
Why most smart people are better at solving other people’s problems… - adammichaelc
http://www.rajeshsetty.com/2010/08/10/why-most-smart-people-are-better-at-solving-other-peoples-problems%E2%80%A6/
======
DanielBMarkham
I hate to make a meta comment and I'm not trying to slander the author at all,
but dang dude, we got it all here: newsletter signup on site entry, press
relations button, request for speaking, ebooks. I almost expected a free
chance to win an iPod somewhere while I was reading.

I found the material lacking in quality, but it had its moments. My biggest
impression was just being overwhelmed with the way the blog was integrated.
Hats off.

~~~
rajesh301
Point noted. None of the items you mentioned ( newsletter sign up, eBooks )
are required to access the content on the blog. In fact, none of the eBooks
require you to enter an email address.

I am sad to see that you focused on these things rather than 1500 other
articles on the blog.

C'est la vie :)

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Trying to stay positive, I think you should use the newsletter popup on
something like the 3rd or 4th visit. By that time, users have read some of
your material and could form an opinion about subscribing to a newsletter.

From my personal perspective, if you punch me in the nose with a sign-up form
the first time I visit, not only am I going to dismiss it without any
consideration at all, I am going to be suspicious of the subsequent material
you present. Changing the timing of this popup could help you a bunch, I
think.

~~~
prs
Exactly my thoughts. This post will generate a decent amount of visitors from
HN. The vast majority of these visitors including myself will be first-timers
to your site and unable to tell whether they are interested in subscribing to
your newsletter in the first place.

If I have not seen your site, I will not subscribe to your newsletter. If I
have read through _n items_ on your website, chances are good I might be
interested in your newsletter offer, though.

~~~
rajesh301
Point noted and thank you.

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joe_the_user
The headline is a nice use of language to make an almost-truism seem like an
insight. Good fodder for the cold reader:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading>

IE; Everyone is "better at solving other people's problems", since everyone is
bad at solving their own problems. And they're bad at solving their own
problems ... because they have them. Neither the observer nor the person
himself/herself is likely to notice the problems _they don't have_ , because
they're good at solving. Uh, plus its easy to _think_ your solution to someone
else's problem is good since you don't have to put it into practice. And the
headline mentions smart people, so I'm sure they're talk about _you_.

~~~
rajesh301
The problems referred in the article are those problems that people should
have or could have solved but have not solved them. I thought it was obvious
but it looks like I have to explicitly state it. Will make a note for next
time.

~~~
joe_the_user
Even so, the same logic applies, see Xenophanes comment.

~~~
rajesh301
I read the comment by Xenophanes and we are talking about different things. So
we can agree to disagree here :)

------
klochner
It's an odd format - the results of author pontification presented as "mini-
research".

I found little to no hard data, little to no justification for the conclusions
reached, and as a bonus, this was one of those rare cases when you can
correctly say that the author was begging the question.

~~~
blizkreeg
You don't always need hard data to prove a point. I could relate to this
article from my personal experience. Smart people tend to be harsh on
themselves and on their solutions.

The "most smart people" part could be revised to something else so it doesn't
seem like the conclusion was from hard data.

~~~
klochner
Actually, you _do_ need either hard data or some kind of logical argument to
prove a point.

The author of this post makes an assertion (smart people can't solve their own
problems), but never _proves_ that assertion, nor does he give any reasoned
argument as to why it may be true.

A better title for the post (though the author probably likes the current
link-bait title) would be:

    
    
       "Why other people's problems may be easier to solve than your own"

~~~
srinivasnjay
According to your title, you are trying to say that, Every person can solve
every other person's problem. But not his own problem. That may not be true
and that is not what author is trying to say.

He is talking about the (smart) people who can solve other's problem. But not
about all the people.

~~~
rajesh301
Thanks for the clarification. Looking at the discussion here itself is a
validation for the article at some level. It is a simple article presenting
conclusions from a series of interviews with reasonably smart people.

The conclusions are being over-analyzed which is the characteristic of very
smart people. HN is a community of such smart people and I am not at all
surprised that it is being over-analyzed here :)

Cheers.

------
xenophanes
Suppose someone is good at solving a category of problems.

He will solve all his own problems in that category, and fewer outside it.

So of course, after he's spent a long time trying to solve his own problems,
the remainder will be ones he's bad at.

But for other people, lots of their problems will be the kinds he's good at.

~~~
xerxes
Another factor is that people literally aren't aware of their personal
problems, only of some of distant consequences. If anything, smartness acts to
cover up the evidence via rationalization.

Friends know about some of them, but they tend to discuss these only in one's
absence ("the problem with X is that he is always [blank]", etc.)

~~~
rajesh301
Amen to that. Friends sometimes try to bring that up only to be shot down
instantly with some smart rationalization. Thanks.

------
greenlblue
He started off well but he didn't take his analysis far enough. It's not just
a matter of being ignorant of constraints so that a problem appears easier to
an outside smart observer. Many smart people I know are just better at
restructuring themselves so that some problems no longer appear as problems or
impinge enough on their thoughts to distract them from other tasks, i.e. they
are in essence fooling themselves into believing the problem doesn't exist or
they put enough stopgaps into place so that the problem doesn't interfere with
their day to day activities enough to require a total solution. Another reason
I think is that most smart people are better able to tolerate stress and
general mental drain so to totally invest themselves into solving some problem
they require a higher threshold of mental anguish or whatever it is that
drives people to solve problems.

~~~
rajesh301
The article was written based on a series of interviews. Smart people don't
fool themselves by ignoring the problem or acting as if the problem does not
exist. Most people know that the problem exists but they also know all the
other things around those problems ( constraints ) and it can get overwhelming
to them. For instance, they will come up with a solution and at the same
instant also see all the problems associated with that solution - the loop
continues.

~~~
greenlblue
Then that's not being very smart is it? If your awareness is what causes
distress then you are definitely doing it wrong and should switch up your
mental model of what is an acceptable solution to some problem. Plus, I don't
think I have ever heard of awareness among smart people leading to mental
paralysis.

~~~
rajesh301
You could try that yourself by simply discussing a problem someone is facing.
If they are stuck, ask them for a potential solution and see how quickly they
will tear up that solution by over-analyzing the problems with the suggested
solution.

My $.02 of course.

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chc
My theory: Ideas are easy, implementing is hard.

Being the sort of smart that can "solve" other people's problems only helps
with the former. The latter is a totally different skillset, so when we
actually have to do that part of the job, all of a sudden it seems much harder
than it was just a second ago.

~~~
rajesh301
Yes "implementation" is hard work and that part adds to the complexity of
solving one's problems. You cannot stop at advice but have to follow through
with following that advice :)

------
Charuru
Yeah, same with doctors being not allowed to treat their own relatives.
Solving other people's ailments are easier.

