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I've always been fascinated by the idea that intelligence lies within a spectrum. Someone might be incredibly smart about a narrow topic or field, yet be blind

I've always been fascinated by the idea that intelligence lies within a spectrum. Someone might be incredibly smart about a narrow topic or field, yet be blind to their own stupidity within another realm. To me, this seems like a classic example. To quote the press release: "During the execution of that search, SHARP made numerous false statements to FBI agents, including, among other things, in substance, that he was not the perpetrator of the Incident and that he had not used Surfshark VPN prior to the discovery of the Incident. When confronted with records demonstrating that SHARP purchased the Surfshark VPN service in July 2020, approximately six months prior to the Incident, SHARP falsely stated, in part and substance, that someone else must have used his PayPal account to make the purchase." This man was a senior developer yet this quote sounds like it comes from a nine year-old. Not to mention "hire a lawyer, don't talk to the police" has always been pretty solid advice. He now faces significant prison time, and the strong potential for a dismal life.

rodgerd 5y ago
> This man was a senior developer yet this quote sounds like it comes from a nine year-old. Tech has a contempt culture problem, and this can be one manifestation of it: feeling that being moderately bright about getting computers to do things makes you a tremendous intellect, and everyone else around you an easily hoodwinked moron. Perhaps the most extreme example was Hans Reiser. Anyone who followed the twists and turns of the case against him for murdering his wife will remember how many trivially disproved lies he told, apparently under the illusion that he was a mastermind who could put one over on the courts based on his faulty understanding of ideas like reasonable doubt.
- SilasX 5y ago
  Yes, and I remember Reiser having rejected a plea deal whereby he'd only serve 3 years, which is just about winning the lottery when it comes to being prosecuted for murder: https://www.theregister.com/2008/07/10/reiser_rejected_voluntary_manslaughter_plea/ https://www.theregister.com/2008/07/10/reiser_rejected_volun...
- devonkim 5y ago
  A lot of the tech community have pretty hostile attitudes in general for reasons I can only wildly conjecture, but the question I also would pose is if the distribution is all that different from the rest of the population. Look at the doctors and lawyers we’ve been seeing that are at least in public saying some of the most ridiculous things imaginable oftentimes even without an obvious financial motive involved like in most cases I’ve heard with engineers being deceitful.
colechristensen 5y ago
It's not really about intelligence. When faced correcting a false reality you have created, it can be quite hard to decide to phase change into telling the truth. The lies that come out come from not being prepared and not being a very good liar. For people who lie like this, a good way to think about it is as though it were a disease. Actually intelligent people just don't do things like this, even if they have nefarious intent. There are quite smarter ways to accomplish substantially the same thing that this crime does not reflect. I'm not convinced that this person was particularly intelligent in the first place.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  > Actually intelligent people just don't do things like this Are you really claiming that intelligent people don’t commit crime or don’t lie? That seems incredibly naive.
  - birdyrooster 5y ago
    I thought they were claiming intelligent people are better at lying in the course of committing crimes or otherwise.
  - colechristensen 5y ago
    No, just things like that. The whole situation screams “stupid criminal” or more like “compulsive liar/manipulator without a plan”. Intelligent criminals and liars are better at it, better at obfuscating, better at making it unclear whether or not a crime was actually committed, better at never having their crime discovered and not getting caught if it is.
- ivalm 5y ago
  > When faced correcting a false reality you have created, it can be quite hard to decide to phase change into telling the truth. The lies that come out come from not being prepared and not being a very good liar. For people who lie like this, a good way to think about it is as though it were a disease. Or just don’t talk to the police and lawyer up. I agree the best thing is to not do the crime, but if you are a criminal then the intelligent and simple thing is to use a lawyer.
klabb3 5y ago
> I've always been fascinated by the idea that intelligence lies within a spectrum. Someone might be incredibly smart about a narrow topic or field, yet be blind to their own stupidity within another realm. I've been seriously bitten by this, and find it more scary than fascinating. Growing up, I thought people who followed cult leaders and charismatic narcissists were so stupid (still do), it appeared so transparent to me. Later, in my professional and adult life I found myself to be equally gullible when intelligent people were abusive or outright dumb in other areas. This has been a challenge to unlearn, like learning an old dog to sit. Basically, our proxies for predicting people's character range from bad to terrible.
- doctor_eval 5y ago
