Do clever people tend to be lazy?

[DaShi]

I have noticed this a bit myself. In high school, I tried to avoid the easy or non-honors classes because I knew I'd do poorly in them because I'd get bored and not do the work. At my high school we have three US courses: standard, honors, and AP. I was planning to take the honors course, because I didn't think I was smart enough for AP . However, the honors class didn't fit in my schedule, and I knew how I'd feel in the standard. So I took the AP class. I ended up with not only the highest average in the class, but also the highest score on the exam of anyone else in the class. After that I somehow became known as a "brain." Quite disorientating.

College was the same. I'd often not even attend classes that were boring or too easy and get a passing grade by reading through the textbook or copied notes before the exam.

I don't know if this generally means I'm "smart." Some people are just more motivated by challenge. Normally, I'd say I'm rather lazy, but I do rise to challenges. This isn't necessarily a good thing. As many have stated, their laziness has affected course work and job performance. So it's really not something to be proud of and sit back and say it's a sign of genius. You can argue all you want that the work was too easy for you or boring, but, no matter how smart you are (or think you are), you're still a lazy git. Get to work you slackers!

[Asher]

"The best programmer is a lazy programmer"

And this is true, in my experience. I know a couple of kids at school who are very bright, but they spend so much time on designing their code that it is overly elaborate and many times the size of similar code that does exactly the same thing. The lazy programmer will think about it from an efficiency perspective, the other programmers seem to skip this step.

There are lines to be drawn, however. A lazy programmer who allocates a 4GB stack for a userspace program using an array is both technically incompetent (that's not possible under most 32-bit OSes, which have 2GB per-thread limits), but they're also very clearly in need of re-evaluating their career choice.

[DaShi]

[Dauphin]

Of course I don't look busy, I did it right the first time.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Asher
There are lines to be drawn, however. A lazy programmer who allocates a 4GB stack for a userspace program using an array is both technically incompetent (that's not possible under most 32-bit OSes, which have 2GB per-thread limits), but they're also very clearly in need of re-evaluating their career choice.

Along the same lines, a programmer wannabe who doesn't know what he's talking about should switch major to philosophy or something.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Indeed. A programmer who allocates a a 4GB stack when it's not possible should re-evaluate his career choice.

Still, this beats a programmer wannabe who doesn't know what he's talking about. He should switch major to philosophy or something.

Actually, it's the same thing. And I would recommend you switch your major to something requiring more thought than Philosophy, such as carpentry.

[DaShi]

I wouldn't worry about UR as a programmer. I'm beginning to suspect that he isn't one.

[Asher]

I think it has more to do with a cultural thing. What China calls a "programmer", the West calls a Secretary.

[DaShi]

Actually, I suspect that he's a high school student.

[Jon Miller]

I think he is a college student (see Little Sister)

JM

[Asher]

What is that code for?

[Jon Miller]

See the thread title (Little Sister), it is a chinese program where chinese undergrads (in the interview case, a female) spent their time spying on the websites that the populace visited...

JM

[DaShi]

Maybe a freshman. The maturity level is too low for college. But then again, Chinese college students closer to American high school students in maturity.

[Asher]

I was under the impression that Chinese college students were gold farmers on World of Warcraft?

[Jon Miller]

There are a lot of chinese...

JM