Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Slow thinkers, how do you compensate for your lack of quick-wittedness?

news.ycombinator.com

21–30 of 280 posts

Re: Ask HN: Slow thinkers, how do you compensate for your lack of quick-wittedness?

#21

1. Prep. 2. Bluster while I prep. A lot of quick thinkers are not actually quick thinkers. They are quick responders, using far more words to say just as much, with the filler works frontloaded to give them time. For example: "Now, correct me if I am wrong, and I may be, and this is something to consider, what if we X?" buys you about 5 seconds of time to think. You can say those words in front of pretty much every a…

"buys you about 5 seconds of time to think."

Steve Jobs had that mastered, like in this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeqPrUmVz-o

Re: Ask HN: Slow thinkers, how do you compensate for your lack of quick-wittedness?

#22
I have taken a properly administered IQ test. I scored 135 in one area and 89 in another. My main issue is I have very poor working memory. Luckily, we have technology to compensate for our deficiencies.

* I write everything down on calendars, to do lists, planners etc. * I have a smart speaker in every room so I can capture pieces of information as soon as I know about them. * I use many different kinds of timers to remind me of tasks, or to switch tasks from one to another. * I use checklists to help complete daily processes.

The best thing you can do is acknowledge your weaknesses, reflect on situations where you struggle and find specific techniques or processes that improve the outcome for you. It won't happen overnight. Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: Slow thinkers, how do you compensate for your lack of quick-wittedness?

#23
If you are smart yet "slow thinking", you may have a minor cognitive difference (disability). It's common. Consider that this supposed "slow thinking" instead could be "slow audio input processing" or similar. Do you have trouble understanding conversation when there is background noise like other conversation?

As others have mentioned "pre-thinking" or preparation will be the solution whenever possible.

If you suspect a language processing issue, get it confirmed so that you can plan around it.

Re: Ask HN: Slow thinkers, how do you compensate for your lack of quick-wittedness?

#24
I ask people to email me about the topic, then I spend a while thinking about it before answering.

Also, I try to never fire off a reply to an email without 1. writing a first draft, 2. thinking about something else, then 3. revising my draft.

Re: Ask HN: Slow thinkers, how do you compensate for your lack of quick-wittedness?

#25
post #16

Anki, believe it or not. Anki and sticking with the same small bag of tools. There are quite a few things which are best kept as "fingertip knowledge", even with the assistance of GPT-4.

Can you please share a couple of examples on how you use Anki?

I put in random facts and categorize them. Topic of reading comes up, I can never remember books I’ve read. I started making Anki flash cards of book summaries. I review this and other topics for 15 minutes a day

Re: Ask HN: Slow thinkers, how do you compensate for your lack of quick-wittedness?

#26
I don't know how I ended up as a slow thinker but here I am. I compensate my lack of quick-wittedness by preparing, other times I just ask people to send me the stuff they need and want instead, that way I can take my time and have everything in control.

I hope this is something I can train away though, because thinking slow in-front of others is kinda embarrassing.

Re: Ask HN: Slow thinkers, how do you compensate for your lack of quick-wittedness?

#27
post #8

The reason to rehearse martial arts is to get in fewer fights. You spar to drive home the point that a fight entails the other person landing punches and all you will walk away with is some bruises. Nobody likes you more because you won the argument. "Yes, and..." is much better tool. Even when dealing with socio-paths because saying one thing and doing another is also useful. What I mean is that what works for me is…

It's funny that you mention "yes and..." here because I've been going to as many improv lessons and jams as I possibly can over the last two months and my ability to socialize, memorise things and general mood has improved exponentially. I've literally had suicidal thoughts for years - all gone. I genuinely think modern society is really fucking us up and improv is the antidote. You're just allowed to be silly, have fun and be in the moment. It's all the social rules and fear that makes you withdrawn and slow. Improv helps you get rid of all that sludge.

Re: Ask HN: Slow thinkers, how do you compensate for your lack of quick-wittedness?

#28

Sometimes what people think is quickness is actually extensive prep. I had a 30 minute meeting the other day to ask a team to do something I didn’t think they would want to do. It ended up going really smoothly and they just took my word for it, but had they not, I spend several hours preparing for that meeting, gathering data, preparing charts to illustrate the data, thinking of the possible objections and responses…

Agree - I find that I never really have a good answer on the spot, but I often have already been thinking about the problems around the workplace for long enough that I at least have a hunch or opinion. That's not quick-wit, it's just pre-thinking. But it works well enough for me.

One skill I learned during grad school was spending lots of time going over conversations or presentations or even upcoming meetings in your head. This "warms up" your cache, and helps you play out possible Q&A, so that you have more opinions ready.

And another skill I learned was actually learning to control the meeting to a certain extent. I'd come in with something like a limited "choose your own adventure" conversation tree in my head, and then I'd try to present choices or questions to those I was meeting or talking with, so that I could at least have a fallback.

And finally with experience comes wit. The 10th time you enter a situation you're much more likely to have something to say than the 1st time. And eventually, you'll start to recognize similarities in conversations.

But yeah, lack of quick wit makes social and work situations more challenging. It's just hard to make myself have strong opinions on the spot usually.

Re: Ask HN: Slow thinkers, how do you compensate for your lack of quick-wittedness?

#29
Don't speak.

People fill voids and awkward situations by saying stuff, even if that stuff is wrong.

It's OK to be quiet. It's also OK to say 'Let me think about that'.

Lose some arguments.

And unless the situation you are in that requires a quick decision is life or death, it probably doesn't need one.

Re: Ask HN: Slow thinkers, how do you compensate for your lack of quick-wittedness?

#30
I would say two things:

- stop thinking of yourself as slow thinker/fast thinker

- decide if you want to be able to think fast or not and either avoid situations where you have to think fast or seek such situations to practice and get better

Post reply on HN