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I can't say this is a universal reaction. As a child I was told I was smart, and subsequently wrote off all my failures with the flippant "I learned something h

by unalone 17y ago

I can't say this is a universal reaction. As a child I was told I was smart, and subsequently wrote off all my failures with the flippant "I learned something here, and have become even smarter." Insecurity exists regardless of intelligence or hype.

nopassrecover 17y ago
I think you are an exception to the rule. Lots of research and similar anecdotal accounts support the article (kids who succeed early self-sabotage for the rest of their life).
lionhearted 17y ago
> Insecurity exists regardless of intelligence or hype. Author is probably referring to the study that kids who are praised on being "smart" do less well than kids who are praised on being "hard working". Here's the first google result, looks like it: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-... Jives true to me as well. Most of the people who have identities based on being smart far underperform their intelligence. I was praised for being smart growing up, I fight that off like crazy now. "Me? Not smart at all. Just curious." "Nah, I'm dumb as a box of rocks. I just keep going." And so on. It's done wonders for me. (Also, realizing just how much I didn't know was pretty humbling - and the scariest is realizing how much that I'm not even aware I don't know...)
- thaumaturgy 17y ago
  I am embarrassed to be among the crowd here that will all chime in and say, "I was told I'm smart too". And I, too, was a thoroughly mediocre student. But the reason had nothing to do with fear, and everything to do with not seeing any value in what I was being asked to do. I knew the amount of effort that would be needed to slide by, and that was all the effort that I put in. Nor do I shy away now from being "smart". My intelligence is a tool, and I should use it well, and I am not ashamed -- or afraid -- of it.
  - ahlatimer 17y ago
    I'm another one of the fairly mediocre students that's been labeled "smart". It was much, much worse in middle and high school than it's been in college, thanks to a stiff kick in the ass by my father, but I still find myself falling back into that old habit of just sliding by. I still consider myself a mediocre student because, by my standards, I am doing mediocre. Now, by most of my contemporaries, I'm doing fairly well in school and life, but I still can't fight the feeling that I'm selling myself short and not living up to my ability.
    - thaumaturgy 17y ago
      I've noticed that a bit in this thread, and I have at least one other friend that's struggled with this: the notion that there is some kind of responsibility associated with some kind of talent. Well, there isn't. A person that's naturally beautiful doesn't have a responsibility to become an actor or an actress or a model. In our society, it's frowned upon if their parents do things like push them into beauty pageants. People that are naturally strong or powerfully built don't have a responsibility to take a manual labor job, and nobody tells them that they aren't "living up to their ability" if they don't take a job in construction. Now, there's a caveat: there are certain problems in human society which smart people are better suited to solving. That doesn't mean they will solve them -- most of the problems require multiple talents, and intelligence is just one -- but they do have some edge. But that's not your responsibility, or mine, or anyone else's. You should decide what's important to you and then do that. There's nothing wrong with spending your life having fun.
      - pbhjpbhj 17y ago
        I can't speak for the parent but I know that I'm not using my brain to it's fullest - it's not that I feel because I'm intelligent that society expects me to use that intelligence I don't feel I owe anything because of that blessing. It's simply that I'd like to use my intelligence to better effect, to positively influence society, to leave a legacy somehow of benificence, etc., that's probably more arrogance than anything else though. It does lead me on to thoughts of being an academic teacher in the more formal sense of the word (I consider many aspects of what I do to be teaching roles).
- RevRal 17y ago
  > Jives true to me as well. Most of the people who have identities based on being smart far underperform their intelligence. Best example, William James Sidis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sidis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sidis). Someone I think we all can identify with on a lot of levels. "A true man in a world full of animals." Powerful words.
  - thaumaturgy 17y ago
    I suspect he would have been aghast at any of us comparing ourselves to him.
- unalone 17y ago
  Most of the people who have identities based on being smart far underperform their intelligence. Most people who have identities based on any single term underperform. I think you'd find that people who live life in a singleminded "athlete" way, or "gamer" way, or on and on, underperform similarly. Possibly they're happy that way, possibly they've just pidgeonholed themselves.
- lutorm 17y ago
  Yeah, I've touted Carol Dweck's research on HN before. It's one of the most fascinating pieces of education research I've learned about. And it's clearly what the author refers to.
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
dcx 17y ago
That may be a separate factor: that people who believe intelligence is malleable tend to recover better from failures - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/1838571/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/1838571/ If you've been taught to judge your worth by your intelligence, and simultaneously believe intelligence is fixed at birth, it's a logical consequence that you might do a lot of dumb things to preserve your internal belief that you're smart.

