6 ms·

Have you ever met business owners? They're not all that smart

granshaw 3y ago
In fact intelligence is negatively correlated with success in business. It’s all grit and a certain irrational headstrongness that’s needed
- reducesuffering 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - chasontherobot 3y ago
    This, but not sarcastic.
    - reducesuffering 3y ago
      You must be great at business
  - baq 3y ago
    I refrain from quoting pg nowadays but he used to be worth reading, here's an article from that period which is of some interest: http://paulgraham.com/founders.html http://paulgraham.com/founders.html No words on low IQ but absolutely nothing about being a genius. Also, a paragraph which may point at mild psychopathy as a good trait to have. Which is absolutely in line with top leadership.
    - reducesuffering 3y ago
      GP said: > intelligence is negatively correlated with success in business Has anyone ever seen a negative correlation on a graph? It implies the most successful businessman are practically the dumbest people to exist. It's an extremely foolish, incorrect assertion. GP and downvoters must be amazing at business.
      - mrguyorama 3y ago
        And yet the richest person in the world is the exact person to pay double the value for a shitty social media company by making an inane comment on their platform AFTER the SEC already warned him that, after the first time he made an inane comment on that platform that was substantially relevant to public markets, he would be forced to follow through. Yeah I'm not convinced there is any connection between intelligence and business acumen.
        reducesuffering 3y ago
        Then you would agree with the whole premise of my thread, that > In fact intelligence is negatively correlated with success in business. is BS if you're "not convinced there is any connection between intelligence and business acumen."
        alvah 3y ago
        Your theory is that Elon Musk is unintelligent? That's a pretty wild take.
        withinboredom 3y ago
        Have you seen his unedited press releases? He isn’t that bright.
        alvah 3y ago
        In the last couple of months I’ve seen him absolutely destroy a BBC journalist in an off-the-cuff battle of wits. Is luck the only reason you’re not richer than him?
        withinboredom 3y ago
        Luck is great for modeling capitalism, actually. Elon… is not that smart. Take the “hyperloop” for example, invented in the 1800’s, IIRC. When I considered it in the 90’s as a thought experiment, I quickly realized how dumb it would be. The earth moves, all the time. The pressure wave of a failure somewhere in the system would literally kill everyone on board. If any parts were above ground, a simple sniper bullet from several miles away could kill hundreds of people. I was a teenager, simply writing a report for school. In my report, I quickly (within hours of discovering the idea) realized the expenses and risks of maintaining such a thing would quickly overwhelm any benefits. Yet this “novel idea” a random billionaire came up with is somehow different? I don’t think so. I could go on with dozens or potentially hundreds of examples where it’s clear he didn’t apply any critical thought at all. Just to be clear, I’m not saying he is dumb. He just doesn’t think things through before saying them out loud. I think the majority of normal people do this. In other words, I think he’s a normal person who got lucky, and works hard to keep what he has. Just like everyone else. However, we live in a world that idolizes lucky people…
    - sparrowInHand 3y ago
      Mild psychopathy == dysfunction when it comes to organizing compromises or large scale transition away from local optima. There is a reason why democracy gives the people a large reset button, to flush the leaders aggregating at the top and all the floatsome that went along with it.
- josephg 3y ago
  Sounds false. Do you have any citations for this claim?
- MichaelZuo 3y ago
  Only beyond a certain point. Once someone gets to Bill Gates level intelligence, I would agree any additional steps beyond that probably negatively correlates with grit and 'a certain irrational headstrongness' to a sizable amount, so much so that it noticeably reduces chances of business success.
barrkel 3y ago
I think most successful business owners are above average intelligence, but they’re also frequently really blinkered - they know a lot about something but almost nothing about a lot of other stuff, if it hasn’t come up in their path. It’s such a noticeable lopsidedness that I almost wonder if it’s a kind of prerequisite for being so foolish as to start a business.
- michaelmrose 3y ago
  The main criteria for becoming a business owner is access to capital not ability and by there are more small businesses then large concerns. Furthermore actually smart people aren't generally blinkered intelligence is by definition generalizable. Your confusing reasonably trained in a narrow area with intelligence.
  - Eisenstein 3y ago
    > intelligence is by definition generalizable. How do you define intelligence?
    - michaelmrose 3y ago
      I like this definition "A very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings—"catching on," "making sense" of things, or "figuring out" what to do"
  - alvah 3y ago
    I don't know where you live, but in most Western countries the capital required to become a business owner (i.e. start a legal business entity) is within reach of most people.
    - michaelmrose 3y ago

