Re: I Have Ideas

1

Who's in smart incurious?


Posted by: Mister Smearcase | Link to this comment | 05- 2-18 7:46 PM
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I don't really feel like looking into it.


Posted by: dalriata | Link to this comment | 05- 2-18 7:57 PM
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1: a ton of academic humanists; don't even get me started. (Everyone here excluded obvs.)


Posted by: Lurid keyaki | Link to this comment | 05- 2-18 8:04 PM
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4

1 - surgeons.

Who is exactly in the middle?


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 05- 2-18 8:08 PM
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5

Me.


Posted by: Kreskin | Link to this comment | 05- 2-18 8:18 PM
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For the upper left I was going to say "economists," but 4 has it right.


Posted by: Kreskin | Link to this comment | 05- 2-18 8:18 PM
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Not just surgeons, but a lot of technocrats. Lawyers, engineers, accountants.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05- 2-18 8:33 PM
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I feel as if this should map onto Rommel's* smart/diligent quadrant, but it doesn't, at least not neatly.
*Schlieffen? Some bad German motherfucker.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05- 2-18 8:36 PM
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9

8: Looks like an actually good WWII German motherfucker, but with the ridiculous name Hammerstein-Equord.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 05- 2-18 8:44 PM
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10

4: CNN broadcasters? Electricians?


Posted by: foolishmortal | Link to this comment | 05- 2-18 9:11 PM
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10 - YES. Both are perfect.


Posted by: Robert Halford | Link to this comment | 05- 2-18 9:18 PM
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Oh hm. I'll try to answer Mr. Smearcase.

Q: Who's in smart-incurious?

A: Oh, doctors, engineers, programmers ... *more people than you can shake a stick at*.

Most of the workforce at the new-fangled IT behemoths[*], for instance. And this isn't a smack against them: most of the workforce at the "big enterprise IT companies" is "dumb-incurious" [and that -is- a smack against them. Lord protect me from ever working for again.]

[*] I'm sure you can guess whom I'm referring to, but I won't be explicit, b/c sheeite, I don't really want their asshole lawyers to come down on me, and I'm sure the FPers feel the same.

There's an enormous amount of work that we call "knowledge work"[**]. Not "idea work", but rather "knowledge work". That is meant to signify that it requires lots of knowledge, but not much creativity. Or at least, the creativity is of a really non-creative sort. Think "emergency room doctor" [hell, MOST doctors] or "nurse" or "programmer at ". Their work is designed to minimize the requirement of creativity, and instead maximize recall of pre-digested knowledge.

[**] A CS prof buddy of mine says "knowledge work" is like "sex work". He's right, though obvs. sex work is worse. Still, ontologically the same kind of thing.

I said about 11 months into my time at , "After working here nearly a year, I'm less-prepared to interview here, than I was the day I did the interview". [I lasted my 13 mos, got my first-year cliff & bonus, so I don't cry about it, and I'm sure I'm a lucky one. The point is, those guys are just the "overpaid doctors" of our era. That's all.]


Posted by: Chetan Murthy | Link to this comment | 05- 2-18 9:26 PM
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Poor economists.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 12:08 AM
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Smart-Inquisitive should contain people like scientific researchers, but then I think about the Higgs boson work and the hundreds if not thousands of people who made it happen by number crunching day after day through databases which probably make the google cloud look like some teenager's phone by comparison, and I wonder if they were actually Smart-Inquisitive and unbelievably self-disciplined or whether a lot of them were Smart-Incurious at the level that it was cool when they found something new, "but you know, I've got another ten thousand readings to get through here. Catch you later."


Posted by: chris y | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 1:44 AM
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That is meant to signify that it requires lots of knowledge, but not much creativity. Or at least, the creativity is of a really non-creative sort.

Craft rather than art.


Posted by: Ume | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 1:53 AM
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Dumb-inquisitive: credulous consumers of cosmetic therapies. I'm right now translating a supposedly serious presentation that refers to Gerovital as "attracting attention as a rejuvenation treatment from Romania, a nation that leads the world in anti-aging medicine." (NW's comment: Tell them Bram Stoker made it all up.)


Posted by: Ume | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 4:10 AM
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Dumb-inquisitive: ducks in a barrel, but anti-vaxers, climate change "skeptics."

Dumb-incurious: Twitter users who retweet the latest tweet-storm bs.


