6 ms·

Why most smart people are better at solving other people’s problems…

37 points by adammichaelc 16y ago

greenlblue 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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 16y ago
    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 16y ago
      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.
DanielBMarkham 16y ago
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.
- baguasquirrel 16y ago
  I agreed with you up until the "I found the material lacking in quality". Not all "smart people" are alike, and you may be one of the fortunate ones to not have the problems that he describes. Specifically, from what I've read of your previous posts, you seem like a practical person. That said, the tweet thing on the left side was annoying enough that it warranted firing up the javascript debugger to make it go away.
  - rajesh301 16y ago
    I am looking at the tweet thing (tweetboard) to see how to eliminate this completely. Cheers.
- rajesh301 16y ago
  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 16y ago
    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.
xenophanes 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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 16y ago
    Amen to that. Friends sometimes try to bring that up only to be shot down instantly with some smart rationalization. Thanks.
  - msie 16y ago
    Reminds me of this article recently posted on HN: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/we-are-all-talk-radio-hosts/ http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/we-are-all-talk-ra...
klochner 16y ago
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.
- varjag 16y ago
  Also, dilemma is not what author thinks it means.
- rajesh301 16y ago
  OK the term "mini-research" refers to research done in less than six weeks and the method used was a series of interviews. I am not selling the research data only presenting the conclusions from the research. You are welcome to make your own conclusions of course :)
  - klochner 16y ago
    Then you should explain how you're drawing your conclusions. What I'd like to see in the post (and is missing): - what motivated this "mini-research" - how you verified that the problem exists - how you got to the cause of this problem
    - rajesh301 16y ago
      Yes of course. Your questions are valid. I will add more context to it soon. For a quick summary: a) Ongoing mini-research is part of my next book which will come out only next year or the year after. b) The intermediate findings are being written as short blog posts as people don't have time to read long ones. c) How I know the problem exists - it comes out during my interviews and discussions. The focus of the research is centered around smart people. I am not going to interview people with pre-conceived notions about certain problems existing or non-existing. Having said that, your points are valid and I plan to include responses to that and more in the final version of the book. It is too much to add to the blog posts.
- 16y ago
joe_the_user 16y ago
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 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 16y ago
  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 16y ago
    Even so, the same logic applies, see Xenophanes comment.
    - rajesh301 16y ago
      I read the comment by Xenophanes and we are talking about different things. So we can agree to disagree here :)
chc 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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 16y ago
Yeah, same with doctors being not allowed to treat their own relatives. Solving other people's ailments are easier.

37 points by adammichaelc 16y ago

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 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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 16y ago
    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.

DanielBMarkham 16y ago

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.

baguasquirrel 16y ago
I agreed with you up until the "I found the material lacking in quality". Not all "smart people" are alike, and you may be one of the fortunate ones to not have the problems that he describes. Specifically, from what I've read of your previous posts, you seem like a practical person. That said, the tweet thing on the left side was annoying enough that it warranted firing up the javascript debugger to make it go away.
- rajesh301 16y ago
  I am looking at the tweet thing (tweetboard) to see how to eliminate this completely. Cheers.
rajesh301 16y ago
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 16y ago
  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.

xenophanes 16y ago

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 16y ago
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 16y ago
  Amen to that. Friends sometimes try to bring that up only to be shot down instantly with some smart rationalization. Thanks.
- msie 16y ago
  Reminds me of this article recently posted on HN: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/we-are-all-talk-radio-hosts/ http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/we-are-all-talk-ra...

klochner 16y ago

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.

varjag 16y ago
Also, dilemma is not what author thinks it means.
rajesh301 16y ago
OK the term "mini-research" refers to research done in less than six weeks and the method used was a series of interviews. I am not selling the research data only presenting the conclusions from the research. You are welcome to make your own conclusions of course :)
- klochner 16y ago
  Then you should explain how you're drawing your conclusions. What I'd like to see in the post (and is missing): - what motivated this "mini-research" - how you verified that the problem exists - how you got to the cause of this problem
  - rajesh301 16y ago
    Yes of course. Your questions are valid. I will add more context to it soon. For a quick summary: a) Ongoing mini-research is part of my next book which will come out only next year or the year after. b) The intermediate findings are being written as short blog posts as people don't have time to read long ones. c) How I know the problem exists - it comes out during my interviews and discussions. The focus of the research is centered around smart people. I am not going to interview people with pre-conceived notions about certain problems existing or non-existing. Having said that, your points are valid and I plan to include responses to that and more in the final version of the book. It is too much to add to the blog posts.
16y ago

joe_the_user 16y ago

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 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 16y ago
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 16y ago
  Even so, the same logic applies, see Xenophanes comment.
  - rajesh301 16y ago
    I read the comment by Xenophanes and we are talking about different things. So we can agree to disagree here :)

chc 16y ago

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 16y ago
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 16y ago

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