221–230 of 280 posts
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…
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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.
Years ago I went to a thinktank event on drone policy, and the congressmen they brought in spent 15 minutes saying that we needed to start discussing the important conversation of beginning to plan our policy creation dialog. Nothing but hot air.
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Our daughter was diagnosed with dyscalculia, and the diagnosis was very helpful, both for us and for her. She was really struggling with maths and felt like she must just be stupid. The diagnosis helped her to understand that it's just a very concrete thing that she has that affects one aspect of her functioning, and doesn't mean that she's dumb, or lazy, or whatever other story she had ended up telling herself. We a…
It sounds like the diagnosis marked a point of positive transformation. Before the diagnosis, your daughter attributed her math challenges to global stupidity and laziness. After the diagnosis, she attributed it to a specific difficulty with math. That reframing does sound healthy and helpful. It also sounds like the diagnosis helped you accept the situation and adapt your teaching modality. Certainly, funding for tr…
This makes sense. By saying:
>Why bother?
You were describing how helpful a diagnosis can be.
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…
From experience, it doesn't work, especially in a group setting. People usually end up trying to guess what you want to say, or add on to what they said, or move on, or something. But they very rarely just wait patiently for me to think things through.
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…
quite helpful advice, i like the term "deliberate". i am actually starting to see my relative slow thinking as a sort of super power. i can chew things over and think hard about something before coming to an opinion. its not always the best opinion but at least i know ive given it a good shot
In response to OP, to me the exercise that helped me the most is to put myself into situations where a quick decision is needed but in case of a mistake the consequences are not that bad, just like in drama theatre you get better at improvisation by not having a script to follow.
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…
"The first thought that goes through your mind is what you have been conditioned to think, what you think next defines who you are."
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.
You're welcome to make substantive points thoughtfully, of course, whatever you're for or against.
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... if he wants to be good at giving interviews. He can also be happy being a pianist who isn't good at giving interviews.
But then he shouldn't have granted an interview in the first place. He should also expect that because he isn't self promoting like that he is soon passed over for piano playing positions (despite how good he may otherwise be) and has to find a non-playing job (teaching is common). His current job requires him to be good at interviews. If he wants to keep this job he needs to get good at it fast - it may already be t…
I see. I had no idea that was a requirement of being a professional pianist. This all read as incredibly pointless with me thinking that interviews were a side thing for a pianist.
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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…
Additionally, the IQ of second generation Asian immigrants will revert to the mean. Not only that, but the advtange decreases rapidly as they age, while the academic advantage grows. And the advantage to begin with is very small - average Asian IQ is only about 2.5 points higher than for Whites, even looking at all generations together.
Given the impact of early childhood environment on IQ, and the huge disparity in academic effort across cultures, esp. those that constitute Asian immigrants, it's pretty clear that the idea that the disparity in Asian achievement cannot be explained by an inherited intelligence advantage. All the data is much more consistent with a culture that just drives students to study far harder.
This does make the argument that affirmative action is harmful even stronger, actually. There is no need to fall back to terrible science to do it. The idea that IQ isn't terribly useful is because it isn't terribly useful, except in very rare cases for diagnosis. The current scientific consensus is consistent with an even stronger argument that AA unfairly discriminates against Asian students.
The Veritasium youtube channel has a few interesting videos related to this topic: This one is on IQ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkKPsLxgpuY Pay attention to the stats on how IQ correlates to success (near the end). This one is about becoming an expert: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eW6Eagr9XA This one is about someone who just worked harder than everyone else: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF8d72mA41M