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There is more to genius than passion. I have experienced so many situations where I truly believed the equivalent of "0 is equal to 1". When someone points ou

by palish 18y ago

There is more to genius than passion. I have experienced so many situations where I truly believed the equivalent of "0 is equal to 1". When someone points out why this cannot be the case, I usually sit in stunned silence while I review my reasoning. When I find the flaw, it seems inane that I could have missed it. Let me try to prove this from a different direction. You've probably heard of Henry Molaison, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HM_(patient) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HM_(patient) ... His hippocampus was surgically removed, rendering him unable to form new memories. Do you truly believe it would have been possible for him to build Quake 3 just because he was overwhelmingly passionate about doing so?

unalone 18y ago
You know the line about genius being perspiration? That one's very much true. That's why context matters so much. So I solved that puzzle quick-ish. But then, as a kid I played logic games to pass time. Other kids would play sports, and I'd pore through books of puzzles and solve them. So suddenly I'm able to do that. But it means that now, as a freshman at the gym, I'm operating as a near-pathetic level. For Christmas I got two 30-pound weights because that's a level that's easy for bench and hard for curls. But compared to my roommate? That's nothing. He does 50s for light workout. It's because he's spent much more time doing that than me. There are always impediments. The best trick is to figure out how best to work around them and do what you want anyway. Figure out where you best fit in to the process of creation. Look at the top Apple team. Steve Jobs and Tim Cook and Jony Ive - the three I know of best - are quite different people. Jobs is hotheaded. Cook is known for incredible stamina but he's not a design guy. Ive is all design, nothing else. They're very different people who excel at doing a few things very well, and they work together to create their brilliant products.
- palish 18y ago
  That was an interesting way of sidestepping the question. If someone is born retarded, could they become a Steve Jobs just because they really wanted to and worked real hard at it?
  - unalone 18y ago
    Most likely not. No. There is always a problem with mental limitation. However, that rarely matters as much as it's emphasized. The more you focus on something, the more brilliant your end results will seem.
    - palish 18y ago
      Right. So we've established that there is a baseline for becoming a genius. You are either born with it, or you aren't. Next question: how do you determine whether you're born with it? At what point does your demonstrated ineptitude force you to admit that you are incapable of realizing your goals? ("you" doesn't refer to you specifically, obviously. I just talk in the active voice.)
      - unalone 18y ago
        There's no point. You'll never know until after it's already happened. However, if you give up, you'll never know if you could have been. The struggle is what makes it so hard, but it's what makes it worth it in the end.
        palish 18y ago
        True. But if you lie to yourself, then you may waste your life and alienate those you love in the process. Not all of the YC startups that failed have failed just because the founders stopped working on them, I'd imagine. At what point should you let failure overwhelm you?
        unalone 18y ago
        That's the separating question, then: to you, is it worth all that? It is for me. I'd bet that most of the failing YC founders learned important lessons from their failures. Nobody succeeds every time.
        18y ago

by palish 18y ago

unalone 18y ago

You know the line about genius being perspiration? That one's very much true. That's why context matters so much. So I solved that puzzle quick-ish. But then, as a kid I played logic games to pass time. Other kids would play sports, and I'd pore through books of puzzles and solve them. So suddenly I'm able to do that. But it means that now, as a freshman at the gym, I'm operating as a near-pathetic level. For Christmas I got two 30-pound weights because that's a level that's easy for bench and hard for curls. But compared to my roommate? That's nothing. He does 50s for light workout. It's because he's spent much more time doing that than me. There are always impediments. The best trick is to figure out how best to work around them and do what you want anyway. Figure out where you best fit in to the process of creation. Look at the top Apple team. Steve Jobs and Tim Cook and Jony Ive - the three I know of best - are quite different people. Jobs is hotheaded. Cook is known for incredible stamina but he's not a design guy. Ive is all design, nothing else. They're very different people who excel at doing a few things very well, and they work together to create their brilliant products.

palish 18y ago
That was an interesting way of sidestepping the question. If someone is born retarded, could they become a Steve Jobs just because they really wanted to and worked real hard at it?
- unalone 18y ago
  Most likely not. No. There is always a problem with mental limitation. However, that rarely matters as much as it's emphasized. The more you focus on something, the more brilliant your end results will seem.
  - palish 18y ago
    Right. So we've established that there is a baseline for becoming a genius. You are either born with it, or you aren't. Next question: how do you determine whether you're born with it? At what point does your demonstrated ineptitude force you to admit that you are incapable of realizing your goals? ("you" doesn't refer to you specifically, obviously. I just talk in the active voice.)
    - unalone 18y ago
      There's no point. You'll never know until after it's already happened. However, if you give up, you'll never know if you could have been. The struggle is what makes it so hard, but it's what makes it worth it in the end.
      - palish 18y ago
        True. But if you lie to yourself, then you may waste your life and alienate those you love in the process. Not all of the YC startups that failed have failed just because the founders stopped working on them, I'd imagine. At what point should you let failure overwhelm you?
        unalone 18y ago
        That's the separating question, then: to you, is it worth all that? It is for me. I'd bet that most of the failing YC founders learned important lessons from their failures. Nobody succeeds every time.
        18y ago