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Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men (1924)

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Re: Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men (1924)

#241

Post by woodchuck64 »

efuquen wrote: post #189
woodchuck64 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think everyone should be highly suspicious of charisma. Charisma is a skill, not a trait, and it's developed by spending a lifetime practicing on people that one thinks are largely beneath one's self.

That's a pretty cynical point of view. I've met plenty of charismatic people who wouldn't think they're spending "a lifetime practicing on people that one thinks are largely beneath one's self". And then I've meant charismatic people who are full of themselves as well. Charisma and egotism don't go hand in hand ...

Don't confuse charisma with extroversion. Being an open, warm, inviting person is not the defining characteristic of those who others readily identify as "charismatic" rather than a "really nice guy". Charisma is first and foremost about impressing others with your charm, intelligence, wit, etc. The skilled ones hide their contempt and egotism well.

Re: Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men (1924)

#242

Post by bigtunacan »

jotm wrote: post #223
k__ wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the always starters I have the feeling, that everyone who don't want to do real work, is this kind of person... There are a big bunch of people out there with ideas, but only a fraction of them will realize their ideas. This is why there are "non-technical-founders" (I have this idea, I just need someone _helping_ me to implement it) and why developers are paid so much money. Because everyone can have ideas, but no…

On the other hand, technical founders can make the idea work, but can't get people to use it, which makes it just as worthless (with a lot of wasted time and added stress, to boot). An "ideas guy" who can actually sell those ideas is pretty valuable.

That is not an "ideas guy"; that is a "sales person". And a strong sales person is essential and actually adds value. While some technical founders can also be great sales people; it is uncommon so this is a good pairing.

When people say "ideas guy", at least in my local techno-sphere, it means the person that has "some great idea", but no skills to implement, no skills to sell it, and no money to back it.

We get "idea guys" at our tech meetups on a somewhat regular basis. They just show up one day, and it's always the same thing, "So I have this great idea to do X, but I don't know how to program. I don't have any money to pay anyone, but I'll give you a 10% equity to build my idea. Huh?, no no I don't have any existing customer relationships either. Now which one of you can get this done the fastest?"

On the other hand we have people that fit into one of the 3 necessary/valuable categories (Implementers/Sellers/Financial Backers). People in all 3 of these categories have ideas and add real value.

Re: Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men (1924)

#243

Post by olalonde »

baldfat wrote: post #224

I come from a HIGH IQ family. My father's IQ is unmeasurable but guesses are between 190-210 my move is over 165 and 3 of my sisters are in MENSA. I graduated Valedictorian in High School and College. I have been the "Jack of All Trades" and can study something and be proficient with it. Did some locally well known good deeds. From my 30+ years of work force experience I have decided that I wish I had an average IQ a…

> People with a higher capacity intellectually can take in more information and see more moves ahead. That way there is a different perception on solution and it causes frustration for everyone.

I have a different theory. Assuming that:

- High IQ individuals tend to rely less on intuition and more on analytical thinking.

- IQ measures analytical thinking rather then intuition.

- Intuition often outperforms analytical thinking in many complex domains that require fast decision making (I believe the book "Thinking fast and slow" explores this theme). This could also be evidenced by the seeming lack of correlation between "success" and IQ, past a certain IQ level.

Then it could be possible that individuals who consistently outperform higher IQ individuals in a given domain find it frustrating working with them. The analytical person might point out flaws in their reasoning and the intuitive person might not be able to rationally defend their position although they are right.

Disclaimer: As someone who is (probably) high IQ and often victim of "over analysis"[0], I might just be projecting my own experience here. But intuitively, I'd say my theory makes sense ;)

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis

Re: Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men (1924)

#244

Post by pcrh »

valarauca1 wrote: post #231
pcrh wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Even the most brilliant idea will have been had by countless people It wasn't very brilliant then, was it?

Most ideas aren't that brilliant. If it occurred to you, it likely occurred to somebody else. Ideas are a product of your environment. While we pretend to be unique a lot of what we do is pretty common to dozens, if not hundreds, or thousands of people. Even ideas as earth shaking and complex as Infinitesimal Calculus and Quantum Mechanics were developed in parallel initial by people with little to no communication b…

That's the point, isn't it? Truly good ideas are rare.

