this ring true for you as well?

Re: Ask HN: Where do the smartest people you know work?

#2

Post by firebaze »

I have not too many data points to add, but the 2nd smartest person I know joined Microsoft and left after 2 years to found a startup.

The smartest person I know left the industry after doing a few years of freelance work¹ earning heaps of money and bought a property for their family to settle somewhere remote.

¹ ABAP

Re: Ask HN: Where do the smartest people you know work?

#5

Post by pk-protect-ai »

If we assume that 1% of the human population are potential geniuses, then at the moment, we have about 80 million potential geniuses on the planet. They are not always aware that they have this potential. Life and financial circumstances follow a standard distribution. Not every potential genius on Earth will receive the required education and a nurturing environment. You can assume there are more potential geniuses in India and China (simply by the numbers), and they do not always have the perfect conditions to cultivate their abilities. So, if you look around and pick 100 people, there is a chance that one of them is a genius or potential genius. Some of these individuals may be plumbers. They might have interests that are completely different from what you might expect of a smart person. Also, if you consider the number of people working in a company, you can estimate how many potential geniuses are among them. Although high-tech companies may have a higher concentration of such individuals, you cannot deny the high probability that a Mexican immigrant working at Amazon in their warehouse, packing your goods, could be a potential genius.

[1] https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/#:~:text=8.1%....

Re: Ask HN: Where do the smartest people you know work?

#6

Post by physicsguy »

The smartest people I have personally worked with work for companies like Siemens, GE, etc. on very technical things that require an understanding of a broad range of tech combined with a lot of domain expertise, usually gained from at least some stint in academia. Usually money not so motivating as an interesting problem domain.

Re: Ask HN: Where do the smartest people you know work?

#7

Post by toomuchtodo »

anticorporate wrote: post #3

The smartest people I know left tech. No, this isn't sarcasm or a joke. I do wonder if there's some sort of inverse correlation between intelligence and ability to thrive under corporate bureaucracy.

It's less about intelligence I think and more about curiosity, autonomy, and mastery not being able to survive in said corporate bureaucracy. You either get wealthy or make do within your means and leave for industries, orgs, and teams that crush your soul less (or, hopefully yet rarely, bring you joy and meaningful work).

Some crabs find their way out of the pot, some don’t.

Re: Ask HN: Where do the smartest people you know work?

#8

Post by JohnFen »

Not at all. None of the smartest people I have known have worked for a FAANG company. Most of them haven't worked for startups, either.

They tend to work for companies that are on the forefront of whatever flavor of tech they are interested in, so they work for a variety of different kinds of companies.

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