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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?

#181

Post by indigoabstract »

faeriechangling wrote: post #147
cdrini wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently shifted my opinion on IQ tests a bit after watching a recent Veritasium video. He goes into the background/history/controversy of the test as well as some of the concrete impacts of the test and places where it's used. For example did you know the US military has an IQ minimum cutoff? And furthermore they have a second 'soft' cutoff, where only 20% of the military can have an IQ under a certain value. In t…

IQ tests being invalid is more politics than science. Among other things, rejecting the existence of cognitive inequality is necessary to justify systemic racism via the continued existence of Asian quotas (Affirmative Action). Since lots of people benefit from this racism, there’s a huge interest in denial. In western countries, when there’s a few billion people in Asia, and you let a tiny amount in gatekeeping them…

> Low IQ is more predictive of success than High IQ.

I'm curious what you meant by that. Could you please explain?

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

#182

Post by digging »

Leftium wrote: post #15

Slow thinker here. When asked a question, I can give a great answer 10 minutes; an hour; a day later. It's not a full day of active thinking, but time is needed to "stew" in my mind for a while. So I give my best answer in the moment (which might be "I don't know"). Then I follow up with my awesome answer whenever it comes. Slow thinking makes conversation more difficult. Anything beyond 1:1 conversation usually mean…

> People say that your first reaction is the most honest, but I disagree. Your first reaction is usually outdated. Either it’s an answer you came up with long ago and now use instead of thinking, or it’s a knee-jerk emotional response to something in your past.

This is a very good point that's worth, uh, pointing out.

Being able to quickly reply is not necessarily a good thing. I've caught this in myself - making some witty response to a situation and then immediately realizing, "I haven't examined that opinion in years. I don't like it or believe it anymore. I wish I hadn't said that."

But without vocalizing that introspection, it may just appear that I'm witty and, depending on the listener, a bit of an asshole. Actually I'm less of an asshole than I used to be, but sometimes you're getting old data which hasn't been cleaned up yet.

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

#185

Post by agumonkey »

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…

Quite interesting neurologically wise..

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

#186

Post by Arech »

ryandrake wrote: post #173
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…

I have no background in pedagogy, but I've never understood the point of timed, high pressure tests, especially for children. You really just want to know the child has mastered the material such that they can solve the problems correctly--why is it necessary for them to do them in under 30 seconds, or whatever the bar is? If one kid gets the test done in 20 minutes and the other one takes 2 hours, but they both get…

even more than that - it's quite possible the one who did it too fast have just recalled most of it from his memory, but the other is likely to have found solution for himself from scratch, which is usually much more valuable. Even the perseverance to find the solution is something worthy by itself... (obviously, "mileage may vary", but still)

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

#187

Post by nprateem »

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…

> most of that sharpness comes from either having a few pre-known responses to ideas or anxiously revising situations in my head ahead of time

That's not that cause for me. I just grasp things quickly.

> Avoid using the word "slow", use "deliberate" instead.

That sounds inclusive but isn't what Kahneman meant. Slow thinking is when you leave it to your subconscious, so the only deliberate thing would be to give it time and put your conscious mind elsewhere. So in that way the two terms wouldn't be interchangeable in a 'Thinking fast and slow' sense.

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

#189

Post by boplicity »

ryandrake wrote: post #173
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…

I have no background in pedagogy, but I've never understood the point of timed, high pressure tests, especially for children. You really just want to know the child has mastered the material such that they can solve the problems correctly--why is it necessary for them to do them in under 30 seconds, or whatever the bar is? If one kid gets the test done in 20 minutes and the other one takes 2 hours, but they both get…

> Why does it matter?

Because accommodating every kid's needs is expensive, and society is not willing to pay for it.

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

#190

Post by lazyasciiart »

chris_wot wrote: post #122
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…

“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?

Sometimes you can tell that someone is not listening and thinking about what you said, but has their own statement ready and is simply waiting until they have a chance to say it.
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