I’ve never heard of anyone saying “I thought that person was really intelligent, but they turned out not to be”
This is how I feel about most (but not all) of the people I’ve met from Less Wrong.
I think you’re describing a selection effect; it’s easy to notice when someone you don’t think capable does something well, but it’s harder to notice failures of people you think are intelligent. There are usually too many ways to give people the benefit of the doubt, and once you’ve started thinking someone’s intelligent, you’ll probably just keep thinking that.
This is how I feel about most (but not all) of the people I’ve met from Less Wrong.
There’s probably a more general effect in play here: people are smarter in writing than they are extemporaneously. IME this is true of almost everyone, but it’s especially true of people who are famous for their writing: Paul Graham, Steve Yegge, Eliezer Yudkowsky, people like that.
I think it has less to do with that, and more to do with being impressed by an initial command of concepts I’m not as strong with, followed by total incompetence in other areas. The idea behind rationality is that the approach is general.
This is how I feel about most (but not all) of the people I’ve met from Less Wrong.
I think you’re describing a selection effect; it’s easy to notice when someone you don’t think capable does something well, but it’s harder to notice failures of people you think are intelligent. There are usually too many ways to give people the benefit of the doubt, and once you’ve started thinking someone’s intelligent, you’ll probably just keep thinking that.
There’s probably a more general effect in play here: people are smarter in writing than they are extemporaneously. IME this is true of almost everyone, but it’s especially true of people who are famous for their writing: Paul Graham, Steve Yegge, Eliezer Yudkowsky, people like that.
I think it has less to do with that, and more to do with being impressed by an initial command of concepts I’m not as strong with, followed by total incompetence in other areas. The idea behind rationality is that the approach is general.