fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann) (07/04/85)
With respect to the question, "Why is it OK to show off athletic or musical talents, but not intellectual talent?" I don't believe society discourages showing-off intelligence. The discouragement some of you have experienced may in fact be for showing-off in inconsiderate and insensitive ways. For instance, most high schoolers admire a student who plays basketball well. But, if he shows off by hogging the ball as if he were playing one-on-one, the the others will resent him. Likewise for a talented shortstop who persists in hurling the ball to first base with all his might, even though he knows the first baseman is not good enough to catch such fast throws. Athletes don't usually make such mistakes without intention. Athletic success requires intense focus on the here-and-now, rather than the what-might-be. With this focus, they are usually well aware of the impressions they make on other people with their behavior. That is not to say that a high school athlete won't intentionally try to embarass you, if you are not his friend. After all, what are you gonna do about it, you little wimp? Ahem. Where was I? Oh yes. What is the proper way to show off intelligence? Suppose a lesser mind asks you a difficult question. A considerate approach would be to: 1) Find out how much the person already understands. 2) Find out how sophisticated and answer he needs. 3) Figure out how to go from what the person knows to what he needs to know. If he doesn't realize how complicated the subject is, you can say something like, "That's a very good question. It's very complicated. I'm sure you could understand it, but it would take me a half hour to explain it. Are you sure you want to know?" More likely he doesn't want to understand in as much depth as you do. So give an answer that is appropriate to his situation. The above approach requires intelligence -- much more intelligence than is required merely to understand the answer in your own mind. But, if you can explain your ideas to people in their own language, they will be grateful and appreciative. In fact, people with this skill often rise to leadership positions of great power. As an example of the way NOT to show off, I remember sitting at a dinner, where sitting across from me was a humanities professor, and to my right, an computer-science senior. The professor asked a simple question, "Why are there so many computer languages?" The CS student immediately began core-dumping his brain, vomiting up gibberish about the difference between Basic and Fortran, and throwing up words such as link, pointer, queue, pop, push, subroutine. The professor, an intelligent man, was lost from the very first sentence. Clearly, if anyone was ever deserving of a bloody nose, it was this student. I guess what it comes down to is this: Understanding things and ideas will not get you very far unless you also understand people. Frank Silbermann
root@trwatf.UUCP (Lord Frith) (07/12/85)
In article <542@unc.UUCP> fsks@unc.UUCP (Frank Silbermann) writes: > > As an example of the way NOT to show off, I remember sitting at a dinner, > where sitting across from me was a humanities professor, and to my right, > an computer-science senior. The professor asked a simple question, > "Why are there so many computer languages?" The CS student immediately > began core-dumping his brain, vomiting up gibberish about the difference > between Basic and Fortran, and throwing up words such as link, pointer, > queue, pop, push, subroutine. The professor, an intelligent man, was > lost from the very first sentence. Clearly, if anyone was ever deserving > of a bloody nose, it was this student. > > I guess what it comes down to is this: Understanding things and ideas > will not get you very far unless you also understand people. > > Frank Silbermann BRAVO! Couldn't agree with you more! There are so many technically competent people in the world who are also so socially inept, they need only open their mouths to condemn what was once a socially pleasent evening to the inner circle of hacker's hell. Social success is more than just smiling and saying the right things at a party, though. It means perception and awareness of others as well as being able to communicate just the right amount of information in an interesting way. It's almost a science in itself and it's also something you can't suplant with Netnews! -- UUCP: ...{decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!seismo!trwatf!root - Lord Frith ARPA: trwatf!root@SEISMO "Money for you from the Buddah"