The Talent Myth: Are smart people overrated?

The New Yorker ^ | 7/15/02 (for issue of 7/22/02) | Malcolm Gladwell

[Betty Jane]

You will get far more out of intelligent and well-trained employees than dumb ones ...

I agree, but many times the "intelligent M.B.A." has no real work experience. My husband worked for one of these over-educated idiots as a cable installer. This guy knew nothing about cable, but he had a business degree so he was hired. Every new policy he tried to implement made no sense in the cable business. He had no management skills and actually told the guys he would never do what they do for any amount of money. He told them he was so much smarter than they. The guys wouldn't do anything more than the minimum required. That office lost sales and customers. He lasted about 18 months. So much for intelligence. Common-sense is worth a whole lot more.

[lavaroise]

I guess people have lot of talent to find ways to produce and thus consume more. Animals and communists have the same goal of course.

[Dan from Michigan]

SMART people are NOT overrated. Talent IS VERY overrated I was a football coach for the last 4 years. The heart and soul of the team isn't always the most talented. It is the person that is usually with GOOD(not great) talent, experience, and the hard work and drive to win. We used the merit system. Some of our best athletes(talent alone) sat down. They were either not tough enough, didn't have good enough technique, or didn't have work ethic.

It's the same thing everywhere. You can be a Harvard grad with straight A's, and still be a dumb SOB. You can also have an eighth grade education, and be a genius.

The SMARTEST people are those that get the job done.

[PoisedWoman]

Thanks for link. Book as described at amazon seems right on the money.

My big bucks friend was totally unconcerned about the stuff money could buy. Drove cars until they fell apart, couldn't care less. I need to read that book.....Spending R Us. In fact, Mr. Money remarked that I had attitudes only the very rich can afford. LOL! Like surfing FR instead of working!

[HassanBenSobar]

Yes and no. There are certain disciplines where you need to have a strong grasp of advanced mathematics just to have the foggiest notion of what's going on. I've seen folks who had great common sense, drive, heart, you name it, but were ignoramuses when it came to math. They just didn't have the talent. So they were somewhat limited in the roles they could play.

I agree, some Harvard grads are idiots, some eight graders are geniuses. Those are the exceptions. As a rule, the people with only an eighth grade education ought not be managing the rocket scientists...otherwise, our society will start to resemble Mao's preferred world-view!

[Poohbah]

There's a consulting firm my company competes with that has the talent mindset. They were asked to develop a response to a short-fused requirement with about one month to deadline (i.e., servers installed and operational with a minimal function set); they laid out a three-year preplanned product improvement scheme that didn't install hardware until year two. That company doesn't understand why they never get much business.