"For a couple of years I've been fascinated with the idea that as intelligent people many of us are drawn to activities and consumption that makes us look more

"For a couple of years I've been fascinated with the idea that as intelligent people many of us are drawn to activities and consumption that makes us look more intelligent, whether or not we actually learn anything of value from them or not." This is a very interesting thought. I suppose to some extent that effect is due to there being fewer checks of your ability once you reach a high level of competence in something, simply because there are fewer people who have the ability to do that. One way to mitigate that could be to learn entirely new things that you don't think you have an 'aptitude' for. When you start something really new to you, and later begin to publish stuff made with those new skills, there's a huge number of people who will analyse your work critically.