At least in the software engineering world, I think a very common one is NIH, the idea that we can do it better, which almost never works out in experience.
That reminds me of discussions about whether it's better to rent or buy housing... who's to say that it isn't smarter (for some people) to choose to work for someone else? What if working for yourself required you to do things like hire and manage employees?
I spent a few years working for myself and it sucked. Running a business was tedious, stressful, and unrewarding. I'd much rather work for someone else, so I can focus on doing the work I'm actually good at.
I would say that one is tying your self worth to your (coding) skills. Ironically once I got out of this mindset, my coding got arguably much better. Shit takes time yo, code hard and enjoy your bad code, it’s gonna get somewhat better eventually.
One thing I see a lot with fellow students is the following mentality:
"I don't need to spend a lot of time studying for X because I can figure it out when I need too" or similarly "I don't feel like learning about X right now but I know I could do it on the test when I need to"
I think that sort of thinking is a classic trap smart students can fall into but often fail to correct. Often, these students can get by in High School and first two years of undergrad but often fall hard in upper division courses. I saw one of my closest friends, who I consider to be much smarter than myself, fail an entire semester of 300 and 400-division courses because he didn't put in the work needed despite having a 3.6+ GPA in our Universities physics program.
a: assuming everyone around them is as smart as they are and unintentionally losing people in conversations by skipping over logical leaps they think everyone can make.
b: assuming everyone around them is as NOT smart as they are and unintentionally condescending to the ones who are.
c: assuming they never play the other guy in scenario a.
It's a double-edged sword, really; on one side, taking a step back and putting off the project currently undertaken can give one a clearer perspective of the subject at hand, providing a fresh take on it, in some way(s) previously not even crossed one's mind.
On the other side, all too often it paves the path to development hell--be it due to the neverending quest for holy grail/unicorn of your project (if you're leaning to being a perfectionist), or eating lotus by indulging on various diversions to entertain your boredom (if you're more of a slacker like me). Or, god forbid, both.
I meant thinking in systems instead of just doing things, esp when it comes to business. There are two very good books that have a lot of stuff about this: the emyth and work the system. I'm on a mobile phone right now but if you want me to elaborate please let me know.
Smart people can be impatient and can be short on virtues other people have, like persistence. They often expect things to come easily and will give up quickly if they don't.
They can be prone to thinking that if someone disagrees with them, the person is just stupid or doesn't know enough. It can be very challenging to get smart people from very different domains to collaborate effectively because both sides may throw their hands up quickly and assume the other side is just dumb.
Getting smart people with very different world views to really communicate in a meaty and respectful fashion can be challenging. Both sides may be quick to dismiss the other as both wrong and stupid.
No. They believe they have an informed opinion, so anyone who sees it differently must have an uninformed opinion rooted in prejudice, partial information etc.
This is partly a product of the culture and it is part of why I turned down my scholarship and spent two decades as a homemaker. I was one of the top students at my high school and it was an incredibly poisonous experience.
Raising kids was a wonderful antidote to this shit. It helped me develop mental models concerning the superior density and value of local information, even in cases where a person has substantially less formal education.
In other words, my inarticulate 2 year old knew more about his situation than I did, never mind his lack of education and challenges in communicating it. Disrespecting his knowledge was guaranteed to go bad places. The challenge was in serving as an effective resource for him instead of simply trying to lord it over him.
This is less software-related, but one trap smart folks can fall into is being afraid to seem not smart. Like let's say an authority figure is trying to do something that doesn't feel right to you, and you say something about it. And then Mr. Authority Figure says, "Come now, be reasonable or be rational." The fear of being perceived as "irrational" may stop you from standing up for yourself or someone else.
On a similar note, "fear of not looking smart" can make it hard to ask a question. Often when I'm in a meeting and they're going deep into some technical thing I don't understand, I (nowadays) assume that everybody else is confused, too, and I ask the question. And then once I do, everyone else relaxes and follows up. But until that ice is broken, we're all sweating bullets trying to look like we get something we literally do not understand at all.
Conflating negativity/criticism/pessimism with intelligence.
