Viliam comments on Open thread, Nov. 09 - Nov. 15, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion
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The usual bias of highly intelligent people: "You have to do everything alone!"
Why it exists -- Well, if most of the time you are surrounded by people who compared to you are idiots, cooperating with them or delegating tasks to them seems like a really bad idea. And the obvious alternative is to do it alone.
How it fails -- Once internalized, it is difficult to get rid of the habit even when you meet other highly intelligent people. Also, if you do the math correctly, many tasks are worth delegating to less intelligent people, because the average value of the outcome is still positive.
How it shapes people -- If you alieve that cooperation is impossible, your remaining options are either fatalism or hero worship (and depression, when you realize you are not the superman, and will never be), depending on whether you believe that individuals able to fix large problems single-handedly exist or don't.
Why did I post this as a reply to your comment:
So far (cutting away the rest of the sentence), there is nothing wrong with this; it describes a productive person.
Here comes the hero worship.
Here is how we should make everyone a hero.
There is nothing wrong with having a hero now and then, but if you imagine a society where everyone tries to "overcome any restrictions and limitations", but no one is willing to be an "consistent and excellent worker"... actually, this could be funny to observe (but horrible to live there).