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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?

#261

Post by digging »

bluGill wrote: post #233
digging wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> His current job requires him to be good at interviews 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.

Many people fail to understand thair true job. the real job in cases like this is to promote the show. That means interviews or other activities. Talent playing is a requirement of course, but there is plenty of talent around.

> the real job in cases like this is to promote the show

What, the piano show he performs? Why would that be the pianist's job? Wouldn't that be the venue's responsibility?

Edit: I had to look him up. Quote Wikipedia:

> Igor Levit is a Russian-German pianist who focuses on the works of Bach, Beethoven, and Liszt. He is also a professor at the Musikhochschule Hannover.

So it's not like he's taking gigs in dive bars. Do renowned classical musicians typically shoulder the burden of promoting their own performances... through radio interviews?

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

#262

Post by rekabis »

As a “slow thinker”, I am continually kicking myself in the arse when I come up with the perfect reply hours or even days later.

My compensation is to know the subject inside and out. When I am absolutely aligned with the data being discussed, I can absolutely spar with the best of them.

Downside is any context-based subject, such as sarcasm or politics or emotional/fact-free arguments. There is no way to master those, so my slow thinking is a permanent nerf.

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

#263

Post by replwoacause »

jebarker wrote: post #198
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…

> Finally, do your best to avoid situations where a "quick decision" is needed I find this easier said than done. I dislike most meetings because I don't think quickly enough to keep up and contribute to the discussion. That often means that others will make decisions that I could have contributed usefully to before I've had the chance to think deliberately about the question.

Same here (Took me 1 day to think of this reply)

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

#264

Post by replwoacause »

another-dave wrote: post #36
jvanderbot wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 yo…

> 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. I did debating in school and a lot of the prep was like this too — once you have your position sketched out, you put on your 'opposition…

What happens if your working memory is so poor that by the time you’ve put on your opposition hat to scrutinize your original position, your brain is out of bandwidth and it forgets the details of original position, or it can’t scrutinize that position because there isn’t enough bandwidth to hold both the original idea and the counter position simultaneously? So now you’ve got a counter argument to a now forgotten original position.

Just wondering.

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

#265

Post by ltbarcly3 »

Desafinado wrote: post #131
ltbarcly3 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People fake it all the time though.

They do, but in most things the inauthenticity usually gets rooted out eventually when results aren't delivered. True confidence produces results.

True confidence is just being too stupid to know what you are getting into. Read Notes from the Underground.

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

#266

Post by thewileyone »

Worked for a CEO who prided himself in making quick decisions, almost of all them damaging to the company, and would make fun of those who took a moment to think, like me. Although he intensely disliked me, I was the longest tenured Head of Tech because I didn't make mistakes and he couldn't get rid of me.

Addendum: I might have taken a while to think through a problem, but I am quick-witted in arguing hahaha!

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

#267

Post by sudosysgen »

mph10 wrote: post #257
sudosysgen wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There actually is a reason. It is to make sure that kids have mastery of fundamental skills that they will need in the future. If it takes you a long to subtract, for example, it will take you an impractically long to do long division, and eventually you will take so long with more complex concepts that you won't be able to learn effectively. Additionally, you also want a fair number of problems in any given test to…

Subtraction is not necessary for division. This is a specific example, and the general point is that there a multiple ways of doing things. If a child can avoid 1 step and skip straight to the result more efficiently, that is a valid way of solving a problem.

Substraction is necessary for long division. Elementary schools force you to learn long division because later when you learn algebra, you need long division to divide polynomials, for example. You also will need substraction to do Gaussian elimination, etc...

Many school systems make difference between the ability to solve a problem, and the ability to solve a problem a certain way. Sometimes the first is all that's asked, but when that way of doing things is necessary later, then the second is asked of you.

The point is that you want to prepare the child for what they will need in the future. Sure, perhaps you are doubly exceptional and will be able to adapt on the fly in the future, but you can't design a school system around extremely uncommon students.

I say this as another 2E student that had very similar issues. There is no good way of fixing it except maybe by giving special accommodations to these students. I repeatedly failed exams exactly because I would skip steps this way, but there is no sense fundamentally changing the entire school system and hurting the majority for that.

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

#268

Post by creer »

reddiky wrote: post #123
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…

> Finally, do your best to avoid situations where a "quick decision" is needed; this is good advice even for "quick thinkers". Fast decisions are often poor ones - the counterpoint to that is dragging something out over many weeks or across many meetings - but putting yourself in a situation where the unknowns become knowns or the scope of the landscape and weight of the decision can be properly assessed is important…

Wonder if you really "have to" make that decision "now". Sometimes you may have to get the ball rolling because of time constraints there specifically but the decision itself can wait. For example it might be fine to get funds moving so they are ready, even if the later decision means they are not needed anymore.

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

#269

Post by creer »

ImageXav wrote: post #115
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…

This is all great advice. One thing I would add to this is to deliberately steer your team to avoid making big decisions on calls or in meetings. Instead, make it so that your team prioritises asynchronous communication methods to discuss the lay of the land, and only make decisions after everyone has had time to contribute to the discussion. I've found that creating a shared document or flowchart can work wonders if…

If you have a say in it, get the meetings and calls to be about providing input, bouncing ideas around, discussing the background, building a paper trail. NOT about making the decision. Certainly not in the first meeting about it. Then accept still more input over email. Then let the (ideally one) decision maker make the decision.

Sometimes the meeting or call is about an emerging urgent situation. Even then, the decision is probably not needed this minute. Not before there is what input there is to find. That first meeting might then be more about figuring out what input or data might be available.

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

#270

Post by another-dave »

replwoacause wrote: post #264
another-dave wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. I did debating in school and a lot of the prep was like this too — once you have your position sketched out, you put on your 'opposition…

What happens if your working memory is so poor that by the time you’ve put on your opposition hat to scrutinize your original position, your brain is out of bandwidth and it forgets the details of original position, or it can’t scrutinize that position because there isn’t enough bandwidth to hold both the original idea and the counter position simultaneously? So now you’ve got a counter argument to a now forgotten or…

Your alignment has shifted and you've gone from lawful good to chaotic good :)

As a serious answer, just make liberal use of notes.

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