[QuantumRoar]

I strongly believe that we should not easily segregate people into a smart kind and a not-so-smart kind. Intelligence comes in many ways and the genetics and upbringing of a person will make their intelligence manifest in different ways.

Someone being good at something, does not automatically equate to a high level of intelligence or smartness but rather a high degree of familiarity with the topic. Familiarity can be acquired either through a lot of practice or from a predisposition to understand quickly, which is intelligence or smartness.

However, what can be said is that a person who is good at almost everything, necessarily has to be smart because there wouldn't be any time to practice everything in depth. Conversely, I'd never call a person smart who's good at one thing but doesn't understand anything else.

The author says that smart, successful people are cursed with over-confidence due to them knowing one thing very well. But how can you call a person smart if they do not even possess the ability to properly self-reflect. Is that not the one thing that should define smartness?

Rationalizing things away, ignoring signs that interfere with one's world-view, and being over-confident are all traits of not-so-smart people. Just because you know how to code, does not mean you are smart.

I'd say the result of this anecdote should've been that it turns out that people can be good at their jobs and be idiots at the same time.

[kristianc]

> The author says that smart, successful people are cursed with over-confidence due to them knowing one thing very well. But how can you call a person smart if they do not even possess the ability to properly self-reflect. Is that not the one thing that should define smartness?

I've more often heard the opposite stated, that people who are smart have a tendency to see multiple sides of every issue and struggle to come to decisions, whereas people who are less smart are more prone to see complex things in black and white. If only we had a readily available example of that phenomenon...

[tankenmate]

The Dunning–Kruger effect?

[wickawic]

I always thought that the "accelerated" programs in public schools perpetuate this issue. There were some very sharp kids there for sure, but it might as well have been called the "conscientious track" since it was full of children who proved that they could sit quiet, learn from reading on their own, navigate institutions, etc. All the things rich parents make their children do anyway.

I've met too many individuals since who are intelligent but disorganized, energetic, or don't have a stable family that might have actually benefitted from some special attention and encouragement, unlike all the kids who were going to be just fine anyway.

[mhurron]

The problem with that is why should those kids that can behave themselves (which used to not just be 'rich kids') be penalized by being stuck in an environment that has to slow down because half the class didn't hear the teacher the first four times because they choose not to pay attention.

In high school, I just stopped showing up. Classes were going too slow for me and didn't hold my attention. I'm not super intelligent but I do like learning and am fully capable of sitting down and focusing.

One size fits all doesn't work anywhere else, why do we expect it to work with educating children that have nothing in common except their age?

[Trundle]

If they were advocating for the removal of the programs then it was an implication I missed. I think the posters only concern was that the classes contribute to the common misinterpretation of what smart is.

Maybe it would be better to just advertise them for what they are (according to that poster) and call them the "conscientious track"? That way kids who want in have something obvious and actionable to work towards other than "well, if you're smart you'll get accepted and if you're not, welp, enjoy burger flipping!"

[wickawic]

That's exactly what I was getting at. Special treatment and exclusivity breeds feelings of superiority and inferiority where none need exist. Starting this at a young age tells kids that they haven't been "chosen," and kids are too young for us to blame them for not trying to take college classes etc. when they have been structurally told that those classes aren't for them.