Alpha Commune
An angel investment fund that helps entrepreneurs a lot
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Alpha Commune said: What is more valuable than being smart? Paul Graham believes that this ability to generate new ideas is a must for entrepreneurs. How do you give yourself this ability? In addition to the love and obsession with one thing after another, independent thinking is also crucial.
The venture capital industry has always been fascinating because it is full of individuals who want to change the world and a steady stream of novel ideas. I mentioned in "12 Super Individuals' Life Algorithms |2021 Fat Fu Selection": "Humans are perhaps the species with the largest difference in species productivity in the known world, and the world is constantly innovating and developing under the impetus of a small group of super individuals." To a large extent, it is because there are certain differences in algorithms and computing power between people, and with the development of science and technology and society, this difference has been magnified to a greater extent in the context of continuous improvement of connection efficiency. "Individual computing power is relatively innate, and the iteration of algorithms is more valuable for exploration."
We are all willing to deal with smart people, and we will also use "smart" as a criterion, sometimes even as the only criterion. As a result, smart people have easier access to opportunities and resources. But is cleverness the most important of all? I believe the answer must be no. If in a field where all people are smart, intelligence is not so precious, then what is more precious than intelligence? Two days ago, when talking to a friend about the impact of the original family on personal growth and development, I couldn't help but sigh that no matter how small an individual is, his/her uniqueness should also be respected. At the same time, history tells us that society inspires super-individuals with a pioneering spirit with huge rewards.
Today's sharing comes from a blog post by Paul Graham, the godfather of Silicon Valley, whose background doesn't need to be covered, and whose blog has inspired and inspired entrepreneurs around the world. This is a piece of content about "more valuable than smart", short but concise, which has great inspiration for me, and in recent months I have read this content from time to time, hoping that this content can also bring you inspiration and thinking: what is more valuable than being smart.
In order to give you a better reading experience, this article has made certain adjustments without affecting the content. If it inspires you, we'd like to help share recommendations. Let's get started, Enjoy!
If you ask people: What was so special about Einstein? Most people would say he's very smart. Some people's answers may be complicated, but that's what comes to mind first. A few years ago, I would have given the same answer, but it wasn't. What makes Einstein special is that he had important new ideas. Being very smart is a necessary prerequisite for having a new idea, but the two are not exactly the same.
There may seem to be no difference between intelligence and results based on intelligence, but this is not the case. Anyone who has been in universities and research labs knows how big the gap is between the two. Not every smart person will achieve something.
I've thought since I was a kid that what people need most is to be smart, and you probably think so too, but I bet that's not what you really want. Imagine if you had to choose between "very smart but without any new ideas" and "not very smart but with a lot of new ideas", you would definitely choose the latter, at least I would. This choice makes me anxious, but when it comes to making a clear list of these two options, it's obvious which is better.
The reason this choice upsets me is that I still think it's important to be smart, even though I intellectually know it's not. For so many years, I've thought it was crucial, and the circumstances of my childhood have ingrained this idea. Intelligence is easier to measure than new ideas and is often used to judge a person. Some children have the potential to generate new ideas, but this potential is actually difficult to explore. Even for such a child, intelligence is the only criterion for judging.
There are also more subtle reasons that will continue into adulthood. Intelligence determines the outcome of a conversation and thus becomes the basis for a hierarchy of dominance.[1] In addition, historically, the generation of new ideas is a new thing, and even now, there are very few people with this ability, so society has not yet realized that this is the real destination, and intelligence is only a means to an end [2].
Why do so many smart people have no new ideas? From this perspective, the issue seems negative. But from another perspective, it becomes optimistic and interesting. Obviously, intelligence is not the only factor that produces new ideas. What are the other factors? Is it something we can cultivate?
The problem with the intellectual factor is that intelligence is primarily innate. The evidence for this claim also seems strong enough, especially given that most people don't want it to be true, which is hard to accept. I'm not going to discuss this because I'm concerned with other factors that generate new ideas, and obviously a lot of them can be cultivated.
This means that the truth is very different from the stories I heard as a child. If intelligence is paramount and innate, then the result of natural selection is like the fatalism of a brave new world. All you can do is figure out what "gifts" you have so you can at least maximize your innate wisdom and then work as hard as you can. If intelligence is not the most important factor, but only one of the important factors, and the other factors are not related to talent, everything will be different. You'll have more control, but it's also more complicated to talk about how to arrange your life.
So, what are the other factors that generate new ideas? The fact that I was able to ask this question is also proof that the point I made earlier is an established fact that society has not yet accepted that what is important is to generate new ideas rather than intelligence. Otherwise, how can we not know the answer to this basic question[3]?
I'm not going to list all the other factors here. This is the first time I've asked myself a question in this way, and it may take a while to answer. But I recently wrote a very valuable article: love and obsession with something. This is definitely something that can be cultivated.
In order to generate new ideas, another quality you need is independent thinking. I don't want to say that it has nothing to do with intelligence – I don't think a person with an independent mind is called intelligent – and although intelligence is mostly innate, this quality can also be cultivated to some extent.
