Morendil comments on The best 15 words - Less Wrong

12 Post author: apophenia 03 October 2013 09:08AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (383)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: Morendil 04 October 2013 08:47:32PM 19 points [-]

If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.

Comment author: Ishaan 06 October 2013 01:00:27AM *  4 points [-]

this seems like it belongs in the boring advice repository, but i'll say it anyway:

Smarter than Person X by most metrics ≠ nothing to learn from interacting with Person X

I'd modify the wording of the advice to:

"Strive to have at least one person close to you who exceeds you in your primary domains, (as well as the domains you wish to improve upon)"

Comment author: Morendil 07 October 2013 09:20:21PM *  4 points [-]

Those are not the best 15 words!

Although this is the lesser of two evils. This comment and this are, it seems to me, trying too hard to be the smartest person in the room: technically correct, but only if you ride roughshod over Gricean principles. This is a common failure mode.

Comment author: [deleted] 08 October 2013 04:43:13AM *  -1 points [-]

(My comment was kind-of tongue-in-cheek. I know what you actually meant.)

Comment author: Ishaan 07 October 2013 11:46:04PM -2 points [-]

If "violating Gricean principles" = willfully misunderstanding what was meant, I wasn't.

The trouble with what ismeant by "your in the wrong room" is that while it can be taken to mean "seek out intellectual superiors" is also means "avoid intellectual inferiors". I meant to contest the latter.

Comment author: [deleted] 08 October 2013 04:46:30AM 0 points [-]

How so? “You're the smartest person in the room” means that you have no intellectual superiors in there. It doesn't mean you have no intellectual inferiors -- that'd be “you're not the dumbest person in the room”.

Comment author: [deleted] 04 October 2013 11:11:46PM 3 points [-]

By that standards, in every room there is someone who shouldn't be there.

Comment author: Iksorod 05 October 2013 12:13:57AM 5 points [-]

By that standard, no one should be in any room.

Comment author: shminux 04 October 2013 11:17:21PM 6 points [-]

That's why every room should have a way out.

Comment author: wadavis 09 October 2013 02:23:00AM 0 points [-]

And right here is the breakdown on why it is ok to gun for your boss's job, because he is gunning for the next room.

Comment author: Zvi 07 October 2013 02:44:03PM 2 points [-]

But I'm the only one here...

Comment author: wedrifid 10 October 2013 12:35:13PM 2 points [-]

But I'm the only one here...

...which prompts that observation that apparently we should all be showering communally and only using toilets that are already occupied.

Comment author: Stabilizer 04 October 2013 09:48:49PM 0 points [-]

What book is this?

Comment author: Morendil 05 October 2013 08:22:26AM 0 points [-]

The "or anything else" files.