by unalone 17y ago

nopassrecover 17y ago

I think you are an exception to the rule. Lots of research and similar anecdotal accounts support the article (kids who succeed early self-sabotage for the rest of their life).

lionhearted 17y ago

> Insecurity exists regardless of intelligence or hype. Author is probably referring to the study that kids who are praised on being "smart" do less well than kids who are praised on being "hard working". Here's the first google result, looks like it: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-to-raising-smart-kids http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-secret-... Jives true to me as well. Most of the people who have identities based on being smart far underperform their intelligence. I was praised for being smart growing up, I fight that off like crazy now. "Me? Not smart at all. Just curious." "Nah, I'm dumb as a box of rocks. I just keep going." And so on. It's done wonders for me. (Also, realizing just how much I didn't know was pretty humbling - and the scariest is realizing how much that I'm not even aware I don't know...)

thaumaturgy 17y ago
I am embarrassed to be among the crowd here that will all chime in and say, "I was told I'm smart too". And I, too, was a thoroughly mediocre student. But the reason had nothing to do with fear, and everything to do with not seeing any value in what I was being asked to do. I knew the amount of effort that would be needed to slide by, and that was all the effort that I put in. Nor do I shy away now from being "smart". My intelligence is a tool, and I should use it well, and I am not ashamed -- or afraid -- of it.
- ahlatimer 17y ago
  I'm another one of the fairly mediocre students that's been labeled "smart". It was much, much worse in middle and high school than it's been in college, thanks to a stiff kick in the ass by my father, but I still find myself falling back into that old habit of just sliding by. I still consider myself a mediocre student because, by my standards, I am doing mediocre. Now, by most of my contemporaries, I'm doing fairly well in school and life, but I still can't fight the feeling that I'm selling myself short and not living up to my ability.
  - thaumaturgy 17y ago
    I've noticed that a bit in this thread, and I have at least one other friend that's struggled with this: the notion that there is some kind of responsibility associated with some kind of talent. Well, there isn't. A person that's naturally beautiful doesn't have a responsibility to become an actor or an actress or a model. In our society, it's frowned upon if their parents do things like push them into beauty pageants. People that are naturally strong or powerfully built don't have a responsibility to take a manual labor job, and nobody tells them that they aren't "living up to their ability" if they don't take a job in construction. Now, there's a caveat: there are certain problems in human society which smart people are better suited to solving. That doesn't mean they will solve them -- most of the problems require multiple talents, and intelligence is just one -- but they do have some edge. But that's not your responsibility, or mine, or anyone else's. You should decide what's important to you and then do that. There's nothing wrong with spending your life having fun.
    - pbhjpbhj 17y ago
      I can't speak for the parent but I know that I'm not using my brain to it's fullest - it's not that I feel because I'm intelligent that society expects me to use that intelligence I don't feel I owe anything because of that blessing. It's simply that I'd like to use my intelligence to better effect, to positively influence society, to leave a legacy somehow of benificence, etc., that's probably more arrogance than anything else though. It does lead me on to thoughts of being an academic teacher in the more formal sense of the word (I consider many aspects of what I do to be teaching roles).
RevRal 17y ago
> Jives true to me as well. Most of the people who have identities based on being smart far underperform their intelligence. Best example, William James Sidis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sidis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sidis). Someone I think we all can identify with on a lot of levels. "A true man in a world full of animals." Powerful words.
- thaumaturgy 17y ago
  I suspect he would have been aghast at any of us comparing ourselves to him.
unalone 17y ago
Most of the people who have identities based on being smart far underperform their intelligence. Most people who have identities based on any single term underperform. I think you'd find that people who live life in a singleminded "athlete" way, or "gamer" way, or on and on, underperform similarly. Possibly they're happy that way, possibly they've just pidgeonholed themselves.
lutorm 17y ago
Yeah, I've touted Carol Dweck's research on HN before. It's one of the most fascinating pieces of education research I've learned about. And it's clearly what the author refers to.
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]

dcx 17y ago

That may be a separate factor: that people who believe intelligence is malleable tend to recover better from failures - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/1838571/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/instance/1838571/ If you've been taught to judge your worth by your intelligence, and simultaneously believe intelligence is fixed at birth, it's a logical consequence that you might do a lot of dumb things to preserve your internal belief that you're smart.