From: James Higgins (jameshiggins@earthlink.net)
Date: Tue Jun 25 2002 - 21:34:49 MDT
At 08:41 PM 6/25/2002 -0600, Ben Goertzel wrote:
>James Higgins:
> >I'm
> > quite certain that there are people who display that much raw ego who are
> > 100% correct, I just haven't personally met one yet. On the
> > other hand the
> > few truly brilliant people I have met constantly question themselves and
> > rarely, if ever, display much ego.
>
>This seems to vary according to social subgroup, actually....
>
>In academia, a certain sort of modesty is the norm. Though there is plenty
>of egoism, it's generally muted in expression. This conservatism of
>expression goes along with a more fundamental conservatism in research
>method. Ambitious projects like Novamente are considered "borderline"
>because of their excessively broad goals. Works like CFAI or "Staring into
>the Singularity" (which combine ungrounded speculation with an obvious
>attitude of self-importance on the part of the author) are perceived as
>frivolous at best or crackpottish at worst.
I was (hopefully) obviously referring to the spectrum of Software
Development. I would expect Wall Street Traders, Salesmen and the like to
have huge, massive egos. I've dealt with enough good salesmen to know this
is the norm. The interesting part is that I have little actual experience
with academia vs experience in industry. Maybe we just do things
differently out here in Arizona. ;) Makes me wonder if I should try to
get more involved with Academia. Then again ASU isn't exactly a stellar
model for Computer Science (it is, after all, one of the nations top party
schools!). :(
James Higgins
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