I’m probably more gullible than average, but I’m pretty sure that people less intelligent than me have done this when talking to me too. A few times, I’ve made an estimate that a fellow programming student is the same or slightly higher skill level than me based on talking with them, but then when we work on the same problems in class, I have an easier time than they do. (Not the same thing as intelligence, but related.)
You believe that you’re more intelligent than they are because you are able to do one task better than them (coding), yet it sounds like they were able to do another task better than you (being able to successful convince you that they were more intelligent). I’m not sure why the latter should be ruled out as a sign of intelligence.
Actually, what I’d been getting at was that if they could convince me they were a better programmer than they really were, I could probably also be convinced that someone was more intelligent than they really were by similar means. If someone did convince me they were more intelligent than they really were, I’d have a harder time finding out I’d been fooled, for the same reason you mentioned.
I wouldn’t take fooling me as a sign of all that much intelligence, though. I don’t check the things people say about themselves for reasonableness very carefully. (Either not enough mental RAM, or force of habit from not having had enough RAM in the past—social interactions take more mental effort for me than for the typical person.)
Well, unless everyone is capable of fooling you, the ability to do so would seem to indicate at least some skill. I’m not sure of the intelligence conversion rate between “capability of deceiving you” and “capability of showing they’re better than you at programming in the particular class you share,” but your realization that the person is actually better at the former and not the latter seems to suggest the individual has a different set of skills, rather than merely being less skilled.
After reading this, I realized that I’d been conflating how easily I believe random information people tell me that I don’t have much of anything invested in and don’t expect them to have reason to lie about (which would probably not take much skill, since it often happens by accident when people are trying to make a joke), and things I’m actually trying to evaluate. I do have a sense of when someone is trying too hard to sound impressive, so then being able to pull it off would indicate skill. I see what you mean now.
I’m probably more gullible than average, but I’m pretty sure that people less intelligent than me have done this when talking to me too. A few times, I’ve made an estimate that a fellow programming student is the same or slightly higher skill level than me based on talking with them, but then when we work on the same problems in class, I have an easier time than they do. (Not the same thing as intelligence, but related.)
You believe that you’re more intelligent than they are because you are able to do one task better than them (coding), yet it sounds like they were able to do another task better than you (being able to successful convince you that they were more intelligent). I’m not sure why the latter should be ruled out as a sign of intelligence.
Actually, what I’d been getting at was that if they could convince me they were a better programmer than they really were, I could probably also be convinced that someone was more intelligent than they really were by similar means. If someone did convince me they were more intelligent than they really were, I’d have a harder time finding out I’d been fooled, for the same reason you mentioned.
I wouldn’t take fooling me as a sign of all that much intelligence, though. I don’t check the things people say about themselves for reasonableness very carefully. (Either not enough mental RAM, or force of habit from not having had enough RAM in the past—social interactions take more mental effort for me than for the typical person.)
Well, unless everyone is capable of fooling you, the ability to do so would seem to indicate at least some skill. I’m not sure of the intelligence conversion rate between “capability of deceiving you” and “capability of showing they’re better than you at programming in the particular class you share,” but your realization that the person is actually better at the former and not the latter seems to suggest the individual has a different set of skills, rather than merely being less skilled.
After reading this, I realized that I’d been conflating how easily I believe random information people tell me that I don’t have much of anything invested in and don’t expect them to have reason to lie about (which would probably not take much skill, since it often happens by accident when people are trying to make a joke), and things I’m actually trying to evaluate. I do have a sense of when someone is trying too hard to sound impressive, so then being able to pull it off would indicate skill. I see what you mean now.