Also, many highly intelligent people around me did things that I now see as obviously irrational (things like mentioned in this article), and used them as a signal for high intelligence.
Sometimes it’s rational to value signaling your intelligence more than coming up with the right answer to an inconsequential question :-)
Your usual kitchen debate about politics is predominantly about signaling (both tribal identity and facility at arguing).
It’s just… people who cannot stop signalling, even when you tell them: “look, I see that you are signalling, but now please stop doing that for a minute and let’s talk seriously”… annoy me a lot.
(Yeah, it would be easy to say that what I want is also signalling, just of a different kind. Whatever. Either way, I hate that kind of signalling.)
The ability to easily go meta—that is, stop and take a look at yourself “from the outside” is not common, probably more rare than “just” high intelligence.
Sometimes it’s rational to value signaling your intelligence more than coming up with the right answer to an inconsequential question :-)
The problem is that “inconsequential” questions can be consequential to someone, who then gets labeled an idiot (or worse) for attempting to approach it rationally.
Sometimes it’s rational to value signaling your intelligence more than coming up with the right answer to an inconsequential question :-)
Your usual kitchen debate about politics is predominantly about signaling (both tribal identity and facility at arguing).
It’s just… people who cannot stop signalling, even when you tell them: “look, I see that you are signalling, but now please stop doing that for a minute and let’s talk seriously”… annoy me a lot.
(Yeah, it would be easy to say that what I want is also signalling, just of a different kind. Whatever. Either way, I hate that kind of signalling.)
The ability to easily go meta—that is, stop and take a look at yourself “from the outside” is not common, probably more rare than “just” high intelligence.
The problem is that “inconsequential” questions can be consequential to someone, who then gets labeled an idiot (or worse) for attempting to approach it rationally.