It's a point I didn't flesh out too much in the original comment but if you're the smartest person in the room and that "room" has sufficient autonomy, I think

It's a point I didn't flesh out too much in the original comment but if you're the smartest person in the room and that "room" has sufficient autonomy, I think you can focus on pushing the boundaries of what you do. Usually the kind of departments/companies/institutions that let you do that are R&D-focused but I think it's possible to be the smartest person in the room and still learn, it's just going to be self directed and you're going to need a lot of autonomy to do it.