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JoshuaZ comments on [link] Speed is the New Intelligence - Less Wrong Discussion

11 Post author: Gunnar_Zarncke 28 January 2015 11:11AM

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Comment author: Viliam_Bur 28 January 2015 02:34:28PM 16 points [-]

Imagine casting a "speed ×100" spell on a dumb person. Would that make them a smart person? No.

On the other hand, if we would cast a "speed ×2" spell on a smart person, it would appear to make them smarter. They would be able to solve difficult problems in half the time, right?

So... there seems to be some connection, but also a difference. Speed can make you more productive, and productivity is a signal of intelligence. But if you make systematic mistakes in thinking, you will only be making them faster.

Smart people in the technology world no long believe they can think their way to success.

Because they already are thinking. If you are already thinking at near 100% of your capacity, telling you "think more" is not going to help. The right advice in that situation could be "instead of thinking without experimenting, try thinking and experimenting". But one should give that advice only to people who are already thinking.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 28 January 2015 04:04:08PM *  10 points [-]

Imagine casting a "speed ×100" spell on a dumb person. Would that make them a smart person? No.

There's a line in the book WYRM that made this fact click for me many years ago. The paraphrase is "A dog that can think a hundred times as fast will take a hundreth of the time to decide that it wants to sniff your crotch."