  > I found myself to be equally gullible when intelligent people were abusive or outright dumb in other areas. This has been a challenge to unlearn, like learning an old dog to sit. Basically, our proxies for predicting people's character range from bad to terrible. oh I am 100% with you on this. I tried to elaborate but I just sound bitter and twisted, and that's probably true. But I've spent the last few years unlearning things I thought I knew. It has been a painful and expensive set of lessons. long story short: I think we judge people's reaction to a situation by projecting how we would act... but that's not how people actually act.
  - TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
    I would like to hear more about your experience.
    - doctor_eval 5y ago
      I’ve finally worked out that people who want something from me, like my company or my software or my expertise, will say whatever they have to say to get a deal - but once the deal is done they just do whatever the hell they want, regardless of what they said. It’s the opposite of what I expect. I can’t deal with it. The people who do this are smart, confident and charismatic. It is clearly a negotiating strategy. But in reality, the only thing that matters is who controls the flow of money. If they control the money then it doesn’t matter what they said, they can do what they damn well please. They know this up front, and they count on it. Despite these setbacks I’ve done alright for myself, but honestly, I’m really bummed out about how useless I am when it comes to judging people and creating businesses where I’m free to actually do my best work. Anyway, I don’t know if that helps you, but you asked and honestly it has helped me a bit to vent even if it’s all in the abstract.
sneak 5y ago
It is very, VERY difficult to not answer questions from a trained law enforcement interrogator even if you a) are smart and b) know not to answer questions. I can't stress this enough. It actually takes explicit training and practice, as it goes against every social habit and "instinct" we have developed throughout our entire adult lives.
- CurrentB 5y ago
  Any tips for how one might maintain composure enough to handle these situations if they ever find themselves in them? I imagine the obvious answer is just practice saying "no comment, I need my lawyer present" but I'm not convinced this would make one immune to their Jedi mind tricks when the day comes to exercise it
  - influx 5y ago
    I recommend watching this videos on how to talk to police (hint don't): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE
  - sneak 5y ago
    You are right: Having watched the "don't talk to the police" video over a half dozen times, I unwillingly volunteered information to a cop when in the moment. It's really hard to put into practice when someone domineering and armed is implicitly threatening you with arrest/violence for not doing precisely what they want you to do. I actually rehearse now, because police in the USA are so corrupt and unreliable. Something along the lines of "I know you are just doing your job, but, respectfully, I must consult with my attorney before answering any questions." Then (to their dismay and annoyance) I repeat the exact same thing over and over again when they inevitably ask me other, follow up questions, trying to work around my initial refusal. (It's so disrespectful, as well as illegal, for them to keep going at that point.)
    - novok 5y ago
      How about the border when entering a country? What should you do in that case?
_pplp 5y ago
> This man was a senior developer Dude, let's not be generous. Could he write code? Yes. But this is a guy who wrote everything in Node, but absolutely _refused_ to use any existing libraries except for ones he personally wrote. He didn't "trust" them. He wasn't even hired on as a dev, he was hired to be the "Cloud guy", essentially a sysadmin for AWS, and basically spooked the CEO into giving him the keys to the castle.
- throwuxiytayq 5y ago
  > wrote everything in Node, but absolutely _refused_ to use any existing libraries except for ones he personally wrote. He didn't "trust" them. Sounds like the single sensible thing he did. Have you seen the npm ecosystem?
  - kabes 5y ago
    Are node apps getting way more hacked than say php or java servers? Was his code any better?
    - Thorrez 5y ago
      There are frequently posts on HN about NPM packages getting compromised. Of the top 10 posts on HN about NPM in the past 30 days[1], 9 are about security problems, and last 1 is about package spam. [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastMonth&page=0&prefix=false&query=npm&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastMonth&page=0&prefix=fa...
    - danielheath 5y ago
      Node apps tend to depend on a far, far wider pool of maintainers. To illustrate: A new Ruby on Rails app has 1/10th the number of maintainers in its dependency list than a new create-react-app codebase.
      - dragonwriter 5y ago
        A create-react-app app is not a node app (It has a node dev server, but it's a front-end JS app), so its a weird thing to reach for to illustrate a point about node apps.
nathanvanfleet 5y ago
That's not a quote it's a summary of what he said
dagw 5y ago
This man was a senior developer yet this quote sounds like it comes from a nine year-old. I knew a senior developer doing advanced R&D at a big tech company, who also kept getting suckered into MLM scams.
- felipemnoa 5y ago
  MLM=Multi Level Marketing
millzlane 5y ago
Which is why everyone knows you give an addict $100 and they will go and reload a green dot card for you.