Posted by: DaveLMA | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 4:43 AM
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Cannot BELIEVE no one else has proposed libertarians for the lower right.


Posted by: Adam Kotsko | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 4:53 AM
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A lot of them don't seem very inquisitive to me. They have their axioms and that's all they need.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 4:56 AM
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There cannot be unnominated libertarians. If there were, someone would have nominated them.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 4:57 AM
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17. attracting attention as a rejuvenation treatment from Romania, a nation that leads the world in anti-aging medicine.

"Does not contain ... wine." -- Dracula
"Wonderful for the skin." -- Elizabeth Bathory

18. Like many cults, they are more in square 1: "I know everything I need to know, and what I know is true: read this paper."


Posted by: DaveLMA | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 5:00 AM
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Where do audiophiles who buy $300 cryo-treated USB cables go? (Other than dumb-acquisitive.)


Posted by: snarkout | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 5:22 AM
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If they just bought cables, they're probably about to crawl behind the desk.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 5:25 AM
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Also, I'm pretty sure that flat earthers and libertarians know they have views that are fucknuts. They are just trolling everybody or trying to leech off the common good while contributing nothing, respectively.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 5:49 AM
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18: Engineers and programmers were mentioned, and they were correctly placed in the upper left.

It's tempting to put Trump supporters on the lower half, but the ones I know -- even the less educated ones -- are above-average bright. I'm not sure that "incurious" really captures their mental deficit. Intolerance is the common thread, and that does have a relationship with curiosity.


Posted by: politicalfootball | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 5:50 AM
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Yes. If you think I'm a piece of shit and wish to move America as far away from what I want as possible without having to get off your couch, voting for Trump was the smartest move you ever made.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:00 AM
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27

At least it's an ethos.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:09 AM
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28

4- Fuck you, Halford


Posted by: Dr. Oops | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:39 AM
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29

Sorry - and Mossy.


Posted by: Dr. Oops | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:40 AM
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It's so true though! #notallsurgeons #almostallsurgeons


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:44 AM
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28: When my ex was still in med school, we used to joke that he's too much of a tinkerer to make a good surgeon; he'd always be wondering "What happens if I connect this duct to that organ ..."


Posted by: Ume | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:45 AM
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I'm somehat tempted to say that the four brothers in my family map one into each quadrant. (That's slightly unfair to the dumb/incurious one who isn't really dumb. But only slightly unfair, and the other three are spot on.)


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: “Pause endlessly, then go in” (9) | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:46 AM
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"What happens if I connect this duct to that organ...

Good thing there's no way to misinterpret that and make a joke.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:47 AM
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Wrong duct. Oh shit.


Posted by: Ume | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:48 AM
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35

It's an entirely novel medical procedure.


Posted by: Ginger Yellow | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:50 AM
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I don't actually talk to many surgeons. I just know that they rejected our paper just because we pointed out that a particular surgery is probably pointless.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:52 AM
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37

I didn't even try to submit the one about how castration anxiety is a major barrier to hip replacement surgery in men.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:54 AM
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38

I might be at the center.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:58 AM
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39

Just because you went to Michigan, you shouldn't sell your intellect short.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:59 AM
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40

I honestly can't tell separate my own level of curiosity from my level of procrastination. If I'm under a tight deadline, I will feel suddenly feel the need to read entire Wikipedia articles that I probably wouldn't read if all I had planned that day was a nice walk.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 7:04 AM
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41

whatever


Posted by: Dr. Oops | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 7:05 AM
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40 implies that the professionally curious can only establish their true curiosity levels by leaving their careers in academia and journalism.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 7:06 AM
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Anyway, I have a variety of complaints about doctors, but I mostly keep them to myself because they pay better than working with psychologists and worry less about my internet use that I think a government agency would.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 7:18 AM
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I'd love a way to find doctors who are more curious, the few times I've had doctors who are genuinely curious I've really enjoyed it. It's pretty natural though that both the career track and the nature of the job kinda grind the curiosity out of you, so I don't really blame the doctors who are less curious. I just wish there was an easier way for me to find the curious ones.

(Here you basically don't get any choice in doctor because almost no one is taking new patients, so you're just stuck with whoever moved to town most recently.)