Re: Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men (1924)

#245

Post by Consultant32452 »

pertinhower wrote: post #232
baldfat wrote: post #224

I come from a HIGH IQ family. My father's IQ is unmeasurable but guesses are between 190-210 my move is over 165 and 3 of my sisters are in MENSA. I graduated Valedictorian in High School and College. I have been the "Jack of All Trades" and can study something and be proficient with it. Did some locally well known good deeds. From my 30+ years of work force experience I have decided that I wish I had an average IQ a…

I think you're right. There are two forces at work: innate ability and social acceptability. Innate ability tends to harm social acceptability. Therefore, to the extent that social acceptability determines a person's overall ability to succeed, high innate ability can actually pose a greater net detriment to success than a lower innate ability does. In a word, being "smart" or even "skillful" may in some cases make y…

I think it's important to recognize that not all innate abilities are created equally. Innate intelligence will make you a social pariah but innate ability in a physical skill that results in you being an amazing basketball player will make you Michael Jordan.

Re: Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men (1924)

#246

Post by sogen »

darkmighty wrote: post #114
solve wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Employees still optimize for pay / effort, NOT absolute pay. In that respect, commissions are still FAR from perfectly aligning incentives. You can't really be suggesting that commissions are the silver bullet for aligning incentives, as if that hasn't been tried for thousands of years already, with very mixed success :)

Well, make nonlinear commissions then! :P

made me laugh

Re: Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men (1924)

#247

Post by baldfat »

pertinhower wrote: post #232
baldfat wrote: post #224

I come from a HIGH IQ family. My father's IQ is unmeasurable but guesses are between 190-210 my move is over 165 and 3 of my sisters are in MENSA. I graduated Valedictorian in High School and College. I have been the "Jack of All Trades" and can study something and be proficient with it. Did some locally well known good deeds. From my 30+ years of work force experience I have decided that I wish I had an average IQ a…

I think you're right. There are two forces at work: innate ability and social acceptability. Innate ability tends to harm social acceptability. Therefore, to the extent that social acceptability determines a person's overall ability to succeed, high innate ability can actually pose a greater net detriment to success than a lower innate ability does. In a word, being "smart" or even "skillful" may in some cases make y…

I am a very social person so this might be strange but here is my career path so far.

Well I went from working IT at Age 13 - 17 (Sales and programing) Artist and Art Restoration 17 - 20 Child Minister and Christian Camp Director 20 - 32 (LEAST FAVORITE JOB) RD and Systems Librarian at a College 32 - 37 (College as faculty is a very high drama environment) (FAVORITE JOB) - Head Start Literacy Coach for 250 3-5 year olds.

All the places it was bad to be thought of as intelligent though Pre-School had the fewest consequences.

Re: Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men (1924)

#249

Post by a-priori »

pcrh wrote: post #244
valarauca1 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most ideas aren't that brilliant. If it occurred to you, it likely occurred to somebody else. Ideas are a product of your environment. While we pretend to be unique a lot of what we do is pretty common to dozens, if not hundreds, or thousands of people. Even ideas as earth shaking and complex as Infinitesimal Calculus and Quantum Mechanics were developed in parallel initial by people with little to no communication b…

That's the point, isn't it? Truly good ideas are rare.

We're treading dangerously close to "no true Scotsman" territory here.

Re: Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men (1924)

#250

Post by TheMagicHorsey »

olalonde wrote: post #243
baldfat wrote: post #224

I come from a HIGH IQ family. My father's IQ is unmeasurable but guesses are between 190-210 my move is over 165 and 3 of my sisters are in MENSA. I graduated Valedictorian in High School and College. I have been the "Jack of All Trades" and can study something and be proficient with it. Did some locally well known good deeds. From my 30+ years of work force experience I have decided that I wish I had an average IQ a…

> People with a higher capacity intellectually can take in more information and see more moves ahead. That way there is a different perception on solution and it causes frustration for everyone. I have a different theory. Assuming that: - High IQ individuals tend to rely less on intuition and more on analytical thinking. - IQ measures analytical thinking rather then intuition. - Intuition often outperforms analytical…

I never really thought about it that way, but after working in the game industry for ten years, I think you are absolutely correct.

Designing things to be "fun" is hard to do analytically. I'm a programmer, and I've observed programmers ruining game design by taking a designer's work and subjecting it to too much analysis. And the designers often can't defend their choices either.

Great comment!

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