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

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

#211

Post by hirvi74 » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 4:42 AM UTC

pi-e-sigma wrote: post #185

api wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This feeds into one of my pet hypotheses about human ability: the most important biological factors determining success lie not in whatever influences IQ or other intelligence or creativity attributes but in the dopamine system. Take 20 IQ points from someone and replace that with the ability to engage focus and flow state at will and see what happens. Our dopamine system is tuned for a world that is far slower than…

Nothing can replace intelligence potential, i.e. IQ, because it's a prerequisite for a lot of activities. Just like the height in the basketball.

Time is a variable which is heavily factored into IQ scoring. At least on some sections...maybe all?

I imagine if time was not a factor, then scores would be quite different. Life is usually less time constrained than some proprietary, standardized test, so I think you might be surprised at what people with "normal" IQs could accomplish if properly motivated, engaged, etc..

Then again, it's not like IQ is the be-all and end-all of intelligence measuring. It's just the (debatably) best we have now.

Also, plenty of people with extraordinary IQs accomplish absolutely nothing of value in life, awful social skills, etc.. Hell, I had a professor once that while rather arrogant about her IQ, would also claim that having an IQ as high as hers is actual a disability -- you struggle to relate with people. Von Neumann didn't have that issue, but hey, everyone is different.

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

#212

Post by hirvi74 » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 4:47 AM UTC

chii wrote: post #16

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…

> (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.

> Why would anyone put in over-time to solve a problem, if they dont know how well they'd get rewarded by it?

Fear of punishment i.e., getting fired. That's why I do it most of the time. I know for a fact I won't get rewarded for it.

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

#213

Post by hirvi74 » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 5:03 AM UTC

bloak wrote: post #57

hackerlight wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's in R&D, medium intelligence people simply can't contribute even if they try really hard.

They probably can't lead the project but they can definitely contribute. I'm not quite sure what "intelligence" is - some people have strange personalities that make them hard to classify - but you don't need to be exceptionally good at anything to contribute to research (or R&D).

> They probably can't lead the project but they can definitely contribute.

This has been the case all throughout humanity.

For example, I imagine humanity learned a lot things from people of all different intelligences like:

"Is this snake venomous?"

"Are these mushrooms poisonous?"

"Are these animals friendly?"

etc..

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

#214

Post by KolenCh » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 5:14 AM UTC

MontgomeryPi2 wrote: post #92

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…

A minor flaw: it is said in a way like it is 2 choices out of 4, which gives you 6 combinations. But it is more like two choices each for 2 independent “axes”, which gives you 4 combinations, exhausted in the elaboration that follows.

(For example, someone who is both clever and stupid, and someone who is both hardworking and lazy don’t make sense.)

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

#215

Post by justanotherjoe » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 5:15 AM UTC

kamaal wrote: post #175

justanotherjoe wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Isn't taoism more on the lines of making things happen by design and not fight through things to get them done? Sure many times that means doing nothing at all, But most of the times it means working with things in a way that things are so well designed you just flow with things instead of fighting through the system to make them happen.

i think so. I'm not a taoism expert by any means. From what I gathered, it's something like 'do not try to resolve things that will resolve itself'. An example is parents who speak to their baby a lot so that the baby might learn to speak. It's just not needed. If anything, baby talk might be harmful. And tiring. It leaves entitlement in the parent and foster bitterness later down the line. In reality a baby will learn to speak by themselves quite naturally. The parent can forget that and have a semblance of a life instead.

Also I really love the character of Mr.Shaibel in 'queen's gambit', who i thought is the embodiment of the taoist ideal in a person. Again, I'm not really learned in taoism.

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

#216

Post by sebastiangula » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 8:20 AM UTC

hirvi74 wrote: post #200

sph wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Safety is a spectrum. I take dexamfetamine, which is the most researched and effective (if you can tolerate it). It has addictive potential, but in my experience, treating it with the respect it deserved, I would say it's nothing compared to caffeine. I can easily skip meds from an entire week (which I will spend scrolling HN), yet every single day there is a voice in the back of my head telling me that a cup of coff…

I'm on the same medicine, but coffee is significantly easier to quit for me. If I take a single day off meds, then I feel it, and that feeling compounds for about a week. The withdrawals, in my opinion, while not particularly painful in a physical sense, and still fucking brutal. I'm on a child's dosage too, which is crazy. Yeah yeah, I know everyone is different and all that, but I can see why this drug is a Schedul…

Physical dependence and addiction is a very different thing. If you’re physically dependent then you’ll just plan accordingly (taper if necessary) and ride it out, but if you’re addicted then you won’t be capable of doing that and 90% (or more) of the attempts will fail because of the behavioral overrides. This can turn something that could be tapered in couple months into multi-year struggle. I’ve learned this the hard way.

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

#217

Post by ilikegreen » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 8:26 AM UTC

thebiss wrote: post #184

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…

I have a hard time with this advice. Is it for teens? My daughter has severe ADHD and is a disaster without medication. One of her current doctors asked which parent has similar traits, and my wife says it is me. My daughter's academic and behavioral track record is shamefully like mine. So I've been to two psychologists and my GP, and all three say that ADHD doesn't exist in adults, it's something kids grow out of.

This is heartbreaking. It's possible you might not have it, but that response is so inadequate – and from three doctors!

If you want to read more on the condition, Gabor Maté's Scattered Minds is a good introduction to ADHD (he's apparently very good at conveying what it feels like, which might be helpful to you at this point).

All the best!

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

#218

Post by Charlie_32 » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 10:14 AM UTC

rgavuliak wrote: post #146

Jensson wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That jives very well with the first point: "Be audacious. Most people who are talented or smart are scared of doing things." In general smart people want to understand what they are doing before they do it. This means you can often beat them at a task by simply doing without understanding, which is why General Kurt told us to be wary about such people.

Yeah, I've seen too many bs created by people that thought they were much smarter than in reality.

The, refactor the entire codebase without asking to, type people

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

#219

Post by Sammi » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 10:59 AM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #203

StopHammoTime wrote: post #85

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…

You have to be careful though, otherwise you could end up being the guy who looks after all the printers.

Be careful what you're good at is good advise.

But be good at something is also good advice :)

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

#220

Post by corobo » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 1:18 PM UTC

euroderf wrote: post #170

corobo wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately satisfaction-to-time-consumed doesn't pay any bills or fill the cupboards with food In the ideal world aye absolutely, in this reality the time was wasted

Not to quibble, but let's face it then, that GitHub (et al.) is chock full of evidence of time wasted. False starts galore.

Depends on the creator really. It's a waste of time for me personally because I'm supposed to be grinding down some debts, paying the bills, and making sure there's food on the table. As I'm working freelance and billing hourly anything that doesn't earn cash directly or have the potential to be a new income source takes resources away from that goal.

Once my finances are more stable I'll be much more free to tinker with fun projects rather than focusing on potential business/income projects.

To be a bit more clear I only mean it's timewasting for me, not for humanity as a whole! I highly encourage anyone without my current constraints to code stuff for the fun of it without worrying about false starts or failed projects! :)