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: "Pause endlessly, then go in" (9) | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 7:24 AM
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Fox News is a device for moving people from the bottom left quadrant to the bottom right. People who start off on the bottom left have the potential for curiosity, but in past ages it would have lain dormant, because the only triggers in existence were ideas too refined for them to perceive. Then Murdoch said 'Fiat Fox', giving us fun memes like 'El Salvadorean gangs are in your neighbourhood' and 'Eurabia'.


Posted by: One of Many | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 7:59 AM
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24: People in the NBA can't tell if Kyrie Irving is trolling with his flat-earther shit, or if he's serious.

Though I think trolling is like sales -- you end up believing your own pitch.


Posted by: Walt Someguy | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 8:20 AM
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I'll believe that when Trump wears his own cologne.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 8:48 AM
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48

If memes end up killing the enlightenment we may have to apologize for making fun of Dawkin's analogizing.


Posted by: Eggplant | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 9:32 AM
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49

Where is Kanye on this grid


Posted by: jms | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 9:39 AM
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I thought I understood memes until the current trend of being busy, text-heavy, and deliberately badly formatted.


Posted by: Minivet | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 10:29 AM
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I'm sure it's not possible to simultaneously be in all four quadrants, but I picture myself on a string tacked to the center swinging in a pretty circle through each. I stall out in Dumb-Incurious more often than I ought to admit.


Posted by: Di Kotimy | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:21 PM
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DK!


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:28 PM
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So, today I played incurious because I just didn't really want to get involved. There was a dead hawk (bigger than I expected) and a dead squirrel both laying on the sidewalk. Standing over them was a woman on the phone asking for a non-emergency number for a police to report this. I assume the hawk killed the squirrel but somehow (window collision?) died in the process. I would have like to have looked around, but I really wasn't sure I wanted to get involved discussing this with somebody who thought it was a police matter. Also, the squirrel was starring at me.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:32 PM
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Sounds like the woman suspected fowl play.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:54 PM
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Like maybe a duck killed both of them?


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 6:56 PM
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The woman killed both of them for trespassing. Hence, police.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 7:07 PM
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Then she would have just called the emergency number.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 7:10 PM
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58

But the threat had been neutralized.


Posted by: Mossy Character | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 7:24 PM
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Speaking of dubious reasons to call the police:

"Apparently, a parent on the tour called police because they were too quiet, that made them suspicious," Gray said. "They were trying to listen. Why should it be a crime to listen and not engage in a conversation?"

Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 7:35 PM
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That's horrible, but still an improvement if Chivington if your baseline for Colorado.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 7:41 PM
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There's gotta be some consequences for the people calling the police in these situations. You could kill someone that way.


Posted by: Unfoggetarian: “Pause endlessly, then go in” (9) | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 7:44 PM
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62

Sounds like something someone dumb-inquisitive might do.


Posted by: fake accent | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 7:57 PM
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60 is a fair point.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 05- 3-18 9:30 PM
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64

It seems to me that electricians could be quite curious. My boss is trained as a librarian and just married an electrician. I've only met him once, but I know she wouldn't stick with him if he were boring.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 05- 4-18 3:57 AM
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Maybe he got pregnant and she had to marry him.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 4-18 5:21 AM
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She prefers dogs to kids. She got married once when she was younger and eloped this time. She'sd fiitrly nothaving kids. I'm pretty sure she would have him get a vasectomy if men could get pregnant; she had her tubes tied.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 05- 4-18 5:38 AM
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You can't just order men to get their nuts tied off.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 4-18 5:52 AM
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Maybe librarians can. I don't know the extent of their authority.


Posted by: Moby Hick | Link to this comment | 05- 4-18 5:56 AM
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68: Virtually unlimited.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 05- 4-18 8:44 AM
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64: There are 2 kinds of non-boring people: people that say interesting things, and people that don't talk at all. Since your boss loves dogs, my guess is that she like the non-talking kind of not-boring.


Posted by: peep | Link to this comment | 05- 4-18 9:28 AM
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68 peep's right. Don't fuck with us.


Posted by: Barry Freed | Link to this comment | 05- 4-18 9:46 AM
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You know that thing that happened to Abelard? He'd forgotten to return a codex to the scriptorium. They made up a more romantic story to spare hime embarrassment, but really, that's what it was.


Posted by: NW | Link to this comment | 05- 4-18 9:53 AM
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