[link] Speed is the New Intelligence

Gunnar_Zarncke

The article really is about speeding up government, but the key point is speed as a component of smart:

A smart friend told me recently that speed is the new intelligence, at least for some types of technology jobs. If you are hiring an interface designer, for example, the one that can generate and test several designs gets you further than the “genius” who takes months to produce the first design to test. When you can easily test alternatives, the ability to quickly generate new things to test is a substitute for intelligence.

This shifts the focus from the ability to grasp and think through very complex topics (includes good working memory and memory recall in general) to the ability new topics quickly (includes quick learning and unlearning, creativity).

Smart people in the technology world no long believe they can think their way to success. Now the smart folks try whatever plan looks promising, test it, tweak it, and reiterate. In that environment, speed matters more than intelligence because no one has the psychic ability to pick a winner in advance. All you can do is try things that make sense and see what happens. Obviously this is easier to do when your product is software based.

This also changes the type of grit needed. The grit to push through a long topic versus the grit try lots of new things and to learn from failures.

From Scott Adams Blog

The article really is about speeding up government, but the key point is speed as a component of smart:

A smart friend told me recently that speed is the new intelligence, at least for some types of technology jobs. If you are hiring an interface designer, for example, the one that can generate and test several designs gets you further than the “genius” who takes months to produce the first design to test. When you can easily test alternatives, the ability to quickly generate new things to test is a substitute for intelligence.

Smart people in the technology world no long believe they can think their way to success. Now the smart folks try whatever plan looks promising, test it, tweak it, and reiterate. In that environment, speed matters more than intelligence because no one has the psychic ability to pick a winner in advance. All you can do is try things that make sense and see what happens. Obviously this is easier to do when your product is software based.

This also changes the type of grit needed. The grit to push through a long topic versus the grit try lots of new things and to learn from failures.

Is this new, or just a professional blogger weaving a few familiar concepts together into an essay that sounds new? "Quick witted" is an expression that goes back at least six centuries (esp. definition 20), and "quick/slow on the uptake" at least two. The correlation between the speed of neural signals and IQ has been known for a while. In fact, a quick grasp of new concepts is pretty much a defining characteristic of intelligence (as the latter word is generally used). And how often have we heard the standard startup wisdom of "fail early and often", "move fast and break things", etc.? There's even a whole program development methodology called "Agile".

If anything, Adams is being a bit slow on the uptake here.

Upvoted for snarky use+mention combo ending.

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[link] Speed is the New Intelligence

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[link] Speed is the New Intelligence

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