Re:Not being stupid
by whacked_new on Friday August 08, 2008 @03:35PM
(#270946)
I still find this quite hard to grasp. If it's declarative (book) knowledge, then it makes sense to ask immediately. Does that count as struggling?
If it is insight though, for even those armed with all the crucial facts, they may still be unable to make certain connections and mental leaps. I guess this is the kind of struggle I'm talking about. Given the same data, two researchers can come up with interpretations of different strength and quality. Across all the brilliant people I have met before, whenever this happens I can only ask "how the hell?" And they would say something like, "oh, it's just this and that."
"It is different with the magicians. Even after we understand what they have done it is completely dark." -- Kac on Feynman.
Is there a similarity? I have to wonder what caused Rock to struggle...
It sounds a lot like circular logic. How do you work out whether someone is smart or not? By whether you see them struggle?
I can only ask "how the hell?" And they would say something like, "oh, it's just this and that."
The difference is in how they ask for help. Folks that are usually thought of as stupid either get flustered and say "I can't do this", or they don't ask for help at all and hope nobody will notice. While the ones we think of as "truly smart" have confidence that they'll get it eventually, they're just missing some crucial piece of information.
I suspect this holds true of original research as well, but this is usually done in private, and so nobody sees the smart people struggle.