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I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

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Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#161

Post by lurn »

dredmorbius wrote: post #115
Netcob wrote: post #110

That's why I don't like meetings where you're supposed to come up with a solution on the spot and then break it down into tasks immediately. That only works if you have lots of closely related experience so that the solution is trivial to you anyway, or if you're a genius. Most of the time you end up with shitty "knee-jerk" software that focuses on technical details way too much instead of solving the problem. I'll t…

"Creativity is not a team sport", an observation from Prof Vincent Walsh on neuroscience of creativity: [There's] a very long and well-established literature in psychology that getting groups of people together is no way to come up with ideas. Creativity is not a team sport. What you're looking for is somebody's individual, intellectual trunk to make new connections and come up with something new. Let's imagine billi…

I kind of agree. At least, that's generally the way I prefer to do it. But I find I'm most creative when I'm working with other people, as long as I like working with them. They just always have ideas, and things to add to my own ideas, that I could never reach on my own.

John Cleese has a great video on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb5oIIPO62g

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#162

Post by nothrabannosir »

mrkgnao wrote: post #152

Alexander Grothendieck, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th century, on cognitive "facility" and giftedness: Since then I’ve had the chance in the world of mathematics that bid me welcome, to meet quite a number of people, both among my “elders” and among young people in my general age group who were more brilliant, much more ‘gifted’ than I was. I admired the facility with which they picked up, as…

For mobile users:

Since then I’ve had the chance in the world of mathematics that bid me welcome, to meet quite a number of people, both among my “elders” and among young people in my general age group who were more brilliant, much more ‘gifted’ than I was. I admired the facility with which they picked up, as if at play, new ideas, juggling them as if familiar with them from the cradle–while for myself I felt clumsy, even oafish, wandering painfully up an arduous track, like a dumb ox faced with an amorphous mountain of things I had to learn (so I was assured) things I felt incapable of understanding the essentials or following through to the end. Indeed, there was little about me that identified the kind of bright student who wins at prestigious competitions or assimilates almost by sleight of hand, the most forbidding subjects.

In fact, most of these comrades who I gauged to be more brilliant than I have gone on to become distinguished mathematicians. Still from the perspective or thirty or thirty five years, I can state that their imprint upon the mathematics of our time has not been very profound. They’ve done all things, often beautiful things in a context that was already set out before them, which they had no inclination to disturb. Without being aware of it, they’ve remained prisoners of those invisible and despotic circles which delimit the universe of a certain milieu in a given era. To have broken these bounds they would have to rediscover in themselves that capability which was their birthright, as it was mine: The capacity to be alone.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#163

Post by nabla9 »

fjsolwmv wrote: post #148
nabla9 wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a smartass is a real problem. Jeff Bezos style meetings try to solve this issue. > "If we don't, the executives, like high school kids, will try to bluff their way through a meeting,"

Jeff Bezos meetings are extremely high processing contests of wit. Everyone reads a long document at the same time at the start of the meeting and then immediately starts debating and asking pointed questions. Only the presenter has time to prepare in advance. Bezos meetings solve the problem of people not reading the material at all, not the problem of not thinking about the problem.

It's not a long document. Its just six pages in 30 minutes. There can be written counterproposal sometimes.

The point of the meeting is not to create new ideas or solve problems. Either the presenter has the solutions or ideas written down or not. Every meeting has a decision maker. The purpose of the meeting is there to make a decision at the end. If there are still open questions, then the decision-maker assigns one or more people to research, and the needed follow-up. At the end of the next meeting, the decision is made.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#164

Post by dredmorbius »

lurn wrote: post #161
dredmorbius wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Creativity is not a team sport", an observation from Prof Vincent Walsh on neuroscience of creativity: [There's] a very long and well-established literature in psychology that getting groups of people together is no way to come up with ideas. Creativity is not a team sport. What you're looking for is somebody's individual, intellectual trunk to make new connections and come up with something new. Let's imagine billi…

I kind of agree. At least, that's generally the way I prefer to do it. But I find I'm most creative when I'm working with other people, as long as I like working with them. They just always have ideas, and things to add to my own ideas, that I could never reach on my own. John Cleese has a great video on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb5oIIPO62g

Cleese's talks on this are good, personal faves, and have useful advice. But they're also oriented to a specific activity: developing comedic scripts. I'd be somewhat cautious in overgeneralising.

