Somebody told me once, if you ask a question - you may appear to be a fool for a minute. If you dont ask the question, you are a fool for the rest of your life. Of course, this saying cant be taken too literally, but I think the idea is: to learn something new, keep your ego aside, ask questions and improve your understanding!
What I've Learned About Smart People.
171–180 of 182 posts
Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
"please don't overlook all that you can learn from people that may not seem so smart." I love that you said this. One of the things that smart people do is learn something from anyone they can about anything they can. I met a bellhop once in Florida. He had moved his entire family to Orlando. I think he came from some less desirable place up north. But he had enough smarts to realize that if he was going to cart bags…
Apologies. I downvoted you when I was attempting to upvote. I wish I could reverse this.
I've made the same mistake as well!
Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
Keen to 'you dont know something til you have to program it'
Two halves of the same coin. Programming something is 'teaching' a computer to do it. Except a computer is in many ways the dumbest student possible; you have to spell everything out for it.
In other ways it's also the smartest student possible: It never forgets or misunderstands what you tell it (unless you instruct it to forget something, or you don't say what you actually mean.)
Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.
#174Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for that advice. Also, what do you mean by "office hours"? I've heard that phrase used, but never really knew what it meant.
'Office hours' are a college term. It's the time that teachers or professor allot for students to go get extra help. A place where your teacher keeps their purse (sort to speak). It's away from the teaching environment where teachers can focus on your lack of knowledge or desire to expand it. Keep in mind though. High school teachers are mostly overworked. Even the ones that know what they are talking about (some don…
> It's away from the teaching environment
Interesting choice of words. Office hours are the "teaching environment". The classroom is the (increasingly obsolete) bulk information transfer environment.
Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
"please don't overlook all that you can learn from people that may not seem so smart." I love that you said this. One of the things that smart people do is learn something from anyone they can about anything they can. I met a bellhop once in Florida. He had moved his entire family to Orlando. I think he came from some less desirable place up north. But he had enough smarts to realize that if he was going to cart bags…
Could I ask what those valuable theories you learnt are?
When someone asks you a price for a repair, quote that single repair only. Resist the temptation to quote other jobs that they ask of shiny ball fashion.
The reason for this he explained (and what I later found to be true) was that if the cost of everything asked for was to high many times the customer ended up doing nothing.
So you get the first job locked up. Once you have that work started or the price agreed to only then do you quote additional work.
Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.
#176What the article doesn't mention is that the smartest of people perpetually ask themselves questions regarding what they believe they understand. It is remarkably easy to convince yourself you understand something - a mathematical proof, the Halting Problem, advantages of some programming framework/style/language, when you're really just going through the motions and remembering what others have said, kind of memoriz…
Richard Feynman said something to the effect of your first paragraph which stuck with me: "You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing — that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something."
Why is it that knowing what bird does is the only thing that counts? Maybe sometimes knowing the name of the bird in a different language could help - say if you go to a different country and have to communicate in the local language.
I also think its important to question the statements made by smart people. Times changes, what was applicable when the statement was made might not be valid anymore!
Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.
#177There was a similar post posted on Friday I think which spoke of the concept of 'Flow'(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flow_(psychology)) and how to achieve. It also referenced Gladwell's 10000 hours theory.
Does anyone remember what the link was? Please post it here if you do. Thanks :)
Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.
#178Is there a difference (or some way to differentiate) a smart person from a very skilled professional? I'm asking this question to see if a Smart Person is the byproduct of getting skilled in a different set of areas, and getting very professional and focused in one or two. I'm certainly not as smart as some fellow HNers here. But, few minutes ago, I have been reading blog posts and emails I wrote 6 years ago. "What a…
> I have been reading blog posts and emails I wrote 6 years ago. "What a retard I was!"
I think you should consider your life in many ways successful if you say that every year.
Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
'Office hours' are a college term. It's the time that teachers or professor allot for students to go get extra help. A place where your teacher keeps their purse (sort to speak). It's away from the teaching environment where teachers can focus on your lack of knowledge or desire to expand it. Keep in mind though. High school teachers are mostly overworked. Even the ones that know what they are talking about (some don…
> It's away from the teaching environment Interesting choice of words. Office hours are the "teaching environment". The classroom is the (increasingly obsolete) bulk information transfer environment.
Yes, you're right. However, given I said it's a place you can expand your knowledge, it's clear that by saying away from teaching environment, that I meant classical teaching (lecturing literally). Sheesh!
Re: What I've Learned About Smart People.
#180What the article doesn't mention is that the smartest of people perpetually ask themselves questions regarding what they believe they understand. It is remarkably easy to convince yourself you understand something - a mathematical proof, the Halting Problem, advantages of some programming framework/style/language, when you're really just going through the motions and remembering what others have said, kind of memoriz…
> The genius is always puzzled by answers, it is the fool who is satisfied by them.
That's so true.
He must have noticed that confusion implies learning. After all, it shows that they've encountered unexpected input and are trying to integrate with all the other things they know. If they're not confused, they expected or ignored the answers.