Intelligence, Knowlege and the inverse union of the two.

[mangosteen]

[Edited for grammar and context]

Note: This post has been stewing quite a while, and it has finally coalesced enough to put into writing. It should not be construed any other way.

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Realization: Sometimes it's enough to use your factual knowlege for your own observation, and not put it on display, no matter how cool it is, and no matter how nifty the thing you just figured out is.

This is not because you might "freak the mundanes" or anything that's similarly pretty goddamn condescending, but because if you're a geek and you tend to do a lot of breadth-first knowledge gathering (i.e. "ooh! Psychology! Shiny!"), you may very well not have the whole picture that only real study would bring, and interpolating knowledge on the fly only works up until the point where it doesn't, which is usually when it's the most important that you know what's going on.

Assertion: Enthusiasm is not a substitute for experience.

Observation: Being intelligent is kind of like having 4-wheel-drive: you end up getting stuck in weirder situations and further from help. That doesn't stop it from being fun to go off-roading, though.

Comments

[siderea]

Well, yes. Can I snag your observation for my QotD?

[mangosteen]

Certainly. :)

[siderea]

So, I gotta ask, was the original realization from your own behavior, or others' behavior?

[mangosteen]

Short answer: "Yes."

Longer answer: Mostly others, but it was my behavior (as was noticed by others) in this way, that prompted me to actually give some thought to it.

Actual story: Um. Hmm. What does your schedule look like for lunch for the next couple of weeks?

By the by, the quote has been edited for grammatical correctness.

[siderea]

Fixed the quote in my journal, thanks!

Lunch opportunities are a little grim in the next while. Maybe between the holidays?

You may be amused, that long ago when I did tech support, I explained the rationale of my user education doctrine as, "Educating the users won't reduce the number of tech support calls, but it will make the tech support calls we get more entertaining."

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

I worked for a computer consulting company that had the same kind of philosophy. Go in, fix the problem, teach them what we did, so they never had to call us for that problem again. It kept the gigs from getting boring, at least until the time that it seemed like every gig was for the same thing, and whole bunches of people didn't know how to do it...

[noire.livejournal.com]

Observation: Being intelligent is kind of like having 4-wheel-drive: you end up getting stuck in weirder situations and further from help. That doesn't stop it from being fun to go off-roading, though.

I love this! What an apt metaphore. And funny too. I may have to quote it. Even copiously...