There are some general skills that can facilitate the generation of new ideas, and these skills can be learned, for example, focusing on the project at your disposal and overcoming the difficulties faced in the early stages of work, some of which can be learned through social activities. There are also techniques for generating specific types of new ideas such as entrepreneurial ideas and thesis topics.
Of course, some of the components that make up new ideas are common, such as working hard, getting enough sleep, avoiding certain stress, having the right co-workers, and finding ways to do what you want to do, even if it's not something you should be doing. Anything that prevents people from doing great things will have another side and can help them. Such factors are not as simple as they seem. For example, having new ideas is often associated with being young. But perhaps it is not the young people themselves who generate new ideas, but certain things that come with youth, such as physical health and lack of responsibility. Research into this area may find strategies that can help people of any age generate new ideas.
As you might expect, writing ability is also one of the factors that generate new ideas. There is a new type of idea that arises by writing a thesis or writing a book. "Passing" means being deliberate: you don't think about these ideas first and then just write them down. There is a way of thinking that arises through writing, and if you are not good at or don't like writing, you don't have to try this way of thinking, otherwise it will only hinder you.[4]
I predict that the gap between intelligence and new ideas will become an area worth exploring. If we just think that this gap is insurmountable, it will become a wasteland, and we will only look elsewhere and ignore this field. But if we leave this question behind us and begin to explore the other necessary factors that give rise to new ideas, we can dig out new discoveries about "new ideas" from this gap.
Comments
[1] Victory in a conversation depends on who you are talking to. It ranges from low-level pure aggression, to intermediate wit, to higher-level intelligence that is closer to actual intelligence, although there may always be some witty component in the higher-
[2] Just as intelligence is not the only factor in generating new ideas, so not is the only useful place where intelligence is generated. For example, it is also useful in judging problems and finding solutions, both of which have something in common with generating new ideas, but with different end results. The way in which intelligence is applied is much more common than the way new ideas are applied. And in these cases, intelligence is harder to distinguish from the results it produces.
[3] Some people attribute the difference between intelligence and having new ideas to "creativity," but the term doesn't seem to work much. Not only is it very vague, it deviates from what we care about: it can neither be discussed separately from intelligence, nor can it explain the difference between all intelligence and the generation of new ideas.
[4] Interestingly, this article is an example. It was originally an article about writing skills. But when it comes to the difference between intelligence and generating new ideas, I feel like this is more important, so I restructured the original article and made the original topic one of the main points of the article. As in other fields, this degree of rewriting is not so difficult once there is a lot of practice.
This article is authorized to be reproduced from Fat Fu Mantou.
About Alpha Commune
Alpha Startup Fund is China's leading early-stage investment fund, co-founded in 2015 by Xu Siqing, who led the company's NASDAQ-listed company, and Yameng Jiang, a former co-managing partner of Innovation Factory.
The three characteristics of the Alpha Commune Fund are systematic investment, social entrepreneur community operation and accelerated growth of heavy industrial resources. Focus on early investment in semiconductors, enterprise service software, artificial intelligence applications, Internet of Things technology, financial technology and other technological innovation fields. At present, it has invested in a large number of outstanding projects including Baishan Cloud Technology, Advance Intelligence Group, Zenlayer, Vernier Technology, and Sosi Technology in the angel round.
Alpha Commune won 36Kr "2017 Most Popular Angel Investment Institutions for Entrepreneurs", "2019 China's Most Popular LP Early Investment Institutions", "2019 China's Most Discoverable Investment Institutions in China's Enterprise Service Sector TOP10", "2020 China's Most Popular Early-Stage Investment Institutions TOP50", "2021 China's Most Popular LP-Recognized Early-stage Investment Institutions TOP30", "2021 China's Most Popular LP-Recognized Early-stage Investment Institutions TOP30", "2021 China's Most Popular LP-Recognized Early-stage Investment Institutions", "2021 China's Most Popular LP-recognized Early-stage Investment Institutions TOP30", "2021 China's Most Popular LP-Recognized Early-stage Investment Institutions TOP30", "2021 China's Most Popular LP-recognized Early-stage Investment Institutions", "2021 China's Most Popular LP-Recognized Early-stage Investment Institutions TOP30", "2021 China's Most Popular LP-Recognized Early-stage Investment Institutions TOP30", "20 2021 China's Most Popular Early-stage Institutions TOP50, 2021 China's Top 10 Cross-border Overseas Investment Institutions, etc.; "2020 EDGE TOP50 Investment Institutions" by Titanium Media; "2018 China Early Fund Best Return TOP30", "2019 China Early Fund Best Return TOP30", and Fund of Funds Weekly" 2020 Chinese Investment Institutions Soft Power GP100 Science and Technology Power Top10" and other awards.
Founding partner Xu Siqing won the 2020 "Forbes China Venture Capitalist 100", "2019 China's Best Early Investor TOP50", 36Kr "2018 China Enterprise Service Investor Top 10", "2019 Enterprise Service Investor TOP20" and other awards. Founding partner Jiang Yameng won the 2019 and 2021 "Forbes China Venture Capitalist 100" and 36Kr "2019 China Middle Generation Investor TOP50" awards.