In fact intelligence is negatively correlated with success in business. It’s all grit and a certain irrational headstrongness that’s needed

reducesuffering 3y ago
[flagged]
- chasontherobot 3y ago
  This, but not sarcastic.
  - reducesuffering 3y ago
    You must be great at business
- baq 3y ago
  I refrain from quoting pg nowadays but he used to be worth reading, here's an article from that period which is of some interest: http://paulgraham.com/founders.html http://paulgraham.com/founders.html No words on low IQ but absolutely nothing about being a genius. Also, a paragraph which may point at mild psychopathy as a good trait to have. Which is absolutely in line with top leadership.
  - reducesuffering 3y ago
    GP said: > intelligence is negatively correlated with success in business Has anyone ever seen a negative correlation on a graph? It implies the most successful businessman are practically the dumbest people to exist. It's an extremely foolish, incorrect assertion. GP and downvoters must be amazing at business.
    - mrguyorama 3y ago
      And yet the richest person in the world is the exact person to pay double the value for a shitty social media company by making an inane comment on their platform AFTER the SEC already warned him that, after the first time he made an inane comment on that platform that was substantially relevant to public markets, he would be forced to follow through. Yeah I'm not convinced there is any connection between intelligence and business acumen.
      - reducesuffering 3y ago
        Then you would agree with the whole premise of my thread, that > In fact intelligence is negatively correlated with success in business. is BS if you're "not convinced there is any connection between intelligence and business acumen."
      - alvah 3y ago
        Your theory is that Elon Musk is unintelligent? That's a pretty wild take.
        withinboredom 3y ago
        Have you seen his unedited press releases? He isn’t that bright.
        alvah 3y ago
        In the last couple of months I’ve seen him absolutely destroy a BBC journalist in an off-the-cuff battle of wits. Is luck the only reason you’re not richer than him?
        withinboredom 3y ago
        Luck is great for modeling capitalism, actually. Elon… is not that smart. Take the “hyperloop” for example, invented in the 1800’s, IIRC. When I considered it in the 90’s as a thought experiment, I quickly realized how dumb it would be. The earth moves, all the time. The pressure wave of a failure somewhere in the system would literally kill everyone on board. If any parts were above ground, a simple sniper bullet from several miles away could kill hundreds of people. I was a teenager, simply writing a report for school. In my report, I quickly (within hours of discovering the idea) realized the expenses and risks of maintaining such a thing would quickly overwhelm any benefits. Yet this “novel idea” a random billionaire came up with is somehow different? I don’t think so. I could go on with dozens or potentially hundreds of examples where it’s clear he didn’t apply any critical thought at all. Just to be clear, I’m not saying he is dumb. He just doesn’t think things through before saying them out loud. I think the majority of normal people do this. In other words, I think he’s a normal person who got lucky, and works hard to keep what he has. Just like everyone else. However, we live in a world that idolizes lucky people…
  - sparrowInHand 3y ago
    Mild psychopathy == dysfunction when it comes to organizing compromises or large scale transition away from local optima. There is a reason why democracy gives the people a large reset button, to flush the leaders aggregating at the top and all the floatsome that went along with it.
josephg 3y ago
Sounds false. Do you have any citations for this claim?
MichaelZuo 3y ago
Only beyond a certain point. Once someone gets to Bill Gates level intelligence, I would agree any additional steps beyond that probably negatively correlates with grit and 'a certain irrational headstrongness' to a sizable amount, so much so that it noticeably reduces chances of business success.

barrkel 3y ago

I think most successful business owners are above average intelligence, but they’re also frequently really blinkered - they know a lot about something but almost nothing about a lot of other stuff, if it hasn’t come up in their path. It’s such a noticeable lopsidedness that I almost wonder if it’s a kind of prerequisite for being so foolish as to start a business.

michaelmrose 3y ago
The main criteria for becoming a business owner is access to capital not ability and by there are more small businesses then large concerns. Furthermore actually smart people aren't generally blinkered intelligence is by definition generalizable. Your confusing reasonably trained in a narrow area with intelligence.
- Eisenstein 3y ago
  > intelligence is by definition generalizable. How do you define intelligence?
  - michaelmrose 3y ago
    I like this definition "A very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings—"catching on," "making sense" of things, or "figuring out" what to do"
- alvah 3y ago
  I don't know where you live, but in most Western countries the capital required to become a business owner (i.e. start a legal business entity) is within reach of most people.
  - michaelmrose 3y ago