Again, not that there aren't useful concepts, and his anti-creativity measures strike me as valid.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#165

Post by vinceguidry »

arcticfox wrote: post #159
akvadrako wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life does give you the chance to doggedly pursue your thoughts; you just have to devote yourself to it. I personally live this way, freelancing about 3 months a year and spending the rest of it on whatever interests me.

I think you're underselling your talent if you think the capability to live off 3 months / year of work is generally available to people. Most people just aren't good enough at anything to work that little and get by, no matter how hard they try.

That's kind of what the 'dogged pursuit' is supposed to answer. Sheer persistence counts for more than talent, always has. Not being convenient doesn't make the option unavailable.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#166

Post by DavidHm »

westoncb wrote: post #56
Pimpus wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting sharper takes practice. I like to unwind on forums too but it's not pushing you to think faster. Also, getting your thoughts, actions, and words all in alignment will help, as there will be less hesitation on each front.

I think a key aspect to the situation though is that you won't get faster by trying to get faster. Of all places, I learned this while working in a grocery store, but have since verified the phenomenon in other domains (for example, reading; and it also just makes psychological sense). I had been stocking groceries for about a month when I had an interesting conversation with two senior employees (20 or 30 years a pi…

This is very much the case when learning to play string instruments.

When you start out, you are told to practice your scales by making sure the notes are clean and even in volume.

Doing it fast comes later.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#167

Post by yojex »

jpster wrote: post #160
diminoten wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is the part people forget too often about the "two system" theory written about in "Thinking Fast and Slow". You can improve your System 1 responses, and there's a decent amount of the book that talks about all the ways System 2 post-hoc justifies the System 1 response, so it's not like System 2 is always going to be better. Having a good System 1 response is a much clearer way to arrive at a solid decis…

How do you train System 1?

Mindfulness meditation is one way.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#168

Post by [deleted] »

MichailP wrote: post #141
westoncb wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I've also considered myself on the slow end of the thinking-speed spectrum, and have the other memory traits too: not so good with precision/particulars (instead I depend on being able to go back to sources as necessary), and I basically can't memorize anything. I don't know even half the lyrics to a single song. My personal take is that it's largely a matter of intellectual values. I think that if I con…

Can you share your definition of common law?

[deleted]

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#169

Post by techstrategist »

westoncb wrote: post #134
techstrategist wrote: post #63

We slow thinkers are among good company, including Charles Darwin: "I have no great quickness of apprehension or wit which is so remarkable in some clever men, for instance, Huxley. I am therefore a poor critic: a paper or book, when first read, generally excites my admiration, and it is only after considerable reflection that I perceive the weak points. My power to follow a long and purely abstract train of thought…

Interesting. I've also considered myself on the slow end of the thinking-speed spectrum, and have the other memory traits too: not so good with precision/particulars (instead I depend on being able to go back to sources as necessary), and I basically can't memorize anything. I don't know even half the lyrics to a single song. My personal take is that it's largely a matter of intellectual values. I think that if I con…

I agree. Memorizing facts or figures has never been interesting to me, beyond order of magnitude. Understanding the context within a greater system is the part that my brain wants to retain.

Re: I’m a very slow thinker (2016)

#170

Post by techstrategist »

growlist wrote: post #126
usgroup wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve wondered recently if speed and intelligence have anything to do with each other at all. It does in IQ tests but Darwin by his account would have been average at best. Further, the argument goes that there exists a g factor, and performance in a test that is sufficiently complex will be predictive of performance at anything else sufficiently complex ... Yet if we allow time to vary this seems to be so obviously f…

I've often thought about this - I suffered at school because the subject matter quickly seemed to arrive at one or more foundational concepts to not be explored further, whereas my brain would constantly ask, 'but why?'. The relentless pace didn't suit me at all. Nevertheless I learnt to override this in time and now have a BSc and MSc.

That’s interesting, I shared the “but why” until mid way through a BSc in Physics. The foundational concepts of “this is how {thermo|mechanics|quantum} works” was exciting, but the remainder of each semester was “now let’s work through all the edge cases” and I had difficulty keeping up.
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