Making a declaration about viability of software based on its present state (youtube will never work they'll get sued), (bitcoin will never work because it can't scale), instead of predicting the viability of a future iteration of it.
Nitpicking someone's communication/word choice/edge case instead of focusing out what they were trying to convey
Procrastinating on an assigned task because you think you can do things faster than everyone else. It's a trap that I fell into often. Nearing the shipping date, I found myself scrambling to finish the task wishing I had started earlier. The learning: Even if you're faster at doing things, underestimating unknown unknowns is going to be detrimental in the end. It's better to start sooner. There's a good article that covers this hazard[1]
Thinking you can beat the market. Trying to trade individual stocks. Thinking you can make a genuinely new SASS product that noone has ever thought of before.
There is a concept called "fluency illusion" which everyone is susceptible to, which is when you are passively flipping through a book on some topic, and you say: yeah, I know this, I know this too, yeah yeah, I got this. And then you are stopped and asked a question about the material and it's like: gulp. Shit.
Everyone falls victim to this, but I think smart people can be especially prone.
Stock market education, stock market tips and stock market signals... Scammers are making millions out of well educated people... A lot of investigations into the dark world:
Distraction and procrastination. I'm not sure I'm smart enough to qualify for your "smart people" designation, but those are two ailments that are affecting me. :) Perhaps being smart is being not easily distracted, then I'm very dumb.
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[ 0.15 ms ] story [ 94.2 ms ] thread"I don't need to spend a lot of time studying for X because I can figure it out when I need too" or similarly "I don't feel like learning about X right now but I know I could do it on the test when I need to"
I think that sort of thinking is a classic trap smart students can fall into but often fail to correct. Often, these students can get by in High School and first two years of undergrad but often fall hard in upper division courses. I saw one of my closest friends, who I consider to be much smarter than myself, fail an entire semester of 300 and 400-division courses because he didn't put in the work needed despite having a 3.6+ GPA in our Universities physics program.
b: assuming everyone around them is as NOT smart as they are and unintentionally condescending to the ones who are.
c: assuming they never play the other guy in scenario a.
Wash the damn dishes, literally and figuratively.
It's a double-edged sword, really; on one side, taking a step back and putting off the project currently undertaken can give one a clearer perspective of the subject at hand, providing a fresh take on it, in some way(s) previously not even crossed one's mind.
On the other side, all too often it paves the path to development hell--be it due to the neverending quest for holy grail/unicorn of your project (if you're leaning to being a perfectionist), or eating lotus by indulging on various diversions to entertain your boredom (if you're more of a slacker like me). Or, god forbid, both.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_invented_here
They can be prone to thinking that if someone disagrees with them, the person is just stupid or doesn't know enough. It can be very challenging to get smart people from very different domains to collaborate effectively because both sides may throw their hands up quickly and assume the other side is just dumb.
Getting smart people with very different world views to really communicate in a meaty and respectful fashion can be challenging. Both sides may be quick to dismiss the other as both wrong and stupid.
Believing that smart = right, thus, less smart = less right.
This is partly a product of the culture and it is part of why I turned down my scholarship and spent two decades as a homemaker. I was one of the top students at my high school and it was an incredibly poisonous experience.
Raising kids was a wonderful antidote to this shit. It helped me develop mental models concerning the superior density and value of local information, even in cases where a person has substantially less formal education.
In other words, my inarticulate 2 year old knew more about his situation than I did, never mind his lack of education and challenges in communicating it. Disrespecting his knowledge was guaranteed to go bad places. The challenge was in serving as an effective resource for him instead of simply trying to lord it over him.
Making a declaration about viability of software based on its present state (youtube will never work they'll get sued), (bitcoin will never work because it can't scale), instead of predicting the viability of a future iteration of it.
Nitpicking someone's communication/word choice/edge case instead of focusing out what they were trying to convey
Smart people will end up working with equally intelligent people to the point where they're no longer "smarter", they're now just average.
[1]: http://bookofhook.blogspot.in/2013/03/smart-guy-productivity...
Everyone falls victim to this, but I think smart people can be especially prone.
https://www.tradingschools.org/