Comments on: How do you do it?

By: Andy Matuschak

Andy Matuschak — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:34:55 +0000

Maybe you’re right, David. All I’m sure about is that people who are really and truly good at what they do—people who make shit happen—have it. And other people don’t.

Also, that Mike spent a summer sorting cards is both terrifying and utterly consistent.

By: jane

jane — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 07:59:54 +0000

(btw it looks like your server or webapp is misconfigured and thinks dst is not in effect right now..)

By: jane

jane — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 07:56:10 +0000

Hahah your roommate sounds familiar >.>

Although I didn’t launch into whiteboard scribbles, in the middle of one of the first levels of Lights Off something just “clicked”, and I pretty much flew through..I think about 200?.. levels really fast before I started getting bored and uninstalled the app for something else. :(

By: Rob Rix

Rob Rix — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 01:30:24 +0000

Andy and David, I agree with both of you. I don’t think intuition is innate, but I don’t think education is necessarily the missing ingredient either.

The people I’ve noted who excel at what they do are to an individual the ones who put effort into it, whether they had latent talent or not.

By: Dan

Dan — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 00:15:48 +0000

Divide by two?

By: David Smith

David Smith — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:23:01 +0000

I’m not convinced that I agree. In fact, I think you may have it backwards. I would say that instead “intuition comes from real skill”. Intuition is what you get when you make a problem solving technique such an innate part of you that your subconscious can do it.

In Mike’s case, I suspect one thing he can probably do is apply a sorting algorithm of his choice subconsciously, due to an entire summer spent sorting decks of cards in our basement.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 23:01:42 +0000

I don’t have much to add except praise… Bravo! Wonderfully written post. :)