
Ask HN: What are some common traps that smart people fall into? - khandarus
At least in the software engineering world, I think a very common one is NIH, the idea that <i>we can do it better</i>, which almost never works out in experience.
======
RickS
The idea that just because you can do smart things, you should be exempt from
doing boring things.

Wash the damn dishes, literally and figuratively.

~~~
widyowid
A corrolary of it: procrastination.

It's a double-edged sword, really; on one side, taking a step back and putting
off the project currently undertaken can give one a clearer perspective of the
subject at hand, providing a fresh take on it, in some way(s) previously not
even crossed one's mind.

On the other side, all too often it paves the path to development hell--be it
due to the neverending quest for holy grail/unicorn of your project (if you're
leaning to being a perfectionist), or eating lotus by indulging on various
diversions to entertain your boredom (if you're more of a slacker like me).
Or, god forbid, both.

------
0x4f3759df
Conflating negativity/criticism/pessimism with intelligence.

Making a declaration about viability of software based on its present state
(youtube will never work they'll get sued), (bitcoin will never work because
it can't scale), instead of predicting the viability of a future iteration of
it.

Nitpicking someone's communication/word choice/edge case instead of focusing
out what they were trying to convey

~~~
potta_coffee
You just summed up maybe two-thirds of the comments on HN.

~~~
redplasticcup
Wrong. More like two-fifths.

~~~
potta_coffee
=)

------
shubhamjain
Procrastinating on an assigned task because you think you can do things faster
than everyone else. It's a trap that I fell into often. Nearing the shipping
date, I found myself scrambling to finish the task wishing I had started
earlier. The learning: Even if you're faster at doing things, underestimating
unknown unknowns is going to be detrimental in the end. It's better to start
sooner. There's a good article that covers this hazard[1]

[1]: [http://bookofhook.blogspot.in/2013/03/smart-guy-
productivity...](http://bookofhook.blogspot.in/2013/03/smart-guy-productivity-
pitfalls.html)

------
Mz
Smart people can be impatient and can be short on virtues other people have,
like persistence. They often expect things to come easily and will give up
quickly if they don't.

They can be prone to thinking that if someone disagrees with them, the person
is just stupid or doesn't know enough. It can be very challenging to get smart
people from very different domains to collaborate effectively because both
sides may throw their hands up quickly and assume the other side is just dumb.

Getting smart people with very different world views to really communicate in
a meaty and respectful fashion can be challenging. Both sides may be quick to
dismiss the other as both wrong and stupid.

~~~
htwillie
"...that if someone disagrees with them, the person is just stupid or doesn't
know enough."

Believing that smart = right, thus, less smart = less right.

~~~
Mz
No. They believe they have an informed opinion, so anyone who sees it
differently must have an uninformed opinion rooted in prejudice, partial
information etc.

This is partly a product of the culture and it is part of why I turned down my
scholarship and spent two decades as a homemaker. I was one of the top
students at my high school and it was an incredibly poisonous experience.

Raising kids was a wonderful antidote to this shit. It helped me develop
mental models concerning the superior density and value of local information,
even in cases where a person has substantially less formal education.

In other words, my inarticulate 2 year old knew more about his situation than
I did, never mind his lack of education and challenges in communicating it.
Disrespecting his knowledge was guaranteed to go bad places. The challenge was
in serving as an effective resource for him instead of simply trying to lord
it over him.

------
Arete3141
This is less software-related, but one trap smart folks can fall into is being
afraid to seem not smart. Like let's say an authority figure is trying to do
something that doesn't _feel_ right to you, and you say something about it.
And then Mr. Authority Figure says, "Come now, _be reasonable_ or _be
rational_." The fear of being perceived as "irrational" may stop you from
standing up for yourself or someone else.

~~~
Arete3141
On a similar note, "fear of not looking smart" can make it hard to ask a
question. Often when I'm in a meeting and they're going deep into some
technical thing I don't understand, I (nowadays) assume that everybody else is
confused, too, and I _ask the question._ And then once I do, everyone else
relaxes and follows up. But until that ice is broken, we're all sweating
bullets trying to look like we get something we literally do not understand at
all.

------
hkmurakami
The ability to rationalize seemingly any position.

------
malux85
Developers who think that launching a successful startup involves just writing
a bunch of code and then the money will come flooding in. With the exception
of a few outliers this is simply not true, you need marketing, business
development, support, netwoking, accounting.

Speaking as a developer who believed this myself for too long

------
steanne
a: assuming everyone around them is as smart as they are and unintentionally
losing people in conversations by skipping over logical leaps they think
everyone can make.

b: assuming everyone around them is as NOT smart as they are and
unintentionally condescending to the ones who are.

c: assuming they never play the other guy in scenario a.

