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by stcredzero 5951 days ago
Garrison Keillor: An intellect is like 4-wheel drive. It just gets you stuck in deeper snow.
3 comments

It's a good quote, but the simple solution is to do your driving in 2, and only switch to 4 when you do get stuck. Most times, that'll get you out.

In the real world, I suppose, that means not doing anything clever, except to backpedal and fix a problem.

Conserve your best thinking for emergency use only? (Something about that seems wrong, even though the systematic logic of leaving a tolerance for error is sound.)
No, no. Conserve cleverness for emergencies. Logical consistency is the best policy: most of the time, you should trudge along, applying existing solutions (2 wheel drive). The only time you should be clever and try to do something innovative is when your traditional models fail you. (4 wheel drive).
Interestingly, Google has no references to that exact quote except for this conversation on HN.

Got it -- the end should read "more remote places"

Intelligence is like four-wheel drive. It only allows you to get stuck in more remote places

http://www.quote-feed.com/Quote/Quote31.htm

Sorry -- quote collector here :)

He's recycled that one, so several paraphrases may be valid. I won't claim my memory is accurate, however.
This insight reminds me of Scott Aaronson's list of 'Malthusianisms':

http://scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=418

On the other hand, this style of thinking has some risk of demotivation. It collapses varied results into a static judgment prone to a 'fixed mindset': no matter the inputs of intellect/talent/effort, the end result is you hit a limit. So smile at the insight but remember which limit you hit still matters. The deeper snow is more fun.