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How to do things if you're not that smart and don't have any talent

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Re: How to do things if you're not that smart and don't have any talent

#81

Post by klabb3 »

15457345234 wrote: post #69
nomilk wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds of this PG quote: > If you imagine someone with 100 percent determination and 100 percent intelligence, you can discard a lot of intelligence before they stop succeeding. But if you start discarding determination, you very quickly get an ineffectual and perpetual grad student. Not the same source, but similar message and very much worth the watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8TwkfxEdJ0

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. -- Ronald Reagan

While that’s true the world is even more full of hard working people who are treading water, and taken advantage of.

Determination and persistence is only effective with a goal or vision that comes from the heart. Then the quote is true. But both words are hijacked by everyone from managers and linked-in gurus to inspire another day of artificial purpose. Meaning cannot be manufactured.

Re: How to do things if you're not that smart and don't have any talent

#82

Post by Jensson »

weast wrote: post #80
Jensson wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100 percent determination describes most conspiracy theorists, it isn't a good trait to have that much of. So I'd argue that you need to drop quite a bit of it for the person to even reach average effectiveness, otherwise the person will be stuck trying things that will never work.

That is a really good point. Determination without direction (or at least a misguided one) produces a lot of wasted energy. i guess the idea here of determination with lack of intelligenxe assumes some sort of intellectually elite group that can steer the determined work to some optimal outcome.

> i guess the idea here of determination with lack of intelligenxe assumes some sort of intellectually elite group that can steer the determined work to some optimal outcome.

I think that idea comes from school where you can do well just by repeating simple patterns, there mindless determination can take you very far. But after school it starts to hurt you if you don't re-evaluate what you do often enough, which is why many who get great grades never achieve much afterwards, they are just too determined on a set path and don't look around enough.

Re: How to do things if you're not that smart and don't have any talent

#83

Post by sph »

paxys wrote: post #14

From my experience in the tech industry I can say with utmost confidence that "not smart"/"talentless" people who are determined and hard-working lead to significantly better real world results than geniuses who are lazy, unmotivated or overall not action oriented. The vast majority of problems at any company are easy and don't need any big technological breakthroughs to solve. They are instead held back by (1) lack…

PSA for people that believe they are somewhat smart, have cool ideas yet seemingly no power whatsoever to actually work on them. If you believe you are chronically lazy and feel it is causing issues in your life. If you feel you are living at 10% your true potential:

Get tested for ADHD. If that is your problem, know that the chemical fix for it is extremely effective.

It's taken me 30+ years of self-hate, a suggestion en passant from someone that I might have ADHD, diagnosis, medication and my life has completely turned around in ways unimaginable before (3 years and counting).

Email's in the profile if you wanna chat about it.

EDIT: I did write a post last year about my experience and research on the topic: https://combo.cc/adhd/

Re: How to do things if you're not that smart and don't have any talent

#84

Post by blitzar »

paxys wrote: post #14

From my experience in the tech industry I can say with utmost confidence that "not smart"/"talentless" people who are determined and hard-working lead to significantly better real world results than geniuses who are lazy, unmotivated or overall not action oriented. The vast majority of problems at any company are easy and don't need any big technological breakthroughs to solve. They are instead held back by (1) lack…

If you want a really good career in the industry, I sugesset mixing "not smart"/"talentless" with a healthy dose of "lazy, unmotivated or overall not action oriented".

Senior management material.

Re: How to do things if you're not that smart and don't have any talent

#85

Post by StopHammoTime »

This is just good advice in general. The number one thing that has led to my career success (albeit at the cost of much stress) is following my Grandfather's adage: "Someone has to do it, and it might as well be me." I struggle day-to-day to convey to engineers that a grind is required, and sometimes work just needs to be done. People would rather take 60 hours writing a script, instead of just doing work that takes 10 hours (and I'm not even being facetious with that estimate).

