Looking the part, and photos

[flexagon]

Stumbled across this in a document of "paradoxes", under the name Taleb Surgeon Paradox:

Looking the part is sometimes the worst indicator of competency. The one who doesn’t look the part has had to overcome much more to achieve its status than the one from central casting. If forced to choose, choose the one that doesn’t look the part.

Doesn't seem too paradoxical to me. Right in line with the suggestion that you order something plain-sounding from the menu of an elaborate restaurant, as it must deserve to be there. I think I found the Medium article it's from and there are a few more truth bombs in there, like "You can tell if a discipline is BS if the degree depends severely on the prestige of the school granting it." (Also, "people who didn't go to Harvard are easier to deal with in real life" -- ahahahaha.)

All my photos are sorted now. I found an old one of my cousin as a baby that she wants, and am also now sending a passel o' pics to a childhood friend along with a note thanking her for being in my childhood. So at least a couple of people are getting joy out of this exercise.

Comments

[wotw]

Point taken re the analogy with menu items.

But in the other direction: When college students rate their professors, the most physically attractive professors consistently get the highest ratings. This is often cited as evidence that college students are shallow. I've long argued that it's in fact evidence that college students are perceptive. That's because physically attractive people are in demand for a *lot* of things (movie star and fashion model come to mind, but also anything in retail, for example) --- so those who chose teaching are likely to have given up a lot of other opportunities in order to teach, and hence are likely to be passionate about teaching --- and consequently better at teaching. A more ordinary looking teacher is maybe a teacher only because it was the best of a bad lot of options.

So the people getting the highest ratings are precisely the people I expect to be the best teachers.

Likewise, the surgeon who projects sophistication and competence is likely to have projected the same sophistication and competence in, say, a corporate boardroom --- so is likely to be a surgeon by choice, not by necessity. I might therefore be more likely to trust that surgeon.

Not to mention the fact that I figure the surgeon who takes the time to comb his or her hair is more likely to be the surgeon who takes the time to cut me open judiciously ....