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Ask HN: What is the most disappointing thing someone you respect has said?

15 points by etewiah ↗ HN
I just saw someone I really respect say "the amount of intelligence in the universe doubles every 18 months"

I deliberately won't say who. Please don't say if you know (I don't want to make this sound like an attack) but it got me curious to know other examples of smart people saying something not smart.

40 comments

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austin-cheney
There are so many, but this one is very recent:

Performance is not important, mentioned when a popular framework was proven slow

I recently learned that consciousness is negatively correlated with intelligence which may explain why so many seemingly intelligent people cannot make decisions or build things on their own.

Edit: my phone auto corrected conscientiousness to conscience.

surprisetalk
> I recently learned that consciousness is negatively correlated with intelligence which may explain why so many seemingly intelligent people cannot make decisions or build things on their own.

Source?

elmerfud
I can't think of any answer off hand but I'm not sure why your disappointed in that statement. A lot of it is matter of perspective. Knowledge is doubling at a much faster rate.

https://www.industrytap.com/knowledge-doubling-every-12-mont...

This is from 2013. Sometimes people use knowledge and intelligence interchangeably so it does come down to perspective. As far as we can currently know we humans are the only intelligence in the universe, and we're the ones amassing knowledge. That rate has been increasing at incredible rate.

So I'm not sure the source of your disappointment as this seems like a largely true statement. What makes me sad is we have a massive percentage of people who are mind numbed Snapchat narcissists who fail at, not just trying to be part of this amassing and utilization of knowledge, but don't even realize it's happening around them and it's what's enabled them carry the whole of human knowledge in a rectangle that to them is nothing more than selfie device to watch and record TikTok videos.

codingdave
People mis-speak, whether they are smart or not. Someone may have a good idea that they phrase badly and fail to communicate what they mean. Or a bad idea, because we're all human. That doesn't invalidate their intelligence or their value as a person. It is fair to call it out when someone is off... but that should not nullify your respect for them.

To that end, I'm not sure seeking out examples of times when people said something badly is productive.

Jensson
It isn't the single statement, it is a long series of dumb statements. Mistakes build up and some statement will be the last drop that makes you realize the person isn't who you thought he was.
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canadianfella
Showing my teacher a drawing I made when I was a kid. “You’ll grow out of it”.
username3
Sam Altman

> a new version of moore's law that could start soon:

> the amount of intelligence in the universe doubles every 18 months

https://twitter.com/sama/status/1629880171921563649

> He means the AI is going to continue to get smarter and smarter, boosting intelligence throughout the universe.

tipsytoad
I don't know why people think this is such a bad take, if we look at just gpt over the past few years gpt-2 -> 3 -> 3.5 (2019,2020,2022) is absolutely a 2x gain, and I don't think anyone's in a better spot to determine what improvements gpt4 will bring.

Humans set a high bar on intelligence but it seems inevitable that even with no significant changes we'll be overtaken, at least in breadth of knowledge

falloutx
If the AI has already read all of the internet(or most of the good texts) and it seems like this intelligence comes from data, How can AI become more intelligent if there is no more data to analyse?
stnmtn
More parameters, more training time, faster processing speed to accomplish both of the first two.
throwawayffffas
A bit of a tangent. Don't "respect" people dude, they will only let you down, the biggest thing to realize is that we are all mostly dumb. Respect people around you, as in treat them with respect. Don't idolize people.
bilekas
There is nothing wrong with looking up to people, or to have idols. It's a large part of inspiration in my experience.

Maybe the better phrase would be not to meet your idols.

rado
Filmmaker Wong Kar Wai, who botched his recent remasters, and explained it with nonsense like

“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

“It is impossible for us to dance exactly like we did before. What has really changed is not the films but the man on the floor.”

and “The point of our restoration is not to confront or resolve any problems, but to keep the tree that holds these whispers well and healthy.”

Sigh.

stnmtn
I sympathize, these remasters hollow out a lot of the soul of the film. The most disappointing part is that they also don't just come with the original color grading, and are advertised as being the new, official versions!
hirundo
If you don't at least occasionally arrive at heterodox conclusions ... and disappoint someone ... then you don't think for yourself. Therefore if the people you respect don't occasionally say disapointing things then you should expand your respect to include more original thinkers.

And if people you disrespect don't occasionally say worthwhile things you're probably discounting their words without really hearing them.

kgwxd
“Original thinker” is synonymous with “stupid person’s smart person”.
mamonster
Hmm, recently probably when Taleb went on a rant about how the (current Western) system is the best it ever was (not sure if he was talking about this in relation to Putin or Covid conspiracy theories, 90% certain one of the two) because you have unparalleled transparency in comparison to what was previously available.

Sure, the system IS very transparent, but at the same time path to action is vastly reduced. Overton window may be wider but for (most people) the glass is now bulletproof.

red-iron-pine
Taleb puts his foot in his mouth a lot. I respect that he's willing to go to the mat for stuff and take strong stands, but honestly he comes off as a jerk most of the time.
DarrenDev
Not so much people I respect, as people who have had a public persona I was aware of for decades, who suddenly out themselves as being a little less than tolerant, sometimes bordering on the bat-shit-crazy spectrum.

Recent examples are Van Morrison and his vocal opinions on Covid measures a couple of years ago, and Scott Adams of Dilbert fame only a few days ago.

