The thesis is that these “elites” were not the generic suits that the author expected, but > Even so, these people of the Power Elite were visibly much smarter

The thesis is that these “elites” were not the generic suits that the author expected, but > Even so, these people of the Power Elite were visibly much smarter than average mortals. In conversation they spoke quickly, sensibly, and by and large intelligently. When talk turned to deep and difficult topics, they understood faster, made fewer mistakes, were readier to adopt others' suggestions. > No, even worse than that, much worse than that: these CEOs and CTOs and hedge-fund traders, these folk of the mid-level power elite, seemed happier and more alive. In my view, all this data is still consistent with being a generic suit, maybe under the “yuppie” subset Appearing competent, engaged, happy, and intelligent is different from actually being. I’ve worked directly with executives (technical founders) who prides themselves on being able to dive in and diagnose issues, acting like they’re the best engineer in the room but only hiring people because they’re too busy doing executive things to continue building the product by themselves. And you know what? Those people will seem really intelligent until you come in one day, learn that they pushed a change to prod at 2 am, and it caused a ton of damage because they know nothing about engineering practices, and then half the team wastes a week trying to fix things without hurting the executives’ ego.