

Ask HN:  Do super smart people avoid entrepreneurship? - amichail

Perhaps it's not a rational thing for them to do given the risks.  They would probably have much better opportunities as employees.
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chasingsparks
Successful entrepreneurs are more likely to be smarter than less successful
entrepreneurs, but the most successful people in any field are more likely to
belong to the set of "super smart."

I think to some degree, "super smart" people are less likely to be interested
in entrepreneurship because they find the business aspects of entrepreneurship
dull. (I don't think you could classify me as "super smart," but I belong to
the set of people bored by business.) Some people want to spend all their time
solving problems that they find fascinating. Taking less financial risk -- and
consequently reaping fewer financial rewards -- might be a worthwhile trade-
off if it means you can spend all, or at least more of, your time tackling
problems you find fascinating.

~~~
bootload
_"... Successful entrepreneurs are more likely to be smarter than less
successful entrepreneurs, but the most successful people in any field are more
likely to belong to the set of "super smart." ..."_

If you replaced _"determined"_ for _"smart"_ I'd probably agree ~
<http://paulgraham.com/determination.html>

~~~
jiganti
Yeah, I think I agree with this more. My guess would be that those with
profound intellectual abilities gravitate towards fields with more "concrete
complexity"- the math/science type careers that demand a considerable raw
intelligence to have a good chance at making contributions.

Fields like business/entrepreneurship don't necessarily require this sheer
brainpower because it can be sacrificed for (and one might argue necessarily
requires) things like street smarts/people skills, creativity, etc.

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_delirium
I think it depends more on other aspects of the person's interests and
personality than a linear smartness factor. For example, not many top
physicists historically have been entrepreneurs (Einstein dabbled in a Freon-
free refrigerator, but mostly because he was repeatedly lured by an
entrepreneur who wanted Einstein's assistance on it, as opposed to great
entrepreneurial interest on Einstein's part). A lot of top computer-science
types have been, but a lot also haven't been. You've got some Sergey Brin /
Larry Page types, who start businesses, and some Ken Thompson / Dennis Ritchie
types, who don't.

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jdietrich
> They would probably have much better opportunities as employees.

Nope. Nobody ever made a billion dollars working for someone else, but more to
the point very few employees actually get to decide their own destiny. Imagine
what Steve Wozniak's life would look like if he had never met Steve Jobs. I'll
bet dollars to doughnuts he'd still be designing test equipment for some
asshole boss. Arguably he ended up designing microcomputers for some asshole
boss, but there were a few perks.

Plenty of people don't have the constitution or the inclination for
entrepreneurship and that's fine, but they're never going to see a tenth of
the opportunities as an employee than they would as an entrepreneur.

The obvious counterexample would be the likes of Xerox PARC and Bell Labs, but
I think they're weak examples. PARC may have invented the WIMP interface, but
it was Apple that changed the world with it. Alan Kay is a hell of a thinker
and has been hugely influential, but he doesn't get to organise rock festivals
or go Dancing With The Stars.

~~~
synnik
You assume that super smart people have money as their primary goal in life.

I have found this to be far from true. The truly brilliant people I know
follow their passions, and usually make just enough money to do so, spending
the rest of their energy on their actual passions.

Even if your ratio is right, that they get only a tenth of the opportunities
as entrepreneurs... they tend to land the right ones, make the correct one,
and be very satisfied with their lives.

~~~
philwelch
Are there any truly brilliant people for whom money (in some abstract, score-
keeping sense) _is_ their passion? You could argue this for Warren Buffet, who
isn't crazy about spending a lot of money but is very serious about investing
well.

You could also be super smart and also passionate about something that
immediately leads to making lots of money--Steve Jobs, for instance, is
undeniably passionate about the kinds of products Apple makes, and how well
they make them.

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Towle_
To answer this question, one would need to...

a) accurately define intelligence (good luck), and

b) know the motives of those who belong to that highest tier of intellegence
(again, good luck).

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blhack
This is 100% anecdotal, but based on everything I've really ever seen:
absolutely not.

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jogle
This isn't directly related to your question, but thought you'd find this 5
minute video interesting:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU7Y6HiLXto>

It's Art Williams (inspirational speaker guy) who mentions he doesn't think
"smart" people are likely to "succeed" in business, because they try to figure
things out too much. Instead, he preaches (almost literally) a "just do it"
mentality.

Worth the few minutes if you haven't seen it.

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skowmunk
I don't think there is any correlation between smartness and a particular
aspiration like, wanting to be an entrepreneurship.

All of the most successful entrepreneurs, I am sure they are among the
smartest people. Its just being a scientist, the typical tag for 'smartness',
may not have been their aspiration.

Jobs, Gates, Theil, these are all very smart people who went on to be
entrepreneurs.

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wlievens
Actually I find that super smart people care very little about money, and more
about what they're doing, so that's one reason a lot of them go into academia.

Luckily I'm not super smart so I don't have to spend my days writing papers,
instead I write code!

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davemounce
It seems to me there are 3 basic components to "smart" 1) How fast your
processor is. 2) How big your data base is. 3) How refined your algorithms
are.

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jarsj
Depends on your definition of "super smart". I had put a successful
entrepreneur in "super smart" category.

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philwelch
Even if entrepreneurship is irrational, there's no requirement that smart
people are necessarily rational.

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noelchurchill
It depends on how you define smart.

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ahoyhere
Well, super smart people probably don't ask such silly questions and then
worry about the answers. They're out there doing something smart.

Unless they're super smart AND have an anxiety problem, and thus want to be
told whether they're normal (or not).

What was your goal?

