Comment by ThrustVectoring
11 years ago
I'd generalize your point a little more - for a given level of life success, intelligence will anti-correlate with other hire-ability skills like work ethic, diligence, attendance, emotional stability, professionalism, etc.
Basically, imagine that there's two ways to graduate college with a CS degree - you're either the kind of person who's smart enough to get things if you work your ass off for them, or you're a genius and you coast through. If you're a genius and you work your ass off, you get a doctorate or found a startup, and aren't in the candidate pool. So you wind up with a choice about what to compromise on: work ethic, or smarts.
Ideally, you compromise on whatever makes the least difference to your organization, compared to your competitors. Hiring smart/motivated people out of non-traditional backgrounds is a great option for this.
You hardly need to be a genius to get through a CS degree without 'working your ass off'
When you attack the hypothetical like that, you're generally missing the point. Assume a more inconvenient hypothetical - say, a CS degree from MIT.