I wonder sometimes how much of it is down to dotty old age and approaching dementia, and if you should forgive people for that.

But it's disappointing nonetheless.

red-iron-pine
Scott Adams has been off the deep end for a while
ploppyploppy
> I wonder sometimes how much of it is down to dotty old age and approaching dementia, and if you should forgive people for that.

Or maybe not everyone shares the same views as you?

Pigalowda
You don’t like Altman’s statement for what reason? Because he said “universe” rather than “world” or other terrestrial synonym?
bitwize
I once saw that Imogen Heap was captivated by the film The Reason I Jump, based on the book. The book is real chicken-soup-for-the-soul stuff about autism ostensibly by a Japanese kid with the condition. But here's the thing: it was entirely dictated by the technique of facilitated communication, a pseudoscientific and highly controversial technique wherein a person, a facilitator, guides and supports the hand of the autist pointing at a keyboard. The technique tends to produce words coming from the facilitator rather than the autist.

I was and am willing to give Ms. Heap the benefit of the doubt, as she may have been ignorant of the issues surrounding the book, film, and FC in general. But for a brief moment I had a flash feeling of "oh no, not this again", as there was a bit of controversy surrounding Sia and her weird little autism-themed film, Music.

luckylion
Out of curiosity, why do you care what a musician thinks of a film/book about autism? Do you expect them to be an expert / smart on everything because they make music you like? Or would you not be able to enjoy their music if you know that they don't understand some topic, or have a stupid opinion on what the best cake is, or enjoy reading horoscopes and watching feel-good movies?
bitwize
1) Imogen Heap is up there with John Carmack on the list of people I am a fan of. If she came out in support of FC despite being informed of the issues with it, it would reduce my respect for her by a couple of pegs in a way that, say, Taylor Swift or Madonna doing so wouldn't. One of the reasons why I hold her in particular esteem is because she has always admitted to her ignorance of things she is ignorant of and sought to learn more. So like I said, total benefit of the doubt.

2) The autism issue is dear to me because I'm on the spectrum. I've really lucked out because I'm verbal and can overall function pretty well. I'm even a husband, something I never thought I could expect to be. So I especially feel for all the nonverbal and otherwise severely autistic people who end up as pawns in people's political and egotistical agendas. Facilitated communication is not "reading horoscopes and watching feel-good movies"; it has hurt autistic and non-autistic people. (For example there were allegations of sexual abuse obtained through FC that were taken very seriously but ultimately shown to be false.) But like Miracle Mineral[0] it's a form of woo that just won't stay discredited, to the detriment of all who embrace it.

[0] To the Hackernews who reads this and thinks "but Miracle Mineral realigned my gut bacteria and cured my chronic fatigue" -- and I know you're out there -- you're drinking bleach, dude. Popehat's Law of Bleach applies.

luckylion
Thank you for explaining. I didn't mean to suggest that Facilitated communication is like reading horoscopes. I assumed that the movie was some kind of heartwarming film that people (women!) watch to feel good. That's what I'd assume first and foremost, not that the person watching it is aware of the how the source material was created and embraces that.

I've seen people become annoyed when someone they admire does something boring, like a brilliant scientist who also collects hand-bags or likes to go to football matches, because they seem to envision them as brilliant scientists 24/7 without a life outside of being brilliant (and probably communicating only in deep profound statements, even when they're at the checkout in the cafeteria and the cashier is rolling their eyes because they're holding up the queue).

I don't share your approach to people and don't understand it at all, but I'm aware that's on me, not you. I guess I'm just very good at compartmentalizing, I can't think of a single person where I'd be disappointed if they came out as liking pop-music or strongly believing in homeopathy, flat-earth, or socialism. I'm a fan of some people, but it's narrowly confined to their work in some area, e.g. I might love someone's books or music, but that wouldn't translate into me caring about their political views.

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lampshades
I really don’t understand why people are so bothered by Sam’s statement.
Jensson
Shows he is a hustler trying to sell, kind of like how people got disappointed when people realized Elon Musk was an entrepreneur and not a scientist.

You got to realize that many actually get deceived by these people, so once they realize the truth they get disappointed.

tomduncalf
Quite a few musicians I respect going down the NFT pushing route was a bit disappointing, though I kinda get it that they saw their chance for a payday…
melagonster
Musician sold their NFT is acceptable. this just like they sold a signed picture, fans always buy these small stuff.
polotics
Yanis Varoufakis playing at military expert, and for the evil side at that, was an utter horrible disappointment. Many lefties like eg. Jacobin mag also voicing inanities related to the Putin war. Luckily the Musks and Thiels are still immediately vile and obviously misleading with slime on first listen, no disappointment there.
corobo
Expect disappointment and you'll never be disappointed.

Mine was my first realisation that confidence doesn't equal knowledge. I had asked a science teacher back in high school if it were theoretically possible to see light from around the big bang sort of time of the universe.

"No, that's not possible." - no corrections, no qualifiers, no reasoning why it wasn't possible. Just "no". Scientific af.

Hubble existed and the James Webb telescope was in the planning phases at the time.. If you can't do, teach.

jasonpeacock
Their response when I was appealing to them for help in fixing an org problem:

> I know it's my job to be a leader but it's too much work because the org is dysfunctional, so I'm only focusing on my own thing.

Dude, you're part of the problem :( Maybe you shouldn't be a leader if you're not willing to do the hard things.