Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
- 173
- 1
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
We know the common cliche of a guy (or girl) who's "the brain" at their school but has a major crisis when they find out they're merely average compared to everyone else when they start university. I'm curious how many folks here were nothing special in elementary and high school but went on to achieve something substantial academically?
I did mostly decently in school but was never anywhere close to a top tier student. Barely got into the high school I wanted, ie. the one with the shortest distance from my home (Finnish high school entrance is determined by your grades in 9th year). Had to settle for my second choice in university (EE) because I couldn't get in to study CS (and the actually hard to get in programs would have been right out). I went on to publish a couple of semi-influential papers in a subfield and AFAIK my professor still considers me one of his star students even though I never ended up doing a PhD (and let me tell you it's really fucking weird to keep receiving fan mail about a publication for a full decade from random people who've gone to the effort of figuring out your twice changed email address just for a single message).
I’m curious about another scenario. I went to a private school in NYC where not everyone, but probably 40-60% of people were pretty smart. It wasn’t hugely selective but because it has or at least had at that time a reputation as being more academic than the hippie private schools, had a large contingent of smart kids. I did OK, maybe 70-80th percentile but outside of English and History was never top of the class. I went to a competitive and selective but again not HYPS tier college.
So I have the interesting but probably common experience (including professionally) of being mostly in ‘my league’ my whole life intellectually. I meet people both smarter and dumber than me all the time.
My life has felt similar. Was at a highschool that wasn't anything super special. But had enough well off kids that I was solidly in the middle of the top classes. Got into a large state school, but was in the honors program there. So again it was just me sitting in the middle of the top class. Got into the workforce and it felt similar. Was at a good tech company with smart people but I was still only in the middle.
Feels the same around here. If there is a group of people that belong in the top tenth percentile of users here I'd place myself in it. But I'm only in like the middle among that top 10th percentile.
One time I remember truly feeling dumb was playing a board game with Robin Hanson and another Econ professor at Bryan Caplan's house. Robin and I were new to the game, the other econ professor was not. There was a recognizable meta to the card game that I partly pieced together after having played it. Robin Hanson asked enough questions at the beginning that I realized afterwards he was piecing together the meta just based on the rules. I got slaughtered in the game basically playing according to the rules but without a useful strategy. Hanson and the other professor nearly tied, with Hanson losing out just barely. I only give myself partial credit for understanding the meta cuz of Hanson's questions, and some of his comments afterwards led me to 'get it'.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link