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

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

#161

Post by rfrey »

Sorry OP, for a bit of a diversion. I notice a lot of folks saying that "quick wit" or fast thinking or whatever, is just advance preparation (perhaps subconscious) or a memorized script, etc. It may be, but for those who think it always is, it definitely isn't.

My son is/was quite bright - reading at 3, reading the Economist and understanding 20% of it at 5, teaching himself calculus at 7. He got terrible grades in school maths, and his teachers thought he was lazy because he so obviously understood the material.

With some cognitive testing at age 6, he was placed "somewhere over 2nd stdev" (they just stop after a bit) for most cognitive subjects... but when taking response time tests he would drop to 2nd percentile. Second percentile! You could ask him to to find the root of a simple quadratic, and he would think about it and get the answer, then ask him to name the first five even numbers, and he would take about the same amount of time. His processing speed was (and is) just slow. In school, many marks went towards "flash tests" and speed competitions in math. He couldn't get through the first half of the tests, he'd run out of time. He's in third year honours maths at uni now, favourite topic is abstract algebra. They give him more time on tests.

My point is that this is real for some people, it's not just practice or technique or rehearsing.

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

#162

Post by jghn »

KaiserPro wrote: post #127
c0pium wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I loathe talking to people who rehearse the conversation ahead of time. They invariably don’t respond to what I actually said but rather change what I said to line up with what they practiced in the mirror. Or they say some version of “I expected you to say foo, to which I would have responded bar”. Cool story, but totally irrelevant. If you don’t have an answer at the time just say so and follow up later. Waiting fo…

Yeah, this is where empathy comes in. You need to read the person/people. I should have been more clear, its more of a template, than a stock answer. Having a cache of information is not the same as "not listening". You still need to listen and respond to the subject at hand. For example, you are having a meeting about door handles. You know there is a problem about the placing, but also one person is keen on changin…

> I should have been more clear, its more of a template, than a stock answer

That and also there's no rule that says a person who is generating responses ahead of time has to stick to exactly one possibility. When preparing for conversations it's important to walk down multiple paths at multiple branch points.

To the point you've been raising in this thread it is about being prepared to be sharp in a conversation, not to railroad the other person and/or come across like a politician on the Sunday AM talk shows.

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

#163

Post by kbos87 »

I’d describe myself as a slow thinker. I’m hesitant to bring up politics, but I’ve been contemplating this in the context of the upcoming election.

I have complete faith in Joe Biden’s ability to make sound decisions through a slow and deliberate process. That’s what the presidency requires.

I don’t hold much faith in his ability to compete on the campaign trail, because all people care about is fast thinking in conversation and debate, and he’s quickly losing that ability.

I see a pretty clear parallel to myself. I’m able to perform objectively well at work, but I’m not great in fast paced conversations, and unfortunately, interviews.

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

#165

Post by bluGill »

rawgabbit wrote: post #130
chris_wot wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Waiting for your turn to talk is disrespectful and painful to watch.” I’m not following… surely you don’t mean interrupt the person speaking?

Citizen asks a question, "Why are rents increasing so rapidly?" Politician sticks to his prepared talking points and riffs for fifteen minutes about something else. Citizen feels disrespected.

Many politicians over practice that. They need to have prepared talking points on everything. This often is different talking points on the same issue for different crowds: how you talk to religious fundamentalists about abortion is not how you talk to queer crowd - you will need to convince someone in one of the above crowds that despite one disagreement you are still worth voting for. Of course everything is impossible and you will offend someone (I used abortion as an example where you cannot win and so will want to skip), so it is tempting to avoid that: many politicians have plants who are asking a prepared question, always avoiding the hard issues while making a big deal about something small.

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

#166

Post by takinola »

dijit wrote: post #38

This is something that's easy to have an opinion on so you're going to get buried. I'll do my best to make a high-signal comment here, but it will be drowned by all the other replies, which also likely touch on these points. First, "slow-thinking" is really just a different way of expressing your thinking and you should begin by leaning into it rather than leaning away. Take time, allow yourself to pause to collect y…

As someone that falls on the "deliberate" thinking side of the spectrum, I found that it helps to ask questions in the moment rather than proffer ideas. When presented new information, I try to understand the following:

1. How can I tell if this information is true ie what else would need to be true if this is correct?

2. If this is true, what are the implications of this new data ie what has changed in our plans?

3. Given these implications, what do I need to do different?

I find that questions around these help me (and the rest of the audience) better understand the issue very quickly and help me get up to speed quickly.

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

#167

Post by ParetoOptimal »

annie_muss wrote: post #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…

Do you have very good spatial memory? I find working memory is low for me unless its something spatial like a route I've run once 20 years ago.

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

#168

Post by user_7832 »

rfrey wrote: post #161

Sorry OP, for a bit of a diversion. I notice a lot of folks saying that "quick wit" or fast thinking or whatever, is just advance preparation (perhaps subconscious) or a memorized script, etc. It may be, but for those who think it always is, it definitely isn't. My son is/was quite bright - reading at 3, reading the Economist and understanding 20% of it at 5, teaching himself calculus at 7. He got terrible grades in…

Any chance he might have dyscalculia and/or ADHD? Though I guess he’d might have already been tested.

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

#169

Post by tordrt »

orng wrote: post #41
annie_muss wrote: post #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…

The only insight IQ tests can give you is that anyone who gives them any merit is either a moron or uninformed.

Not happy with your results eh?
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