Willingness to look stupid • Hacker News Board

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#141

Post by Lalabadie » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 11:43 AM UTC

atoav wrote: post #133

austin-cheney wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That isn’t really correct. Fear of observation is highly correlated with neuroticism. Creativity, on the other hand, is a component of openness which is highly correlated with intelligence. The most creative people are those who measure both high intelligence and low neuroticism, which simultaneously are the people least concerned by impacts of increased observation. Furthermore, high trust social environments only c…

I teach at an art university for 8 years now. I would highly doubt that: The most creative people are those who measure both high intelligence and low neuroticism . In my experience that isn't the complete picture. I have met highly creative people who are extremely (unhealthy so) concerned with what others think, yet go their own path anyways. It is true that creative people often tend to do things in a way that app…

I think the idea that one must be naturally impervious to shame to be "the right sort" of creative is attractive, but it's used to disregard the courage necessary to show oneself and open up in the way that builds the creator.

Lots of amazing artists, creators and researchers are obviously highly neurotic.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#142

Post by ferroman » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 12:01 PM UTC

21asdffdsa12 wrote: post #78

This posts observation have interesting side-effects. Measurements, metrics and surveillance kill creative work. And hierarchies and the fear of embarrassment do too. So, the more you try to force "excellence" into existence via external pressures and resource tracking, the more it disappears. Which leaves as observation, you can only do truly creative work - in a high trust society, where people trust you with the r…

trust is very VERY expensive commodity

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#143

Post by bdunks » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 12:01 PM UTC

alwa wrote: post #17

If you haven’t had the pleasure of Los Angeles public-access television’s Let’s Paint TV… https://www.letspainttv.com/ Or, to save your eyes, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let's_Paint_TV For more than 20 years, Mr. Let’s Paint TV (artist John Kilduff) has encouraged viewers to “EMBRACE FAILARE”—charitably put, to pass through the valley of incompetence as it’s the only path to the slopes of mastery. Just do the thing…

There is a book called Art & Fear which explores this in depth. A quick read and worth it for people that don’t consider themselves artists.

It has a great story (allegory) about a pottery class, which was shared here in the past. Six sentences. Worth a read:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6097663

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#144

Post by nephihaha » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 12:08 PM UTC

"There’s this unfortunate pattern that happens when someone wins a Nobel Prize. They tend to stop doing great work."

That is as true of literature as of science. It is not just some curse, but rather because they tend to get recognised after their peak anyway.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#145

Post by nephihaha » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 12:09 PM UTC

Lionga wrote: post #53

ljlolel wrote: post #2

AI has no ego

AI also has no intelligence

Depends on your definition of intelligence.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#146

Post by nephihaha » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 12:12 PM UTC

hyperhello wrote: post #7

Caring if you get downvoted makes your posts dull.

It's been very interesting to see what does and doesn't get downvoted. A couple of people didn't like me pointing out the reality of STIs for example although no one really wants to get one.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#147

Post by nephihaha » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 12:13 PM UTC

balamatom wrote: post #116

Need someone to look stupid for me, $100/hr.

Court jester?

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#148

Post by beaker52 » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 12:13 PM UTC

I don’t mind looking stupid. It’s actually an important part of my identity - I lay my humanity bare. I am of flesh after all.

I’m starting to suspect that it’s making it more difficult for me to land a job though. I don’t know. There’s something about it. It’s almost as if businesses aren’t hiring human beings, but I can’t quite put my finger on it.

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#149

Post by mnw21cam » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 12:14 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #30

Queue obligatory Weird Al: https://youtu.be/SMhwddNQSWQ I'm human so I'm certainly not immune to social anxiety or embarrassment from looking stupid, but I have been trying to do a manual override that for the last year. Something it took me an embarrassing amount of time to realize is that the first draft of nearly everything I do is bad. The first draft of my code is usually bad, the first draft of an essay I write…

It's "Cue", rather than "Queue".

Re: Willingness to look stupid

#150

Post by fix4fun » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 12:17 PM UTC

21asdffdsa12 wrote: post #78

This posts observation have interesting side-effects. Measurements, metrics and surveillance kill creative work. And hierarchies and the fear of embarrassment do too. So, the more you try to force "excellence" into existence via external pressures and resource tracking, the more it disappears. Which leaves as observation, you can only do truly creative work - in a high trust society, where people trust you with the r…

Fear of failure is a stumbling block for science.

That's why many universities declare in their charter that research doesn't have to be practical. The practicality of RSA asymmetric encryption only became practical with the advent of the internet ;)