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Intelligent people take longer to solve hard problems: study

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Re: Intelligent people take longer to solve hard problems: study

#24
post #8

> The findings challenge the assumption that higher intelligence is the result of a faster brain. They suggest that faster is not necessarily better, and that under certain circumstances there is a tradeoff between speed and accuracy which results in better decisions. Talk about conflating different aspects of something to arrive at faulty logic. There clearly is a relationship between higher intelligence and a faste…

>There clearly is a relationship between higher intelligence and a faster brain, to some degree. However faster thinking enables more sophisticated searching of complex problem spaces. I don't think that's clear at all. The confusion is around different definitions of speed and different definitions of the task. You have the speed to process data points or variables, and the speed to come to a result. You also have t…

I think of it as a computer with moderately fast registers but horribly slow main memory. In this case, more registers would clearly show a win. BUT a more organized person would eventually win as the number of variables grow.

Hence why systems and habits beat out raw intelligence on general life success, but why an intelligent person lives a simple life on easy mode and why those at the (uninherited) top are often scary smart AND hard core driven and organized.

Re: Intelligent people take longer to solve hard problems: study

#25
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There clearly is a relationship between higher intelligence and a faster brain, to some degree. However faster thinking enables more sophisticated searching of complex problem spaces. I don't think that's clear at all. The confusion is around different definitions of speed and different definitions of the task. You have the speed to process data points or variables, and the speed to come to a result. You also have t…

I think of it as a computer with moderately fast registers but horribly slow main memory. In this case, more registers would clearly show a win. BUT a more organized person would eventually win as the number of variables grow. Hence why systems and habits beat out raw intelligence on general life success, but why an intelligent person lives a simple life on easy mode and why those at the (uninherited) top are often s…

I basically agree.

I would only add that some computers are simply incapable of performing a sufficiently complicated computation given their hardware and programing.

Similarly, some computers with more limited hardware and programming can be more efficient at certian classes of computations.

Re: Intelligent people take longer to solve hard problems: study

#26
post #9

Ooh, that's a much better explanation for my zillion half-finished projects. I'm not an undisciplined perfectionist, I'm just too intelligent. :)

Maybe subclinical ADHD?

It's very likely just not enough incentive to go through the difficult and lengthy unfun parts. That's most people. It's not abnormal.

Re: Intelligent people take longer to solve hard problems: study

#27
I strongly suspect this effect is correlated with a weakness in short-term or working memory. Independent of general intelligence is the necessity for those with a weak short-term or working memory to compensate by relying on long-term, in depth understanding in order to JIT the necessary short-term structures into being on the spot, (often repeatedly as these images decay rapidly) in order to solve a problem. Whereas those with a short-term memory advantage can simply rely on memorized sets of arbitrary relationships to address the problem.

In other words if you have a weak short-term or working memory you have to, by necessity, deeply think through everything - whether simple or complex. This may allow spotting the rare inconsistency or opportunity others may not, but as it comes at a performance and time penalty which, under circumstances commonly encountered in one's educational career (timed examinations) it more typically results in filtering such people out of fields where excursive, highly lateral modes of thinking would be beneficial.

To survive this filter one must either acquire (or be gifted with) the talent of exceptionally swift traversal of a large and heterogeneous general knowledge graph, as one cannot rely on a handful of tightly knit but relatively isolated silos of memorized specialization.

Re: Intelligent people take longer to solve hard problems: study

#28
post #15

A while back, I created an online experiment, based on a 2020 study, that identifies dogmatic thinking. https://shaungallagher.pressbin.com/blog/dogmatism.html Without giving too much away, this tracks with the 2023 study's results, in that people with higher intelligence scores are less likely to trust their System 1 gut reaction and more likely to involve their System 2 deliberate, logical processes.

> This might be because the least dogmatic participants were more willing to view the easier version of the challenge when they were initially uncertain.

Can’t you test that hypothesis, or do you not have the data?

I also find it super annoying that one of the buttons to choose left is on the right and vice versa.

Re: Intelligent people take longer to solve hard problems: study

#29
I don't claim to be intelligent, but I do dread doing group brainstorming sessions using Post-it notes because it takes me time to think about the problem.

I'm usually the the guy in the group with the fewest notes. I've rarely see anything useful come out of these sessions, even though I've participated in hundreds of these with different people, companies, and settings.

Re: Intelligent people take longer to solve hard problems: study

#30

I strongly suspect this effect is correlated with a weakness in short-term or working memory. Independent of general intelligence is the necessity for those with a weak short-term or working memory to compensate by relying on long-term, in depth understanding in order to JIT the necessary short-term structures into being on the spot, (often repeatedly as these images decay rapidly) in order to solve a problem. Wherea…

This explanation fits me to a T.
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