Your high IQ might kill your startup (2010) • Hacker News Board

Re: Your high IQ might kill your startup (2010)

#61

Post by mtdewcmu » Sat, Jul 05, 2014, 7:51 AM UTC

slavik81 wrote: post #59

mtdewcmu wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, despite not being rich, the poor don't have a monopoly on love. The way reality works is that, if you're able to make yourself rich, something obviously must be working out for you in your life. That thing that helped you get rich also tends to help you get love, and other things. If you're poor, your life plainly isn't working out too well, so you probably won't have success at love, either. There's s…

For the curious, this is the Matthew Effect: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect

I think this effect is underrated and explains a lot, for instance all the statistical correlations between good things and other good things, and, on the flip side, bad things and other bad things. For instance, why being a smoker correlates with an increased risk of having a back injury (I heard that). Or how not having a college degree increases your risk of early death from all causes. I don't know if the Matthew Effect itself has an adequate explanation, but it ties together a lot of results that otherwise seem to suggest bizarre causal relationships between unrelated things. They're all spurious correlations and the predictable consequence of the Matthew Effect.

Re: Your high IQ might kill your startup (2010)

#62

Post by freechoice22 » Sat, Jul 05, 2014, 7:58 AM UTC

Good article and reminder of how it is. To learn from our failures and hardships is where we grow the most.

IQ is only few percent of the total intelligence. But most people seem to see it as 99% so often.

It also comes down to so many other factors such as the environment we are brought up in, which affects our intelligence. Intelligence is not some blueprint we have from birth I learned. But very much our mental outlook on life as we progress. Those who feel intelligent due to high IQ makes me wonder how intelligent they truly are.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/iq-tests-are-funda...

Re: Your high IQ might kill your startup (2010)

#63

Post by PeterGriffin » Sat, Jul 05, 2014, 8:09 AM UTC

The point the article makes is well understood and valid: even if you have the potential, if you don't work hard to use it, you won't develop the skills and discipline for success. All right.

But we don't need to cast failures and flaws as the result of "high intelligence". Just a few days ago we had an article about the "curse of smart people". It feels like a bunch of people patting themselves on the back and telling themselves "oh, we're so intelligent, this is why we failed".

If intelligent people are so prone to failure, what is the purpose of measuring intelligence? Being stupid is bad, being average is bad, now being smart is also bad! Congratulations.

Part of the problem is the ease at which we proclaim ourselves "very intelligent". Being good at school is not a sure sign of high intelligence - school is an artificial environment that values short-term memorizing of facts, over critical analysis and independent decision-making. You won't go far in life with that, but maybe you'll do well in quiz TV shows. Solving "missing piece" puzzles also isn't a sign of high intelligence. All those are just a small part of it.

Can't we agree "intelligent" is the skill of setting good goals, achieving them, and making good decisions in light of limited facts, limited time, and some stress, because that's what life is, and move on to strive (and possibly measure) for that.

Re: Your high IQ might kill your startup (2010)

#64

Post by nadam » Sat, Jul 05, 2014, 8:10 AM UTC

This is true, but precisely because it is true, at the top of every game everybody is reasonably hard working. And among these hard-working people other factors start to decide again, and a very important factor is talent.

So if you compare yourself to the guy who watches TV all day, of course hard work is the main thing. But if you compare yourself to fellow enterpreneurs, Phd studentst, hackers with great github repositories, or guys who work long hours at their workplace to advance, who maybe does not watch TV at all, talent matters.

Re: Your high IQ might kill your startup (2010)

#65

Post by junto » Sat, Jul 05, 2014, 8:17 AM UTC

I have a nice counter example to this. I've travelled extensively in South and Central America. I met a guy who had been robbed twice in Rio, one week apart, by the same guy, at the same time in the evening, in the same place.

I also had the feeling though that some people are just magnets for trouble.

Personally, I always travelled with two wallets. One real one stashed in belt and the other with 10 USD in it. People will walk away 99℅ of the time with the $10.

Re: Your high IQ might kill your startup (2010)

#66

Post by hellodevnull » Sat, Jul 05, 2014, 8:50 AM UTC

NotVerySmart wrote: post #6

To sound intentionally arrogant and possibly ignorant, this whole write-up is captain-obvious material.

Yes I thought everybody knew by now that intelligence is pretty much insignificant when you're up against somebody with years of experience at something.

There was even a very popular pop psych book about it that everyone has read (Outliers).

Your high IQ might get you good grades in elementary but gaining skill (which is what you're all talking about) is done through practice.

