The Curse of Smart People — ▻http://apenwarr.ca/log/?m=201407#01
via @robin
Smart people have a problem, especially (although not only) when you put them in large groups. That problem is an ability to convincingly rationalize nearly anything.
Smart people, computer types anyway, tend to come down on the side of people who don’t like emotions. Programmers, who do logic for a living.
Here’s the problem. Logic is a pretty powerful tool, but it only works if you give it good input. As the famous computer science maxim says, “garbage in, garbage out.” If you know all the constraints and weights - with perfect precision - then you can use logic to find the perfect answer. But when you don’t, which is always, there’s a pretty good chance your logic will lead you very, very far astray.
Most people find this out pretty early on in life, because their logic is imperfect and fails them often. But really, really smart computer geek types may not ever find it out. They start off living in a bubble, they isolate themselves because socializing is unpleasant, and, if they get a good job straight out of school, they may never need to leave that bubble. To such people, it may appear that logic actually works, and that they are themselves logical creatures.
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Impostor Syndrome is that voice inside you saying that not everything is as it seems, and it could all be lost in a moment. The people with the problem are the people who can’t hear that voice.
Pour moi, ça résonne pas mal avec le dernier billet de @tetue : ►http://romy.tetue.net/coder-pour-se-faire-plez
Les gens intelligents (au sens gros QI, fort en math / logique), c’est bien, mais ils ont la bêtise de leur intelligence : ils sont convaincus que tout est rationalisable et sont complètement aveugles aux facteurs sortant de leur sphère d’expertise (qui est en quelque sorte leur mode d’existence et d’appréhension du réel).
