Why most smart people are better at solving other people’s problems…

http://www.rajeshsetty.com/2010/08/10/why-most-smart-people-are-better-at-solving-other-peoples-problems%E2%80%A6/

by adammichaelc • 16 years ago

37 55 16 years ago

greenlblue2• 16 years ago

He started off well but he didn't take his analysis far enough. It's not just a matter of being ignorant of constraints so that a problem appears easier to an outside smart observer. Many smart people I know are just better at restructuring themselves so that some problems no longer appear as problems or impinge enough on their thoughts to distract them from other tasks, i.e. they are in essence fooling themselves into believing the problem doesn't exist or they put enough stopgaps into place so that the problem doesn't interfere with their day to day activities enough to require a total solution. Another reason I think is that most smart people are better able to tolerate stress and general mental drain so to totally invest themselves into solving some problem they require a higher threshold of mental anguish or whatever it is that drives people to solve problems.

rajesh30121• 16 years ago

The article was written based on a series of interviews. Smart people don't fool themselves by ignoring the problem or acting as if the problem does not exist. Most people know that the problem exists but they also know all the other things around those problems ( constraints ) and it can get overwhelming to them. For instance, they will come up with a solution and at the same instant also see all the problems associated with that solution - the loop continues.

greenlblue2• 16 years ago

Then that's not being very smart is it? If your awareness is what causes distress then you are definitely doing it wrong and should switch up your mental model of what is an acceptable solution to some problem. Plus, I don't think I have ever heard of awareness among smart people leading to mental paralysis.

DanielBMarkham2• 16 years ago

I hate to make a meta comment and I'm not trying to slander the author at all, but dang dude, we got it all here: newsletter signup on site entry, press relations button, request for speaking, ebooks. I almost expected a free chance to win an iPod somewhere while I was reading.

I found the material lacking in quality, but it had its moments. My biggest impression was just being overwhelmed with the way the blog was integrated. Hats off.

rajesh30121• 16 years ago

Point noted. None of the items you mentioned ( newsletter sign up, eBooks ) are required to access the content on the blog. In fact, none of the eBooks require you to enter an email address.

I am sad to see that you focused on these things rather than 1500 other articles on the blog.

C'est la vie :)

DanielBMarkham2• 16 years ago

Trying to stay positive, I think you should use the newsletter popup on something like the 3rd or 4th visit. By that time, users have read some of your material and could form an opinion about subscribing to a newsletter.

From my personal perspective, if you punch me in the nose with a sign-up form the first time I visit, not only am I going to dismiss it without any consideration at all, I am going to be suspicious of the subsequent material you present. Changing the timing of this popup could help you a bunch, I think.

thwarted2• 16 years ago

The popup/overlay that tells me I'm a new user to this blog was keeping me from reading the content, so I just closed the tab.

bluishgreen• 16 years ago

I did find many articles with original content on your site. But the density is less, you are perhaps focusing on the article count? Maybe bringing the count to say 100 but with the same content will save peoples time trying to wade thru the site. And this can only increase traffic to the site.

As per your own theory smart people cannot solve their own problems, so instead of taking the "C'est la vie" stance, try "I see, let me see what I can do about it" attitude.

filmschool• 16 years ago

The content of the article was ok. One opinion in an ocean full of them. The pop-up even before I've even read a single line is just so glaringly ill-timed that it kinda ruins the whole experience before the actual experience. IMHO.

jules2• 16 years ago

The popup saying "you're new" is in practice equivalent to saying "go away".

icco• 16 years ago

My biggest problem is that I have a small screen and the tweet button blocks the left side of the content the whole way down. Really annoying.

adammichaelc2• 16 years ago

The marketing-stuff-that-you-think-is-lame aside, I'd be interested to hear which parts of the article were lacking in quality. Do you disagree with some of the content? If so based on your previous HN comments I'd love to hear your thoughts so we can start a discussion. Or did you not like the writing style, and are simply pointing at that and saying, "You suck" but using bigger words?

bobbyi• 16 years ago

The whole premise of the article is false dilemma. It's asking why "smart people" haven't solved "their own problems" when by definition "their own problems" are whatever problems they haven't solved.

baguasquirrel• 16 years ago

I agreed with you up until the "I found the material lacking in quality". Not all "smart people" are alike, and you may be one of the fortunate ones to not have the problems that he describes. Specifically, from what I've read of your previous posts, you seem like a practical person.