Re: Your high IQ might kill your startup (2010)

#67

Post by chrismonsanto » Sat, Jul 05, 2014, 8:57 AM UTC

bestdaytostart wrote: post #31

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being poor completely sucks. Watching your cat die from cancer that you can't afford to treat sucks. The point of getting rich is so that your life doesn't suck. Not to compare yourself to others. Getting rich is necessarily hard, otherwise everyone would be on the road to becoming rich. People are unlikely to get rich by doing work which satisfies. But if they make it, then at least life won't suck anymore.

Being poor does suck. However, being rich does not prevent your life from sucking. All the money in the world won't prevent you or a loved one from passing due to an untreatable illness. All the money in the world won't buy you friends or genuine respect. It can't buy you love (though it can buy you sex). Furthermore, you don't need to be rich to avoid the hardship of being poor, you just have to make a sufficient am…

I was poor, and now I'm moderately well off. You are really underselling how much it sucks to be poor.

> All the money in the world won't prevent you or a loved one from passing due to an untreatable illness.

Death of a family member is much more likely to happen if you are poor. Too bad you can't afford that unreasonably expensive surgery.

> All the money in the world won't buy you friends or genuine respect.

This is such a first world concern. Boo hoo. Also, yes, money does buy friends. When my family went bankrupt most of our friends turned their backs on us. This is a common occurrence. Ask a homeless person what happened to their "friends" when push came to shove.

> It can't buy you love (though it can buy you sex).

Not being poor is more important than finding love. If you want love, have some kids, and love them.

> Furthermore, you don't need to be rich to avoid the hardship of being poor, you just have to make a sufficient amount to afford quality housing, food, health insurance, and minor luxuries.

Please do not underestimate how hard it is for those who are actually poor to "make a sufficient amount."

This seems like a good enough time as any to point out that there are like six empty houses for every homeless person in America. Or, in techie terms, "you thought domain squatting was bad..."

Re: Your high IQ might kill your startup (2010)

#68

Post by phlo » Sat, Jul 05, 2014, 8:59 AM UTC

mtdewcmu wrote: post #53

andrewflnr wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess that works, but then the point of the article is that someone who doesn't have a ladder but trains to climb the cliff face will eventually beat someone who only knows how to use their ladder.

The point had to do with knives, not ladders. If you have a knife and you're well-trained in knife skills, and your adversaries are all armed only with ladders, you are easily going to win that fight. I think that's the point he was trying to make.

The point was to emphasize how ladders are clearly superior to knives, or even sticks. As has been demonstrated in literature[1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrRFzwPE0d4&t=3m13s

Re: Your high IQ might kill your startup (2010)

#69

Post by thenomad » Sat, Jul 05, 2014, 9:05 AM UTC

chrismonsanto wrote: post #67

bestdaytostart wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being poor does suck. However, being rich does not prevent your life from sucking. All the money in the world won't prevent you or a loved one from passing due to an untreatable illness. All the money in the world won't buy you friends or genuine respect. It can't buy you love (though it can buy you sex). Furthermore, you don't need to be rich to avoid the hardship of being poor, you just have to make a sufficient am…

I was poor, and now I'm moderately well off. You are really underselling how much it sucks to be poor. > All the money in the world won't prevent you or a loved one from passing due to an untreatable illness. Death of a family member is much more likely to happen if you are poor. Too bad you can't afford that unreasonably expensive surgery. > All the money in the world won't buy you friends or genuine respect. This i…

"Death of a family member is much more likely to happen if you are poor. Too bad you can't afford that unreasonably expensive surgery."

This applies in the US, rather less so in many other countries. (UK resident here.)

Re: Your high IQ might kill your startup (2010)

#70

Post by thenomad » Sat, Jul 05, 2014, 9:15 AM UTC

ScottBurson wrote: post #30

conroe64 wrote: post #20

IMHO, to continually put "success" above everything else in your life and slave away towards that goal as the ultimate redemption in everything is a waste of your time and therefore your life. It can be such as easy sell, especially to people with low self-esteem... if only you were rich, had a great body, had success with the opposite sex, etc., etc. And always underlying it, but never spoken of, is the vain and sel…

The Israeli soldier may not have been taking as much of a risk as you think. I'm sure he was well trained in assessing the competence of an adversary.

I'm not sure about that. Having spent some time studying knife fighting, one thing becomes abundantly clear - no matter how expert you are, and how inexpert your opponent is, a knife fight is still extremely dangerous.

Statistics I've seen in the past, which would fit with my experience, suggest that a 3-in-4 chance is the best you'll ever do in a knife-on-knife conflict.

Knife-on-unarmed is even worse odds. I've never encountered a single martial artist - and I've encountered a lot - who would recommend fighting unarmed against a knife unless you have no other option. "Give the guy your wallet" is absolutely SOP in this situation, and by far the choice with the highest chance to get you out alive.