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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

#91

Post by blueflow »

j7ake wrote: post #88
kypro wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

"Which Voltage do i need to cut Styrofoam with a resistive wire"

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

#92

Post by MontgomeryPi2 »

The article made me think of General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord's officer classification: "I distinguish four types. There are clever, hardworking, stupid, and lazy officers. Usually two characteristics are combined. Some are clever and hardworking; their place is the General Staff. The next ones are stupid and lazy; they make up 90 percent of every army and are suited to routine duties. Anyone who is both clever and lazy is qualified for the highest leadership duties, because he possesses the mental clarity and strength of nerve necessary for difficult decisions. One must beware of anyone who is both stupid and hardworking; he must not be entrusted with any responsibility because he will always only cause damage."

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

#93

Post by iLoveOncall »

Here's another blog post that got popular on HN a few years ago and explains how doing much of what this article advises (not all) will get you nowhere: https://noidea.dog/glue

I don't think either are fully right or wrong, but I thought it was interesting to see the difference of opinion.

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

#94

Post by reuben364 »

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…

On medication for ADHD, it helps in the short term, but I still struggle to commit to working on things in the long term. I either get bored or forget or find a new shiny.

My job involves static analysis and I have an interest in PLT, so I've found some papers (Abstracting Abstract Machines) that I'll read through and get a rough idea. But to truly understand things I have to implement the ideas, but the scope of what I want to do expands so fast that I get demotivated and eventually move on.

Categories for the working mathematician, Software Foundations, contributing to mathlib are all things that I sort of start working towards and cannot force myself to get to any meaningful conclusion. At the same time starting so many things is how I slowly accumulated the foundations necessary to even approach these things.

It doesn't help that I also have PDA autism, which leads any sort of structure I try to impose on myself eventually becoming too stressful. I feel like I've reached the extent that modern medicine (I'm just short of max dosage of XR Ritalin) and therapy I can afford can help me.

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

#95

Post by Jgrubb »

wharvle wrote: post #23
eddy_chan wrote: post #15

I think the writer just suffers a huge case of imposter syndrome! Most seemingly 'smart' and 'talented' people are just people who know that 'Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard'

I’m pretty sure the entire premise is more than a little facetious, and the author already knows this.

I don’t think it’s facetious, I think it’s inspirational to point out that most of the time it’s just about hard work and doing the jobs nobody else is/wants to be doing.

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

#96

Post by lulesp »

AnotherGoodName wrote: post #13
e2021 wrote: post #7

This is good advice, but I think it is for people who think they are not smart, but are actually just inexperienced. I feel like someone who was actually not smart would have trouble executing on these steps

A group I've encountered that this could help are those without tenacity. I have smart friends who are hugely into tech who somehow remained unemployable even during the boom times in that industry. I try and try to push them towards opportunities but they argue 'I just have no natural talent for that' and stop before they even get started. Eg. they tried programming for 3 days, still hadn't fully groked it (because…

Can be a case of child prodigies. When you get told early in your development that you are smart, smarter than the others, some tend to not put any effort because... well, they are smart so the answer will come naturally to them right ?

When any obstacle arise to this magical solution, you just fold and flee any difficult task. Trying and failing would make them realize that you weren't so special to start with.

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

#97

Post by Jensson »

reuben364 wrote: post #94
sph wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

On medication for ADHD, it helps in the short term, but I still struggle to commit to working on things in the long term. I either get bored or forget or find a new shiny. My job involves static analysis and I have an interest in PLT, so I've found some papers (Abstracting Abstract Machines) that I'll read through and get a rough idea. But to truly understand things I have to implement the ideas, but the scope of wha…

> But to truly understand things I have to implement the ideas, but the scope of what I want to do expands so fast that I get demotivated and eventually move on.

This is your motivation doing its job, instead of wasting your time on such low reward per effort tasks it tells you to do other things, this is how motivation works for regular people. Pills doesn't change this, so unless your motivation loves to learn and understand new topics the pills really wont help you get there.

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

#98

Post by diggan »

reuben364 wrote: post #94
sph wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

On medication for ADHD, it helps in the short term, but I still struggle to commit to working on things in the long term. I either get bored or forget or find a new shiny. My job involves static analysis and I have an interest in PLT, so I've found some papers (Abstracting Abstract Machines) that I'll read through and get a rough idea. But to truly understand things I have to implement the ideas, but the scope of wha…

> On medication for ADHD, it helps in the short term, but I still struggle to commit to working on things in the long term. I either get bored or forget or find a new shiny.

Could just be that you're a "scanner" rather than you having some condition. Barbara Sher wrote multiple books about the subject of "I want to do everything, what's wrong with me?" and while the book I read ("Refuse to chose") is filled with lots of empty platitudes and overly positive language, I think the core idea discussed in the book is reasonable.

A somewhat neutral/borderline negative (but realistic) review of the book can be found here: https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2024/01/book-review-refuse-to-choos...

I'm not saying it'll solve the problem, but maybe there are "issues" that shouldn't be considered issues, related to you getting bored and so on.

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

#100

Post by gruez »

blueflow wrote: post #91
j7ake wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

"Which Voltage do i need to cut Styrofoam with a resistive wire"

The low iq solution would be to steadily ramp up the voltage until it cuts.
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