8 ms·

I seem to be getting a lot of heat for this comment - fair enough, but I will expand on that. Before joining this company, I hired and managed teams across var

• nradov 5y ago
  That reminds me of the old joke about hell being just a sales demo. http://www.jokes.net/heavenandhell.htm http://www.jokes.net/heavenandhell.htm
• chudi 5y ago
  Maybe you are mixing intelligence with jaded people? I mean if you are in a team and nobody wants to do the hard work, they will probably realized something extra that you haven't or you just have more ambition than your peers and actually want to work. In mega corporations there are all kinds of talented and motivated people, some people just want to coast at work and that's probably ok.
• xeromal 5y ago
  IQ is kind of a weird metric to measure people by. Do they get their shit done?
  • dehrmann 5y ago
    I read it as a proxy for "am I going to learn from them."
  • teakettle42 5y ago
    Why is it a weird metric?
    • ssully 5y ago
      Because it's not something OP or anyone can actually measure their coworkers for, so it isn't actually a metric, just a way of degrading their coworkers. To me, it says more (negatively) about OP, than it does about their coworkers.
    • jasondigitized 5y ago
      Because there are many forms of intelligence. He may be over indexing on mathematical intelligence and under indexing on the intelligence required to work within constraints, ambiguity, difficult people, adversity, and unreasonable leadership direction and expectations.
      • rualca 5y ago
        > He may be over indexing on mathematical intelligence (...) It reads as OP didn't indexed anything and just wanted to denigrate people around him to try to portray himself as some kind of ubermensch towering over his peers.
  • dcolkitt 5y ago
    IQ is literally the strongest predictor of job performance across every category. Even stronger than years of experience in the job. This result has been replicated by industrial psychology resource again and again over decades. I get that it’s kinda rude to bluntly talk about IQ, but without a doubt intelligent colleagues make for a more effective work environment.
    • throwaway4220 5y ago
      IQ and intelligence are related but not equal. If work performance ~ intelligence ~ IQ, I don’t think it’s fair to say literally
    • alecbz 5y ago
      You can just directly observe how productive your teammates are, why bother using IQ as a proxy. And it's not like OP gave his co-workers IQ tests.
      • 7331 5y ago
        I think there's three different potential points/statements: * a) The main overall productivity issue * b) Making a more general point that they don't seem very bright, at least compared to former colleagues * c) Specifically mentioning IQ score Yes even though the main topic is (a)... b/c is just extra context. I think OP's goal was to make point b/c to give some further context on their perception of the situation (whether it's true or not doesn't matter, the point is explaining what they think). Sure both (b) + (c) especially can make you look like a dick, but I don't think making the (b) point is totally irrelevant to the overall post. It at least gives us more insight into what OP thinks, even if they're wrong. So perhaps going the (c) route (rather than b) was just an attempt at trying to be slightly more objective (even though there's obviously no evidence at all). (b) is vaguer than (c), so I don't see that (c) was completely irrelevant, even though it comes across arrogant.
    • deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    • yesenadam 5y ago
• xiphias2 5y ago
  Speak with your manager or manager's manager that your current team is not the best match for you (if you don't trust your manager). Your manager's manager is incentivized to keep you inside hes team even if you switch managers.
• ldjkfkdsjnv 5y ago
  You shouldnt have to feel bad for calling people low IQ. I work at FAANG and feel the exact same way. Completely underwhelmed by the talent.
  • de_keyboard 5y ago
    You are confusing IQ and intelligence. It would have been better to say "my co-workers do not seem to be highly intelligent".
    • ldjkfkdsjnv 5y ago
      I'm tired of the semantics, my co workers are dumb. They passed these interviews by memorizing the answers to questions, and they cant come up with useful software architecture. Everything they code is a one off solution to a one off problem.
      • jasondigitized 5y ago
        Are they better with people than you are? Does that make you dumb as well? If you were “smart” you would have figured out how to work with your leadership team to optimize a solution for all parties. But you don’t know how to, and therefore from my perspective, could also be considered “dumb”.