That said, the tweet thing on the left side was annoying enough that it warranted firing up the javascript debugger to make it go away.

rajesh30121• 16 years ago

I am looking at the tweet thing (tweetboard) to see how to eliminate this completely.

Cheers.

xenophanes• 16 years ago

Suppose someone is good at solving a category of problems.

He will solve all his own problems in that category, and fewer outside it.

So of course, after he's spent a long time trying to solve his own problems, the remainder will be ones he's bad at.

But for other people, lots of their problems will be the kinds he's good at.

xerxes• 16 years ago

Another factor is that people literally aren't aware of their personal problems, only of some of distant consequences. If anything, smartness acts to cover up the evidence via rationalization.

Friends know about some of them, but they tend to discuss these only in one's absence ("the problem with X is that he is always [blank]", etc.)

rajesh30121• 16 years ago

Amen to that. Friends sometimes try to bring that up only to be shot down instantly with some smart rationalization. Thanks.

msie• 16 years ago

Reminds me of this article recently posted on HN:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/08/we-are-all-talk-ra...

klochner4• 16 years ago

It's an odd format - the results of author pontification presented as "mini-research".

I found little to no hard data, little to no justification for the conclusions reached, and as a bonus, this was one of those rare cases when you can correctly say that the author was begging the question.

varjag• 16 years ago

Also, dilemma is not what author thinks it means.

rajesh30121• 16 years ago

OK the term "mini-research" refers to research done in less than six weeks and the method used was a series of interviews. I am not selling the research data only presenting the conclusions from the research.

You are welcome to make your own conclusions of course :)

klochner4• 16 years ago

Then you should explain how you're drawing your conclusions.

What I'd like to see in the post (and is missing):

  - what motivated this "mini-research"
  - how you verified that the problem exists
  - how you got to the cause of this problem

blizkreeg• 16 years ago

You don't always need hard data to prove a point. I could relate to this article from my personal experience. Smart people tend to be harsh on themselves and on their solutions.

The "most smart people" part could be revised to something else so it doesn't seem like the conclusion was from hard data.

klochner4• 16 years ago

Actually, you do need either hard data or some kind of logical argument to prove a point.

The author of this post makes an assertion (smart people can't solve their own problems), but never proves that assertion, nor does he give any reasoned argument as to why it may be true.

A better title for the post (though the author probably likes the current link-bait title) would be:

   "Why other people's problems may be easier to solve than your own"

joe_the_user2• 16 years ago

The headline is a nice use of language to make an almost-truism seem like an insight. Good fodder for the cold reader: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_reading

IE; Everyone is "better at solving other people's problems", since everyone is bad at solving their own problems. And they're bad at solving their own problems ... because they have them. Neither the observer nor the person himself/herself is likely to notice the problems they don't have, because they're good at solving. Uh, plus its easy to think your solution to someone else's problem is good since you don't have to put it into practice. And the headline mentions smart people, so I'm sure they're talk about you.

rajesh30121• 16 years ago

The problems referred in the article are those problems that people should have or could have solved but have not solved them. I thought it was obvious but it looks like I have to explicitly state it. Will make a note for next time.

joe_the_user2• 16 years ago

Even so, the same logic applies, see Xenophanes comment.

chc• 16 years ago

My theory: Ideas are easy, implementing is hard.

Being the sort of smart that can "solve" other people's problems only helps with the former. The latter is a totally different skillset, so when we actually have to do that part of the job, all of a sudden it seems much harder than it was just a second ago.

rajesh30121• 16 years ago

Yes "implementation" is hard work and that part adds to the complexity of solving one's problems. You cannot stop at advice but have to follow through with following that advice :)

Charuru• 16 years ago

Yeah, same with doctors being not allowed to treat their own relatives. Solving other people's ailments are easier.

Why most smart people are better at solving other people’s problems…

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