
Ask HN: Is There an Inverse Correlation Between Ambition and Skill? - CM30
Because from what I&#x27;ve noticed in online communities, it always seems like the people with the least skill at anything tend to be those coming up with the most outlandish and impossible ideas for projects, whereas those with said skills seem rather uninterested in actually doing anything flashy with them.<p>Is that a pattern overall? And why would being good at something (like say, programming or art) make you less interested in wanting to the change via it?
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newman8r
There seem to be some advantages of being a highly curious/motivated novice.
Any time I pick up a new activity, I tend to get a lot of new ideas that could
be applied to the problems I'm experiencing for the first time.

Novices also have the advantage of being able to better empathize with other
newcomers to a given field - this could potentially open up a technology to a
wider market.

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kotharia
Part of the reason may related to the Dunning-Kruger effect - the people who
have less skill and experience in a field literally lack the skills to be
aware of their level of competence. "Why can't you just ...?" is probably
something the competent have already considered, but to the neophyte it seems
like a new inspiration (and they don't have the depth of understanding to see
the limitations). Questions like: Why don't you make it cheaper for people to
live by enforcing rent controls? Why don't you motivate people by giving
monetary rewards/punishments? are often asked by people who don't understand
the flow-on effects ("unintended consequences") that their proposed easy
solutions to complex problems might have. See also:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_fence)

