The author talks about nuclear engineers being the smartest kids at school, but then end up in dead-end jobs because they don't have the desire to move beyond just being smart. No sales skills, leadership skills, management skills, etc.
I see the same thing with programmers and software developers. There are a ton of smart coders out there. However, a lot of people that I talk to are just stuck in jobs they don't really love because they're too scared to go outside their comfort zones.
Yes, it's important to know your stuff, and being smart certainly helps. But don't be afraid to be creative and adventurous. Go for that promotion. Chase that dream job. Start a business. Go back to school for a new career.
One thing I've learned in half a century on this planet is that the worst regrets for a lot of people aren't the things you did... they're the things you didn't do.
Another takeaway: being smart is good, but it only gets you so far. Hard work and perseverance can make a big difference. I've seen this in my own life. I skated through high school barely studying at all. My first couple years of college weren't very difficult at all. Then things started to get tough...
...and I dropped out and started a business doing what I loved. LOL. But enough about me. What's your takeaway from the article?
Sami Shamma
@Reply 2 years ago
Amen to that.
Back in the day when I was working in England, running my software business and predominantly, depending on my Smarts. An older programmer working for me (He was younger than I am now) Said to me: Sami, Intelligence can take you so far then you need to know something.
That gentleman change my life
Thomas Gonder
@Reply 2 years ago
Many a researcher and article point out that "successful" businesspeople demonstrate emotional intelligence and charisma as the most important traits. I worked at some big companies where those traits drove the business into bankruptcy, being sold off for their parts and 90% of the employees being screwed out of an otherwise good job with the pensions being raided.
Yet here we are today, about 85% of the USA population being fooled again by such traits, by candidates for president no less.
Imagine, the Phillipines has another president with the surname Marcos!
We "smart people" never learn.
Thomas Gonder
@Reply 2 years ago
@Sami As a general rule, no matter how "smart" we are, all humans tend to get stuck in a routine of enhancing a limited number of knowledge points. Then, with that knowledge, we fall prey to the Dunning-Kruger effect in everything else outside our specialty. It's not something to be ashamed of or deny. We aren't in the world of Thomas Young anymore.
Thomas Gonder
@Reply 2 years ago
@Richard, I remember an article where the researcher asked a wide swath of men, just as they were about to die, what is their biggest regret. The answer, not fitting for the caliber of this group, was that they didn't have "relationships" with more women. A high percentage of all, rich or poor said the same. I immediately wondered, "What would most women list as their biggest regret under the same circumstances?" I've kept an eye out, over the years, for an answer to that question. Yet to be seen.
Kevin Yip
@Reply 2 years ago
The events in the article occurred only "a few years" after college. If it was just 3-5 years, that seemed like too short a time to conclude anything. If they were stuck in the same job for 8 or 10+ years, then maybe something was amiss.
Of course, being smart in school has very little bearing on how well you will do in life. No company would ask what your grades were after maybe your first job interview. When I got my first job, the stuff I learned 3-4 years ago in college was already obsolete because of the ever-changing technology. Access didn't even exist when I was in college. You are supposed to keep learning (forever) after college, especially in tech industries.
Tech fields keep advancing, so these people likely wouldn't "do the same jobs" in the literal sense, because technology keeps changing. One has to adjust to these changes even if he has the same job in the same company. I held the same position for 20+ years as an IT manager in my company and I had never got bored because of ever-changing technology.
Yeah, I love to keep learning. A lot of people are intimidated by technology. Not me. I love it. I consider it a bad day if I didn't learn at least one new thing. In fact, if I can afford it, when I die, I plan to be cryogenically frozen so I can hopefully be revived in a thousand years when the technology advances. I'd love to see the progress of mankind. Then attempt to murder Captain Kirk and steal his ship...
Thomas Gonder
@Reply 2 years ago
Captain Kirk in a thousand years? And what about those freezer burns?
In the maintenance/engineering field, I have experienced something similar with people who have a bulletproof memory. They tend to rely on that strength rather than develop their other skills. They are fantastic help to have around, but only for repeat malfunctions. For any unique malfunction they are not so helpful. They also struggle with root cause analysis which means they tend to keep making the same repairs rather than doing anything to prevent future failures.
I do sometimes wish I was a little less like Dory but it has led to a pretty solid troubleshooting skillset.
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