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

adaobi.substack.com

151–160 of 225 posts

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

#151

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 an…

Nice, like that!

I am thinking is in IT industry 'too clever and hardworking'the same as 'stupid and hardworking'?

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

#152
post #45
post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small groups of like-minded people (from the same cultural and social background) move faster because they have less friction and a shared mission statement. That is something that translates badly to bigger groups, no matter the reward. Us tech guys already get rewarded with great working conditions and good pay.

> already get rewarded with great working conditions and good pay In addition to those, having clues that my work is appreciated (by colleagues / customers / users) plays a big role as well.

Making an effort in general (in all things: dressing well, speaking well, working hard) is almost completely a social activity. If there's nobody to impress, it's 10x harder to motivate myself. You end up having to imagine a hypothetical future person that your effort would impress, which is much less convincing to the lizard brain.

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

#153

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 an…

[deleted]

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

#154

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 an…

Your comment makes me think of taoism's wu wei. Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing. And when you do do nothing, you'll look like a lazy person for sure.

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

#155
post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Writing an embedded C program using ESP-IDF that polls a Bosch BME688 sensor, feeds it Bosch BSEC library (compiled for ESP32, of course) and then pushes the response to an AWS mqtt queue.

Why, in all that, would you use an AWS mqtt queue?

In case you have multiple sensors and your organisation is already on AWS?

Also, in this particular case, it adds complexity to task (https on embedded, for example, it's not as straight forward as on a normal server, for example)

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

#156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Writing an embedded C program using ESP-IDF that polls a Bosch BME688 sensor, feeds it Bosch BSEC library (compiled for ESP32, of course) and then pushes the response to an AWS mqtt queue.

"ChatGPT, write me an embedded C program using ESP-IDF that polls a Bosch BME688 sensor, feeds it Bosch BSEC library (compiled for ESP32, of course) and then pushes the response to an AWS mqtt queue."

good luck with that, ESP-IDF + BSEC is one of my go to tests for evaluating LLMs; it's such a niche topic, and complex too, that there is (probably) no training data covering it and all LLMs hallucinate when asked for a solution.

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

#157
post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Doing taxes and bills are not what I consider high reward more like moderate penalty. And, no, I don't pay my bills: everything is auto-pay.

> Doing taxes and bills are not what I consider high reward more like moderate penalty Try not paying bills or filing your taxes and you will see what happens, doing the task prevents you from getting a severe punishment (relative time spent on the task), so it is high reward. People with ADHD tend to be late paying bills or doing taxes and struggle with filling in forms in general, ie they regularly fail to do simpl…

Me browsing HN instead of filling out an invoice so I can get paid so I can pay my tax bill before the end of tomorrow haha. Fiine, I'll get back to it after this comment..

> You’ll pay a late filing penalty of £100 if your tax return is up to 3 months late

As ADHD taxes go this one's pretty chill. It's a decent chunk of change sure but compared to the rest of my finances (legacy pre-diagnosis debts I'm still grinding down).. it's on the low end lmao

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

#158
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PSA: take a look at CDC's symptoms for ADHD: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/adhd/diagnosis.html No motivation to start cool new projects is not among them... Actually, reading all those symptoms really puts into the light the 'disorder' part in the ADHD. And here's a philosophical question to ponder: should we change[1] to fit society's expectations or should society adjust itself to our needs? Should we take drugs so th…

I see where you're coming from, but comments like this are why it's taken me 30 years to understand there was something not exactly right with me. It doesn't help anyone because ADHD is something no one has completely understood, especially those that do not have it, and keep muddying the waters at any chance they get. In my experience , if it has any value, ADHD is also lack of motivation to start new cool projects…

Of course telling yourself that you're a "lazy bastard" is going to take its toll.

But that association is an artifact of culture, and something we can change. Should change.

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

#159
Was curious about the author:

> I'd always admired Adaobi Adibe from many of our interactions. Whenever our paths crossed, I found that she spoke with a frankness and transparency that was rare to find, and often reiterated the importance of authenticity even in the most challenging of spaces. Her curiosity led her to build Jargon, technology which translates online jargon and makes information more accessible to the masses. She's also a researcher exploring organ manufacturing, and is currently undertaking a fellowship with the Old Vic. Adaobi is a woman with a great mind, but equally a woman on a mission.

> At the age of 25, she has end-stage kidney failure. It's a life threatening condition which has had a considerable impact on her day-to-day life. However, it has also considerably altered her pursuits too. In her mission to build great things, kidney failure was not enough to deter her from her work, and in fact was inspired to look into solutions for end-stage kidney failure, and the distrust in medical professionalism which runs rampant in Black communities. Meet Adaobi - a woman on a mission.

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

#160

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 an…

Napoleon apparently joked about the importance of having dumb and energetic soldiers shot.

https://www.johndcook.com/blog/2010/12/27/dumb-and-gets-thin...

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