~~~
thisisit
Actually starting with scenario a and then realising people are unable to
catch up to them, slowly changing to assuming scenario b.

------
superplussed
There is a concept called "fluency illusion" which everyone is susceptible to,
which is when you are passively flipping through a book on some topic, and you
say: yeah, I know this, I know this too, yeah yeah, I got this. And then you
are stopped and asked a question about the material and it's like: _gulp_.
Shit.

Everyone falls victim to this, but I think smart people can be especially
prone.

------
benjohnson
Being so smart that you can make a lousy situation work - where everybody else
would fail fast and move on.

------
jmt_
One thing I see a lot with fellow students is the following mentality:

"I don't need to spend a lot of time studying for X because I can figure it
out when I need too" or similarly "I don't feel like learning about X right
now but I know I could do it on the test when I need to"

I think that sort of thinking is a classic trap smart students can fall into
but often fail to correct. Often, these students can get by in High School and
first two years of undergrad but often fall hard in upper division courses. I
saw one of my closest friends, who I consider to be much smarter than myself,
fail an entire semester of 300 and 400-division courses because he didn't put
in the work needed despite having a 3.6+ GPA in our Universities physics
program.

------
adamnemecek
I would say that one is tying your self worth to your (coding) skills.
Ironically once I got out of this mindset, my coding got arguably much better.
Shit takes time yo, code hard and enjoy your bad code, it’s gonna get somewhat
better eventually.

------
syncerr
Assuming they're smarter than their surroundings.

Smart people will end up working with equally intelligent people to the point
where they're no longer "smarter", they're now just average.

------
iEchoic
Trying to use data to directly measure things that are better suited to
intuitive understanding. Smart people often take for granted that the human
brain is still far better at recognizing patterns than it is at mathematical
modeling, and the human brain is still many orders of magnitude more powerful
than any computer. Data-driven approaches are great for some domains, but are
still poorly-suited for others.

Common manifestations of this trap include using code coverage metrics to
decide where to write tests and using measurements like cyclomatic complexity
to decide when to refactor code.

------
jefflombardjr
From Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance...
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumption_trap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumption_trap)

------
cvaidya1986
Execution and iterating in the real world more valuable than being smart
inside your head at home over analyzing everything. TLDR; get out of your head
and into the real world

------
Gustomaximus
I feel one of the larger flaws is there are distinct attributes of
intelligence so while people may be smart in one way they can be very ordinary
in others. This can lead to people making decisions on areas better deferred
or advised from others. Though this can as much be due to personal confidence
as much as intelligence.

------
sd_sangit
working for someone else for their entire life?

~~~
blacksmith_tb
That reminds me of discussions about whether it's better to rent or buy
housing... who's to say that it isn't smarter (for some people) to choose to
work for someone else? What if working for yourself required you to do things
like hire and manage employees?

------
SirLJ
Stock market education, stock market tips and stock market signals... Scammers
are making millions out of well educated people... A lot of investigations
into the dark world:

[https://www.tradingschools.org/](https://www.tradingschools.org/)

------
bjourne
Distraction and procrastination. I'm not sure I'm smart enough to qualify for
your "smart people" designation, but those are two ailments that are affecting
me. :) Perhaps being smart is being not easily distracted, then I'm very dumb.

------
brudgers
Believing other people are stupid.

------
jjoe
To consider oneself smart.

------
rayj
Thinking you can beat the market. Trying to trade individual stocks. Thinking
you can make a genuinely new SASS product that noone has ever thought of
before.

------
_rpd
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases)

------
superasn
Not using systems when starting out.

~~~
marssaxman
Not using what kind of systems, when starting out doing what? I'm afraid I
have no idea what you mean.

~~~
superasn
I meant thinking in systems instead of just doing things, esp when it comes to
business. There are two very good books that have a lot of stuff about this:
the emyth and work the system. I'm on a mobile phone right now but if you want
me to elaborate please let me know.

------
valbaca
What is NIH?

~~~
romuloab42
Not Invented Here

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_invented_here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_invented_here)