Re: How to do things if you're not that smart and don't have any talent

#86

Post by BOOSTERHIDROGEN »

sph wrote: post #83
paxys wrote: post #14

From my experience in the tech industry I can say with utmost confidence that "not smart"/"talentless" people who are determined and hard-working lead to significantly better real world results than geniuses who are lazy, unmotivated or overall not action oriented. The vast majority of problems at any company are easy and don't need any big technological breakthroughs to solve. They are instead held back by (1) lack…

PSA for people that believe they are somewhat smart, have cool ideas yet seemingly no power whatsoever to actually work on them. If you believe you are chronically lazy and feel it is causing issues in your life. If you feel you are living at 10% your true potential: Get tested for ADHD. If that is your problem, know that the chemical fix for it is extremely effective. It's taken me 30+ years of self-hate, a suggesti…

What would be the safest drugs to consume ?

Re: How to do things if you're not that smart and don't have any talent

#87

Post by lkadjal »

> Be audacious. Most people who are talented or smart are scared of doing things. I’m not sure why that is, but it’s more often than not the case.

Because they are book smart. As in raised in right conditions and sent to the right schools.

Also not smart enough to actually realise they will die one day and contemplate on that.

They are focused on resume and status building as if they are eternal. Common traits involves plugging a lot of keywords while talking, posting a lot on twitter/linkedin/instagram etc

If they do realise their own mortality they won't be so scared and not afraid to do anything meaningful.

Re: How to do things if you're not that smart and don't have any talent

#88

Post by j7ake »

kypro wrote: post #55
paxys wrote: post #14

From my experience in the tech industry I can say with utmost confidence that "not smart"/"talentless" people who are determined and hard-working lead to significantly better real world results than geniuses who are lazy, unmotivated or overall not action oriented. The vast majority of problems at any company are easy and don't need any big technological breakthroughs to solve. They are instead held back by (1) lack…

It really depends what you're referring to as tech work here... Low IQ people in my opinion are almost incapable of tackling certain technical problems – generally those which require complex maths or reasoning ability. That said, most tech work isn't that. In fact, most tech work isn't even technical. Designers or product owners are tech workers, but don't necessarily need to be "smart". And even the technical roles…

Can you give a concrete example of tech work that a "low IQ person" would not be able to tackle?

Re: How to do things if you're not that smart and don't have any talent

#89

Post by chii »

thrdbndndn wrote: post #47
chii wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (1) lack of effort or (2) lack of organization. (3) lack of reward I say the former 2 is caused by 3. Why would anyone put in over-time to solve a problem, if they dont know how well they'd get rewarded by it? It's why small/founder owned startups get more done with less, because they know themselves how much reward they'd get when putting in the hard yards.

This is very true, but not sure how to solve it. For a job where the "reward" (mainly salary) is fronted and somewhat fixed (no bonus or bonus isn't worth it), some (even most) people basically work as little as possible to not get themselves fired. But it would also be challenging to change the rewarding structure to something similar to salesman.

> challenging to change the rewarding structure to something similar to salesman.

profit sharing.

This happens at the executive level, because it correctly aligns the incentives. But somehow, the run of the mill employee cannot be trusted to think for themselves and be incentivized?

Re: How to do things if you're not that smart and don't have any talent

#90

Post by Jensson »

sph wrote: post #83
paxys wrote: post #14

From my experience in the tech industry I can say with utmost confidence that "not smart"/"talentless" people who are determined and hard-working lead to significantly better real world results than geniuses who are lazy, unmotivated or overall not action oriented. The vast majority of problems at any company are easy and don't need any big technological breakthroughs to solve. They are instead held back by (1) lack…

PSA for people that believe they are somewhat smart, have cool ideas yet seemingly no power whatsoever to actually work on them. If you believe you are chronically lazy and feel it is causing issues in your life. If you feel you are living at 10% your true potential: Get tested for ADHD. If that is your problem, know that the chemical fix for it is extremely effective. It's taken me 30+ years of self-hate, a suggesti…

Note that those pills fixes focus, not motivation. Even with pills you will fail if your motivation falters, just like regular people.

I think the main tell of ADHD is if you feel you lack motivation to complete simple but tedious tasks that has high rewards that you really care about. In that case you don't lack motivation, you really care about the reward, you don't lack confidence since the task is simple, you just lack the ability to focus on simple tasks.

Having a hard time doing tasks you don't care about or tasks you are afraid of failing isn't ADHD, that is just normal. That includes schoolwork if you don't care about grades or feel you will fail anyway, and so on.

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