A More Realistic Fred And Ginger Problem
 

Fred is quick to grasp all mathematical concepts. Give him a bunch of well written math books in the proper order and he can zip through them with full understanding.

Ginger can't do this nearly as well. She struggles with certain types of concepts and occasionally needs some tutoring. But unlike Fred, she sometimes does more than merely understand. She anticipates what will be said. She often can derive the proof of a concept first mentioned before she actually reads that proof. She realized completing the square yields the quadratic equation. That repeating fractions proves that the harmonic series diverges. She figured out Euclids's proof for primes before reading about it. And that if a calling frequency does equally well if he always bluffs or never bluffs it will do the same no matter how often he bluffs. As she gets into higher math she continues to anticipate and come up with proofs before she reads them.

But unlike Fred she hits roadblocks. Explanations do not always come easy to her. And she would take three times as long to learn the stuff that Fred learned. And would not score as well on many tests.

Does her extra creativity mean that she is smarter?

Re: A More Realistic Fred And Ginger Problem
 

this of course totally depends on your definition of smarter.

Re: A More Realistic Fred And Ginger Problem
 

I have never met anyone like Ginger, so I'm sceptical if its possible she exists. I can't see how she would struggle with concepts and be able to anticipate proofs: they seem like such closely linked attributes of the same type of intelligence to me.

Perhaps I am not thinking about it correctly as it applies to maths though - would it be like a snooker player who can always make a specified shot with 100% acccuracy, but can't always see the correct play, so isn't as good a player?

Re: A More Realistic Fred And Ginger Problem
 

Ginger's smarter and it's not close.

Given time, Ginger should be able to understand almost anything. She won't have the breadth of understanding that Fred does, but she will have the same depth of understanding. Only she goes one step further - she'll come up with new understanding. Because she's also conversant on the old understanding, she will be able to use her insights effectively (which the other version Ginger could not do because of her handicap).

Ginger will also perform tasks solidly after learning the relevant concepts and when to apply them, but her occasional flashes of insight will lead to significantly better performance at most tasks. This benefit should eventually make up for the cost of spending more time learning.

Obviously Fred will do well for himself, and he may appear smarter while he's young, but eventually Ginger will overtake him as her insights become more relevant. Ginger will be the one who makes history.

Re: A More Realistic Fred And Ginger Problem
 

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Does her extra creativity mean that she is smarter?

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Maybe. It certainly means that she is more likely to accomplish something of significance one day.

Re: A More Realistic Fred And Ginger Problem
 

'Smarter' (to me at least) is too crude a distinguisher. Instead, I would say that:

Fred is likely to have a good career as a stockbroker, quantitative analyst, or some other such post in a place like a bank or financial services company

Ginger is likely to have a good career as a professor of mathematics at a university.

Fred would be terrible at Gingers career, and Ginger would suck at Freds.

Re: A More Realistic Fred And Ginger Problem
 

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I'm skeptical if it's possible [that someone like Ginger] exists.

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Re: A More Realistic Fred And Ginger Problem
 

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[ QUOTE ]
I'm skeptical if it's possible [that someone like Ginger] exists.

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Sklansky may be phrasing it poorly, but if you look at less extreme examples it's perfectly valid. Skill at manipulation and understanding the derivations of others is one sort of power, and creativity and innovativeness is another. Many of the guys who are good that I know don't suck at the first, but the second arena is where they shine.

Re: A More Realistic Fred And Ginger Problem
 

this is a paradox because on the surface Fred would appear to be smarter. As an individual unit he may be smarter, but because of her "out of the box" mental capabilities Ginger is more important to the group because she can make discoveries that help the group advance.

Maybe there is more than 1 type of intelligence or different types of intelligence suit different purposes.

Re: A More Realistic Fred And Ginger Problem
 

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Does her extra creativity mean that she is smarter?


[/ QUOTE ] Of course