[hinkley]

I don’t think I can agree that 75% of the workforce falls into one quadrant. Particularly this one.

If I’m very lucky the semi space contains 60% of my coworkers, if I’m unlucky (or arrive after the writing is on the wall) it’s more like 1/3.

I suspect part of the confusion is that there are some people with enough political acumen to appear like frustrated agents of change without actually having the drive or skill to do so. If you create opportunities for these people to show up, you may be shocked to find them making excuses for why they still can’t.

And truthfully the industry is not full of untapped brilliant people. It isn’t even “full” of brilliant people period. maybe 1/4 of the human population could be counted as very smart, and we get a disproportionate share of them for sure, but it’s definitely not more than half.

[kerblang]

I agree: It's not 75%. But you're suddenly substituting the word "brilliant" for "pragmatic" and that's kinda questionable. It might be that you define brilliant differently than some others, so that IQ is much less significant than pragmatism itself in your equation of brilliance; but if you think IQ -> pragmatic, I disagree. I think they're orthogonal.

[hinkley]

Yeah that might have been a poor word choice or projection on my part.

As I replied elsewhere, I feel I am in this quadrant and I often actively look for sympathetic people among bosses and peers to talk to about it. If there are more than ten people I have someone to talk to, but it’s never been anywhere near 75%. And one time I got a very rude awakening when I discovered several of those people were all sizzle and no sausage.

[kerblang]

Okay, good. As authentic "pragmatism" goes, the author conveys a sense of cynical pragmatist-in-waiting rather than activist pragmatist-in-action; I would do the pragmatic thing, and yes, I'm smart enough, but not if there's risk. So, you're surrounded by invisible pragmatists, but these are the kind of pragmatists who sometimes burn you for profit outright, but mostly just look the other way while someone else does it - if that's where the money is. Well, yeah, but what else is new?

[keybored]

TFA said

> The biggest source of waste is untapped skilled pragmatists.

Nothing about brilliant there. Just skilled and pragmatic.

You’re trying to cool head/cold shower the idea but you’re just substituing the narrative for HN’s favorite pastime of talking about high IQ/brilliance for the sake of it.

[bjornsing]

> maybe 1/4 of the human population could be counted as very smart

That’s a very generous assessment. To me someone who’s “brilliant” is more like 1/1000.

[ericmcer]

Yeah agree, I have worked with tons of smart people, talented people, people whose parents had them coding in elementary school, but only one person I would consider brilliant.

It was jarring how he instantly understood any line of reasoning I was going down. There was no need for context or lengthy background explanations, he would just see what you were doing. That was in most areas also, politics, programming, philosophy, etc.

It was refreshing because conveying information to him was effortless, he needed like 20% of the info that is usually required when explaining something to another person. I don't know how one could achieve that other than just being gifted at absorbing and processing information.

[hinkley]

He was probably an HSP, which by some estimates is 15% of the population. HSP plus high IQ makes up a lot of people you would label “scary smart”.

[all2]

What is "HSP"?

[bena]

"Highly sensitive person". Basically hypervigilant

[hinkley]

Hypervigilance is more of a trait of anxious attachment style. You have not seen hypervigilence until you’ve seen an anxiously attached HSP. But securely attached HSP are some of the most successful people in the world.

There’s a lot of power in seeing patterns other people miss. Particularly when dealing with a person who is trying to hide that they are upset

[sevagh]

Were they also a Virgo? What Harry Potter house did they get on an online quiz? What about INFJ or ENTJ on the Briggs-Meyer scale?

[MichaelZuo]

Even that's a very high estimate.

Maybe there are 8 million bonafide geniuses on Earth, and maybe 80 million very smart people, at max.

And being very generous to the US, maybe a tenth of them are full time residents somewhere in the 50 states plus DC.

Claims that a meaningfully large portion of them are being 'wasted', are hard to believe since there aren't that many to begin with.

[hinkley]

To be clear, I feel the author is describing me, and the loneliness and alienation I have felt too often at work tells me he’s using a lot of hyperbole.

If we form a lunch group to complain about our frustrations, it’s never been more than about four people, even in a team of dozens or more. Three is more common.

That said, he may be telling the truth with lies - this sort of untapped resource can have outsized impacts on a business, for good or ill.

[skeeter2020]

I don't even think Pragmatists are "smart", or if they are it shows it self in the non-book ways. I'd be more inclined to describe them as "clever". If you've heard the "Smart, and gets stuff done" ideal, they're more of the latter.

[hinkley]

I would propose it’s the old “wisdom vs intelligence” problem.

The pragmatist has a better grasp on can vs should.

[ultrasaurus]

Maybe 75% of the people who interact with the kind of person who blogs about institutional efficiency for the HN audience hate conflict but love their craft. Maybe on a good day.

The top 3 jobs in the US are home health care, retail sales and fast food. Not to denigrate any of those roles but I can't imagine 75% of them saying "X is her passion, but she's not about to burn a lot of social capital by rocking the boat". (I'm skipping over the "skilled" part, but substitute accountants & project managers and I still don't see getting to 75%)