

Was Einstein bright? - derekc
http://jeffnolan.com/wp/2010/06/15/was-einstein-bright/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+VentureChronicles+(Venture+Chronicles)

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derefr
What this post calls "brightness," I call "ingenuity"—the process of coming up
with good ideas that didn't previously exist. It's not really something
society calls for very often (other than in entrepreneurial or R&D positions.)
It's also the thing that "manhole cover questions" test—so if you can't
imagine a company asking you that sort of question, they probably aren't that
interested in you for the ingenuity you command.

Rather, what _society_ wants is "intelligence"—the ability to iterate quickly
on a problem, efficiently searching the space of solutions/ideas _you already
have_ to find one that is most likely to succeed. This is what is measured by
IQ, and mostly comes from the ability to focus rationally on the search,
instead of derailing oneself with biases or status-grabs. "Knowledge workers"
are simply workers who rely on their intelligence. But look at the average
knowledge worker, and you won't see much "brightness."

As a note to anyone who wants to be more "bright", because it _is_ useful to
_us_ here at HN: ingenuity is formed by two skills—creativity, and critical
thought. If they are developed in parallel (creativity by learning new facts
to synthesize—usually by observation, but esp. from books, criticism by
receiving quantitative feedback on the values of facts and beliefs—usually
from conversation with peers, but esp. in school) ingenuity thrives; if one or
the other races ahead, ingenuity stalls. Too much criticism, you get
conformity and social anxiety; too little and you get arrogance, and an output
resembling the aesthetic wasteland of 4chan's /b/. Take the middle way.

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tokenadult
Comments by Einstein about his own schooling, and his approach to self-
education:

<http://learninfreedom.org/Nobel_hates_school.html>

Key point: school almost turned off Einstein to physics.

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kiba
Sometime it's not how intelligent you are, but your knowledge, that make the
differences. Your intelligence is not very useful if you don't make use of it
to pursue the truth no matter where it leads.

If your brain spent its time rationalizing all your excuses and your failures,
than you have nothing but to blame yourself.

Outsider perspective are mostly wrong most of the time, but sometime the
outsider get it right, on a massive scale.

The matters of becoming the massively right outsider, I think, is the most
difficult part. It's something that I have not figure out.

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GiraffeNecktie
Without knowing the subject matter well it can be difficult to distinguish
between someone who is lucid and someone who is merely glib. Both can seem
equally "bright". Also, without knowing the person well, it can be difficult
to distinguish between pensive, cautious and dim.