rodgerd 5y ago

> This man was a senior developer yet this quote sounds like it comes from a nine year-old. Tech has a contempt culture problem, and this can be one manifestation of it: feeling that being moderately bright about getting computers to do things makes you a tremendous intellect, and everyone else around you an easily hoodwinked moron. Perhaps the most extreme example was Hans Reiser. Anyone who followed the twists and turns of the case against him for murdering his wife will remember how many trivially disproved lies he told, apparently under the illusion that he was a mastermind who could put one over on the courts based on his faulty understanding of ideas like reasonable doubt.

SilasX 5y ago
Yes, and I remember Reiser having rejected a plea deal whereby he'd only serve 3 years, which is just about winning the lottery when it comes to being prosecuted for murder: https://www.theregister.com/2008/07/10/reiser_rejected_voluntary_manslaughter_plea/ https://www.theregister.com/2008/07/10/reiser_rejected_volun...
devonkim 5y ago
A lot of the tech community have pretty hostile attitudes in general for reasons I can only wildly conjecture, but the question I also would pose is if the distribution is all that different from the rest of the population. Look at the doctors and lawyers we’ve been seeing that are at least in public saying some of the most ridiculous things imaginable oftentimes even without an obvious financial motive involved like in most cases I’ve heard with engineers being deceitful.

colechristensen 5y ago

It's not really about intelligence. When faced correcting a false reality you have created, it can be quite hard to decide to phase change into telling the truth. The lies that come out come from not being prepared and not being a very good liar. For people who lie like this, a good way to think about it is as though it were a disease. Actually intelligent people just don't do things like this, even if they have nefarious intent. There are quite smarter ways to accomplish substantially the same thing that this crime does not reflect. I'm not convinced that this person was particularly intelligent in the first place.

TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
> Actually intelligent people just don't do things like this Are you really claiming that intelligent people don’t commit crime or don’t lie? That seems incredibly naive.
- birdyrooster 5y ago
  I thought they were claiming intelligent people are better at lying in the course of committing crimes or otherwise.
- colechristensen 5y ago
  No, just things like that. The whole situation screams “stupid criminal” or more like “compulsive liar/manipulator without a plan”. Intelligent criminals and liars are better at it, better at obfuscating, better at making it unclear whether or not a crime was actually committed, better at never having their crime discovered and not getting caught if it is.
ivalm 5y ago
> When faced correcting a false reality you have created, it can be quite hard to decide to phase change into telling the truth. The lies that come out come from not being prepared and not being a very good liar. For people who lie like this, a good way to think about it is as though it were a disease. Or just don’t talk to the police and lawyer up. I agree the best thing is to not do the crime, but if you are a criminal then the intelligent and simple thing is to use a lawyer.

klabb3 5y ago

> I've always been fascinated by the idea that intelligence lies within a spectrum. Someone might be incredibly smart about a narrow topic or field, yet be blind to their own stupidity within another realm. I've been seriously bitten by this, and find it more scary than fascinating. Growing up, I thought people who followed cult leaders and charismatic narcissists were so stupid (still do), it appeared so transparent to me. Later, in my professional and adult life I found myself to be equally gullible when intelligent people were abusive or outright dumb in other areas. This has been a challenge to unlearn, like learning an old dog to sit. Basically, our proxies for predicting people's character range from bad to terrible.

