Re: Coming Down From The Pedestal

I get frustrated with the *inverse* sometimes! I work with some fairly smart people, but from various disciplines. Now, I'm a pretty bright kid too, but as we all know, especially in venues like this, there is a very wide continuum of 'brightness'.

Sometimes I'll try to describe how intelligent someone is (see Re: Coming Down From The Pedestal for an example of scary-smart), and how humbled I am at how many *really* bright people there are. I mangle data for a living, and that's fine. But some of you guys are involved in designing the languages themselves! No one seems to appreciate that there is an order of magnitude between the two, and it actually frustrates me sometimes to get the false recognition of being one of the really bright ones. I find myself saying "No, no, no. You don't understand. I'm really not as smart as you seem to think I am."

So for many of you Monks, (I have many specific names in mind), thank you for sharing your knowledge and lifting me up. It's an honor and a privilege to be in your midst.

Comment on Re: Coming Down From The Pedestal

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Re^2: Coming Down From The Pedestal by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Nov 02, 2005 at 15:37 UTC
I find myself saying “No, no, no. You don’t understand. I’m really not as smart as you seem to think I am.” You missed one connection. The people you consider smarter feel the same way about themselves! And they do for the exact same reasons you cite, too. That’s where the lack of recognised ranking you are dismayed about stems from. The smarter people are, the more they realise the many things they’re incapable of; so the less likely they are to seek laurels. So don’t consider yourself unworthy quite yet. That there are people more capable than you does not mean that you aren’t capable yourself. Makeshifts last the longest.	[reply]

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Re^2: Coming Down From The Pedestal
by Aristotle (Chancellor) on Nov 02, 2005 at 15:37 UTC

I find myself saying “No, no, no. You don’t understand. I’m really not as smart as you seem to think I am.”

You missed one connection. The people you consider smarter feel the same way about themselves! And they do for the exact same reasons you cite, too. That’s where the lack of recognised ranking you are dismayed about stems from. The smarter people are, the more they realise the many things they’re incapable of; so the less likely they are to seek laurels.

So don’t consider yourself unworthy quite yet. That there are people more capable than you does not mean that you aren’t capable yourself.

Makeshifts last the longest.

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