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The Curse of Smart People (2014)

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Re: The Curse of Smart People (2014)

#61

Post by bootload »

pmoriarty wrote: post #55
234dd57d2c8dba wrote: post #4

Here's a summary for why smart people are "cursed": If you are two or 3 standard deviations about the mean, you'll quickly realize society is optimized and caters to the average intelligence. You'll find it very boring and frustrating having to deal with rules and decisions that do not make sense. You must continually push yourself to stay entertained and meet like-minded people otherwise you'll get very depressed th…

There's certainly some truth to this, especially in certain anti-intellectual societies and time periods. But many highly intelligent people have been truly gifted not only with intelligence but with the respect and even adoration of others. You should read the biography of John von Neumann.[1] He's deserved the term "genius" if anyone ever did. George Polya[2], famous author of the math classic "How to Solve It"[3]…

"Curse of Smart People"

Gallileo. Politics is a curse for smart people. Another example, "New people" in "Year Zero". [0]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Zero_(political_notion)

Re: The Curse of Smart People (2014)

#62

Post by jstewartmobile »

bootload wrote: post #58

"What I have learned, working here, is that smart, successful people are cursed. The curse is confidence." Things to remember when smart people appear confident: - the correlation between confidence and ability to actually "do" something can be low - smart people can live in their heads - smart people can overestimate their expertise in areas they may be familiar or ignorant of, equally - street smarts can kick smart…

It's funny that the people who could benefit the most from this comment are letting it sink to the bottom.

Re: The Curse of Smart People (2014)

#63

Post by bootload »

arjie wrote: post #25

Author takes issue with the following attitude in a certain way. > Smart people, computer types anyway, tend to come down on the side of people who don't like emotions. Programmers, who do logic for a living. There's another way to take issue with that, though. In _The Righteous Mind_, Jonathan Haidt argues that emotion-processing is critical to decision making (and that we use emotion-processing to guide reason), ci…

" In _The Righteous Mind_, Jonathan Haidt argues that emotion-processing is critical to decision making (and that we use emotion-processing to guide reason), citing some work that people with damaged emotion processing suffer analysis paralysis on simple tasks."

The balance between logic, emotion and decisiveness is a theme explored in Star Trek S1E16, "The Galileo Seven" [0], [1] Spock taking command and following ^flawlewss logic^ almost gets them marooned and killed. I have a theory smart people who assume a rigid logical mindset make the worst leaders.

Reference

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Galileo_Seven

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708465/

Re: The Curse of Smart People (2014)

#64

Post by bootload »

jstewartmobile wrote: post #62
bootload wrote: post #58

"What I have learned, working here, is that smart, successful people are cursed. The curse is confidence." Things to remember when smart people appear confident: - the correlation between confidence and ability to actually "do" something can be low - smart people can live in their heads - smart people can overestimate their expertise in areas they may be familiar or ignorant of, equally - street smarts can kick smart…

It's funny that the people who could benefit the most from this comment are letting it sink to the bottom.

"benefit the most from this comment"

This idea matters if you want to lead, rather than be the "go-to" expert, subservient to a boss. Smart people with people skills probably get this. Smart, smart people may fundamentally not understand this and remain pigeon holed in their areas of expertise.

Inside the Twin Trade Buildings during 9/11/01, rooms full of smart (and scared) people were killed following rules. [0] Blue collar workers reacted better. I use these extreme examples to show where "it pays not to be too stuck in your head" and develop other skills often seen as the antithesis of being smart.

I offer Rick Rescorla (Morgan Stanly Security officer, World Trade Centre) as a counter-example. [1]

[0] Martha T. Moore, Dennis Cauchon "Delay meant death on 9/11" http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002-09-02-choice...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rescorla

Re: The Curse of Smart People (2014)

#66

Post by mmirate »

bootload wrote: post #64
jstewartmobile wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's funny that the people who could benefit the most from this comment are letting it sink to the bottom.

"benefit the most from this comment" This idea matters if you want to lead, rather than be the "go-to" expert, subservient to a boss. Smart people with people skills probably get this. Smart, smart people may fundamentally not understand this and remain pigeon holed in their areas of expertise. Inside the Twin Trade Buildings during 9/11/01, rooms full of smart (and scared) people were killed following rules. [0] Blu…

> other skills often seen as the antithesis of being smart

Pray tell, what, specifically, are these skills?

Re: The Curse of Smart People (2014)

#67

Post by battlebot »

_m8fo wrote: post #44
wolfgke wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Imagine if the world's nail salon workers could spend their time curing cancer, fighting hunger or homelessness instead of the useless primping of rich people's hands and feet. The nail salon workers could use their free time for this purpose if they wanted. They (perhaps with some rare exceptions) don't do it. On the other hand: The fact that someone is willing to give money to the nail salon workers for getting h…

This reasoning is flawed at best and malicious at worst. Anyone can do anything "if they wanted". So why don't they? Don't you see how ridiculous that sounds? It's as if people don't have a life and real obligations preventing them, or something. -- Homeless people can go to Harvard [1] This guy build a hotel for $9000 [2] People familiar with statistics can consistently win the lottery [3] "Anyone can do it, why can…

This is the same kind of bullcrap that goes on with entrepreneuers--extreme survivorship bias at work. Yes, all kinds of crazy non-intuitive things happen and they make the news, but they are far outliers.

Re: The Curse of Smart People (2014)

#68

Post by waynecolvin »

WalterBright wrote: post #5

> very easy to describe all your successes (project not canceled) in terms of your team's greatness, and all your failures (project canceled) in terms of other people's capriciousness. I see this belief in probably about 80% of people I encounter, and it has little correlation with how smart one is. I like to hang out with people who take responsibility for their failures rather than complaining about how circumstanc…

A real man might take responsibility, but if that ever becomes too visible you will be made the dunce if not scapegoat. Maybe only the successful people had the clout to pull it off. :/

Admitting mistakes to move on, failing fast, should prevent prolonging arguements though (if you can pull it off).

Re: The Curse of Smart People (2014)

#69

Post by bootload »

mmirate wrote: post #66
bootload wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"benefit the most from this comment" This idea matters if you want to lead, rather than be the "go-to" expert, subservient to a boss. Smart people with people skills probably get this. Smart, smart people may fundamentally not understand this and remain pigeon holed in their areas of expertise. Inside the Twin Trade Buildings during 9/11/01, rooms full of smart (and scared) people were killed following rules. [0] Blu…

> other skills often seen as the antithesis of being smart Pray tell, what, specifically, are these skills?

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=meme+particular+skills+taken&aiar=...

Re: The Curse of Smart People (2014)

#70

Post by [deleted] »

mmirate wrote: post #66
bootload wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"benefit the most from this comment" This idea matters if you want to lead, rather than be the "go-to" expert, subservient to a boss. Smart people with people skills probably get this. Smart, smart people may fundamentally not understand this and remain pigeon holed in their areas of expertise. Inside the Twin Trade Buildings during 9/11/01, rooms full of smart (and scared) people were killed following rules. [0] Blu…

> other skills often seen as the antithesis of being smart Pray tell, what, specifically, are these skills?

[deleted]
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