doctor_eval 5y ago
> I found myself to be equally gullible when intelligent people were abusive or outright dumb in other areas. This has been a challenge to unlearn, like learning an old dog to sit. Basically, our proxies for predicting people's character range from bad to terrible. oh I am 100% with you on this. I tried to elaborate but I just sound bitter and twisted, and that's probably true. But I've spent the last few years unlearning things I thought I knew. It has been a painful and expensive set of lessons. long story short: I think we judge people's reaction to a situation by projecting how we would act... but that's not how people actually act.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago
  I would like to hear more about your experience.
  - doctor_eval 5y ago
    I’ve finally worked out that people who want something from me, like my company or my software or my expertise, will say whatever they have to say to get a deal - but once the deal is done they just do whatever the hell they want, regardless of what they said. It’s the opposite of what I expect. I can’t deal with it. The people who do this are smart, confident and charismatic. It is clearly a negotiating strategy. But in reality, the only thing that matters is who controls the flow of money. If they control the money then it doesn’t matter what they said, they can do what they damn well please. They know this up front, and they count on it. Despite these setbacks I’ve done alright for myself, but honestly, I’m really bummed out about how useless I am when it comes to judging people and creating businesses where I’m free to actually do my best work. Anyway, I don’t know if that helps you, but you asked and honestly it has helped me a bit to vent even if it’s all in the abstract.

sneak 5y ago

It is very, VERY difficult to not answer questions from a trained law enforcement interrogator even if you a) are smart and b) know not to answer questions. I can't stress this enough. It actually takes explicit training and practice, as it goes against every social habit and "instinct" we have developed throughout our entire adult lives.

CurrentB 5y ago
Any tips for how one might maintain composure enough to handle these situations if they ever find themselves in them? I imagine the obvious answer is just practice saying "no comment, I need my lawyer present" but I'm not convinced this would make one immune to their Jedi mind tricks when the day comes to exercise it
- influx 5y ago
  I recommend watching this videos on how to talk to police (hint don't): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE
- sneak 5y ago
  You are right: Having watched the "don't talk to the police" video over a half dozen times, I unwillingly volunteered information to a cop when in the moment. It's really hard to put into practice when someone domineering and armed is implicitly threatening you with arrest/violence for not doing precisely what they want you to do. I actually rehearse now, because police in the USA are so corrupt and unreliable. Something along the lines of "I know you are just doing your job, but, respectfully, I must consult with my attorney before answering any questions." Then (to their dismay and annoyance) I repeat the exact same thing over and over again when they inevitably ask me other, follow up questions, trying to work around my initial refusal. (It's so disrespectful, as well as illegal, for them to keep going at that point.)
  - novok 5y ago
    How about the border when entering a country? What should you do in that case?

_pplp 5y ago

> This man was a senior developer Dude, let's not be generous. Could he write code? Yes. But this is a guy who wrote everything in Node, but absolutely _refused_ to use any existing libraries except for ones he personally wrote. He didn't "trust" them. He wasn't even hired on as a dev, he was hired to be the "Cloud guy", essentially a sysadmin for AWS, and basically spooked the CEO into giving him the keys to the castle.

throwuxiytayq 5y ago
> wrote everything in Node, but absolutely _refused_ to use any existing libraries except for ones he personally wrote. He didn't "trust" them. Sounds like the single sensible thing he did. Have you seen the npm ecosystem?
- kabes 5y ago
  Are node apps getting way more hacked than say php or java servers? Was his code any better?
  - Thorrez 5y ago
    There are frequently posts on HN about NPM packages getting compromised. Of the top 10 posts on HN about NPM in the past 30 days[1], 9 are about security problems, and last 1 is about package spam. [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastMonth&page=0&prefix=false&query=npm&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastMonth&page=0&prefix=fa...
  - danielheath 5y ago
    Node apps tend to depend on a far, far wider pool of maintainers. To illustrate: A new Ruby on Rails app has 1/10th the number of maintainers in its dependency list than a new create-react-app codebase.
    - dragonwriter 5y ago
      A create-react-app app is not a node app (It has a node dev server, but it's a front-end JS app), so its a weird thing to reach for to illustrate a point about node apps.

nathanvanfleet 5y ago

That's not a quote it's a summary of what he said

dagw 5y ago

This man was a senior developer yet this quote sounds like it comes from a nine year-old. I knew a senior developer doing advanced R&D at a big tech company, who also kept getting suckered into MLM scams.

felipemnoa 5y ago
MLM=Multi Level Marketing

millzlane 5y ago

Which is why everyone knows you give an addict $100 and they will go and reload a green dot card for you.