        • askafriend 5y ago
          Honestly some people are dumb and it’s as simple as that. No need to bend backwards to make excuses for them.
          • rualca 5y ago
            This debate isn't really about people being dumb inasmuch as it's about someone accusing every single person around him of being dumb.
        • proofbygazing 5y ago
• nostrademons 5y ago
  Of possible interest to you: https://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/ https://www.ribbonfarm.com/the-gervais-principle/
• awsthro00945 5y ago
  I'm sorry that your thread is getting completely derailed because everyone here seems to offended by your IQ comment. FWIW, I agree with you and am in the same boat. I joined a FAANG so that I could work alongside and learn from truly impressive people. So far, after a few years of working at my FAANG, I have not worked alongside one single person who I would consider impressive. I won't go so far as to say they're "low IQ" or dumb or anything like that. I enjoy them as people and I like working with them, but they certainly don't inspire me and I do not feel like I am learning things from them that further my career. All of them, even the ones at higher levels than me, seem just as clueless and lost as I am. And that's an awful environment to be in. It's frustrating, disappointing, feels like you were lied to, etc. My only advice to you is to just quit. Don't stick around searching for something that you already know isn't here. It's very unlikely to get better.
• ActorNightly 5y ago
  Having worked for FAANG, I do tend to agree that there are not a lot of exceptionally smart people. However to say that they are below average intelligence is very dismissive. Its not exactly a breeze to get a job at FAANG, and you do have to know a good bit of stuff to get in. That being said, if you consider yourself intelligent, and wanted to work amongst "smart" people, you would have asked questions about the team and the process, and made your decision on that. And also not equate IQ and intelligence when talking about people.
  • yencabulator 5y ago
    > you would have asked questions about the team and the process The standard recruiting process for FAANGs seems to be that you are just a replaceable "human resource", and your team will be decided later (decidedly after signing an offer) and may change every now and then. You may get better treatment with seniority, but I see people reporting that as the typical experience.
• rejectedandsad 5y ago
  Four months? Sounds like Google. I highly doubt there are low IQ people at Google. Your interpretation seems off.
• danaris 5y ago
  I notice that while you talk a lot about why you believe you should be able to tell what "high IQ" people are like, you don't say anything about what it is about these people that tells you they're not. In other words, all you've done is attempt to establish that we should just trust you when you say they're "low IQ", rather than give us any actual evidence that they are, or even any elaboration of what you mean when you say that.
• shostack 5y ago
  What about EQ aka emotional intelligence? Your comment betrays a very biased view. Is it at all possible these people are very good at areas you yourself may be considered "low IQ?" And how are they to work with otherwise? I've worked with many "high IQ" people who were awful colleagues because they had superiority complexes, had no concept of collaboration, were crap communicators, especially for audiences not familiar with their domains, etc. Meanwhile I've worked with others who may not be traditionally smart, be deeply technical, etc. But they got people. And people liked talking and working with them. And that led to progress, alignment, and less stress. I know who I'd prefer to work with any day of the week.
• TechBro8615 5y ago
  You're looking for independent thinkers. You won't find them at a megacorp because the hiring funnel actively selects against such a personality. Good employees are good followers. Perhaps you should reconsider selling out to the megacorp, and sell out to VC instead. Now that you're a Xoogler (or FANG-er, whatever), raising money will be easy.
  • certeoun 5y ago
    That was my hunch as well. People who don't care about learning topics deeply. Understanding why something works etc. I noticed that a lot in school/work. People can get good grades even without understanding the topic at hand. Many learn mechanistically and succeed with good grades. I do the opposite, but it takes time and effort to learn a topic deeply using the Feynman method. Many are not interested in this. Many just apply formulas and code snippets, and they succeed nevertheless. Good for them! I actually don't care about success or grades or whatever. I care about the topic, because I want to understand why it works. This is just me though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
    • TechBro8615 5y ago
      I’m with you. It’s really an annoyance that we need money to survive.