Feeling philosophical today😊 Do you guys also feel that smartness level is same across human race? Success depends more on dedication, hard work ,motivation and of course experience. I have been on both the extreme of smartness I feel. I have been in a top team of icpc regionals and I am sure I would have been to finals if I would have worked harder. There were also few subjects in undergrad where no one even came close to me. People thought I was the smartest. I also got needs improvement in my previous team few cycles ago. But honestly i did not feel motivated there nor I show any dedication. Most of my team members thought that I was stupid. I was strong enough to ignore it and not affect my confidence. And here I am now performing awesome in my current team. I feel it all depends on our current circumstances. Wdut?
I think you should go back to that undergrad of yours and retake English 101 so you’d be more effective at expressing your thoughts in writing.
I know.. Working on it.
I think that output is proportional to intelligence times engagement, and that the vast majority of people really aren't very engaged, probably because they're slotted into a place in society that doesn't interest them as a result of finding your place in the world being very complicated.
Agree. But along with intelligence and engagement, hard work is also very important.
Smartness matters. "Stupid" is still an acceptable, politically correct insult. This is because the "meritocracy" rewards a certain kind of smartness. The kind that lets you sit still in class, pass exams and ace Leetcode. There's a whole other category of people who simply don't have that kind of book smartness. They can't pass FizzBuzz. They don't have a future in the meritocracy. If you are hard-working, resilient, honest, caring, open-minded, creative but not book-smart, you don't belong to the meritocracy. You would not be able to get a college degree, and you're screwed. I don't mean to say that the "stupid" have no future. They just don't have a future among the respectables. Even though the majority of Americans don't have a degree, society can't seem to envision success outside of the academic/degree track. I think that is a problem.
It’s a mix. The things you named can definitely favor your chances, but there is also luck and it plays a big factor. With that said, if you are looking for typical corporate ladder climbing high intelligence can work against you if you aren’t aware, we tend to utilize what we’re strong at, and while intelligence is an amazing trait that is admirable, above a basic minimum level corporate success is much more determined by a kind of tribalism, getting along, and playing the game. Structured thought, communication, presence and confidence will likely get you further than raw IQ. Personally I admire an Einstein more than I would a CEO though, choose your own adventure.
It also depends on your peers. Better peers equals better performance. That's why companies put in an effort to retain high quality talent.
There are a bunch of studies on this. Iirc success is highly correlated with IQ up to a certain point after which EQ takes over completely -- things like work ethic, leadership and, I think most importantly, resilience.
That Russian team would have won the finals anyway, no need to beat yourself about it. Btw several years ago I lived (airbnb'd) with one of the guys who was on that team, or one of the top two teams from that Russian University, and he would go to the office (we were both google interns at the time) at 8AM every day to practice code forces for 2 hours.
Good for you OP. Keep it up. Here's what I feel: Success depends almost entirely on your circumstances and luck, more than anything else. Diligence, hard work, smartness can substantially increase the probability of you getting lucky. But at the end of the day, you really don't have too much control of your destiny.
I feel that exactly opposite of this is true. Circumstances and luck helps but they are not the main factors. I can explain. A person coming from poor family can also improve their life substantially if they choose to go after that. May be they can't become bill gates without luck. But they can still become multimillionaire. That said, I should add one more word in there. Setting right goal is also an important factor here