5 ms·

You Can't Be Effective When You're Too Smart For Your Own Good

22 points by adam 14y ago

debacle 14y ago
When it doesn't matter, I mostly agree - keep your mouth shut and give people the benefit of the doubt. When it does matter, try your best to be the only one in the room.
typicalrunt 14y ago
The article has a lot of good points, I'll give it that. What rubs me the wrong way however, is that the smart person is lowering herself to the level of the people in the room. For me, this is akin to in high school when the English teacher would tell you to write at an 8th grade level (the average reading level of an audience) when writing an essay for mass consumption. Completely aware of the elitism in the last statement, I have trouble with constantly dumbing down anything when what I really want to do is help to raise people to my level of thinking.
- debacle 14y ago
  You can't get ANYTHING done if you're the smartest person in the room and everyone knows it. I do feel the same way you do, and I love not being the smartest person in the room, but sometimes you need to take a back seat approach.
- aroberge 14y ago
  Communicating effectively is a skill that can be acquired if you are smart enough. If you feel you have to constantly dumd down stuff, then it is likely a sign that you are not as smart as you think. Think back to your best teachers: they likely knew a heck of a lot more than you did on the topic, but they likely found a way to make it clear and engaging.
deedubaya 14y ago
"Don't encourage others to catch up to you, slow yourself down to their pace." Fuck that. I've been doing that all my life, and it leaves me unsatisfied. How about, "Surround yourself with other smart people and change the world."
bking 14y ago
I just keep my mouth shut and do everything while they all finally figure out what I knew, I have the solution done a lot faster, and I look better for it. There is no need to and try to be bossy and push someone into an answer if they aren't ready. Just have the solution done for when they realise it.
ZoFreX 14y ago
This article reads to me like a guide to faking it, when really you should actually be doing all the things suggested, not for the sake of not pissing people off, but because they are smart things to do! I think if you ignore people that you view as less smart than you, don't believe that good ideas can come from anyone, don't listen to other people, are mean, speak up too often, speak too forthrightly, don't attempt to use other people's strengths, and underestimate people, then you are not the smartest person in the room, you are one of the dumbest, albeit with the largest ego.
- cema 14y ago
  I absolutely agree. And I want to add that IQ and smartness are not the same thing (although there is a positive correlation which sometimes confuses people).
boris007 14y ago
This article is ridiculous. Damn right you should be yourself, at 100% volume, always.
gadders 14y ago
tl;dr version: Don't be a dick.
dkroy 14y ago
This should be titled, "How To Be Effective When You Have Too Large of An Ego For Your Own Good". The biggest issue that I have noticed from people that act like this have an ego problem, not an intelligence problem. The people that I am most impressed with are the ones that have the patience to work with a team of all skill levels.
rubidium 14y ago
Let me try and make the point that this article should have made. Being smart and being wise are two different things. Intelligence/smarts is like CPU speed. How quickly you can pull in new information, process it, and spit out an answer. Wisdom, however, can be much slower. It ferments, cooks, and mixes information and experience. It's a slow process and pretty much all people are capable of it (to different degrees). Often, smart people dismiss those who take longer to process things because they think it's about processing speed. That's a big mistake to make.
- gadders 14y ago
  Or, to take your computer analogy, having a super fast CPU is no good if you can't interface with other parts of the system. It's very rare in any setting where people can achieve stuff on their own. You may have a brain the size of a planet, but at some stage you will need to work through other people, or get their help to realise an objective. Having social skills and good manners, as well as a big brain, will help with this.
F_J_H 14y ago
I read this article and immediately thought: "Cue the variations of 'I know! It's so hard when I have to wait for other to catch up!' comments." I was not disappointed. I'm reminded of the Oscar Levant quote: What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left. Probably more annoying than the "smartest person in the room" is the person who thinks he is the smartest person in the room...
- georgemcbay 14y ago
  The most annoying IMO is the guy in the room who really is smart, but is not (yet) wise. I've run into this with young-20-something programmers who really are exceptionally bright but lack the perspective of real world experience. These people can be insufferable when they are sure they are right and think everyone who is trying to temper their cocksureness is just being negative.
  - ChuckMcM 14y ago
    Or is too old to 'get it.'
eranation 14y ago
It's all about emotional intelligence, the problem is that there are no really good tutorials...
ChuckMcM 14y ago
Very very hard lesson: "You can be 100% right and 0% effective."

22 points by adam 14y ago

When it doesn't matter, I mostly agree - keep your mouth shut and give people the benefit of the doubt. When it does matter, try your best to be the only one in the room.

typicalrunt 14y ago

The article has a lot of good points, I'll give it that. What rubs me the wrong way however, is that the smart person is lowering herself to the level of the people in the room. For me, this is akin to in high school when the English teacher would tell you to write at an 8th grade level (the average reading level of an audience) when writing an essay for mass consumption. Completely aware of the elitism in the last statement, I have trouble with constantly dumbing down anything when what I really want to do is help to raise people to my level of thinking.

debacle 14y ago
You can't get ANYTHING done if you're the smartest person in the room and everyone knows it. I do feel the same way you do, and I love not being the smartest person in the room, but sometimes you need to take a back seat approach.
aroberge 14y ago
Communicating effectively is a skill that can be acquired if you are smart enough. If you feel you have to constantly dumd down stuff, then it is likely a sign that you are not as smart as you think. Think back to your best teachers: they likely knew a heck of a lot more than you did on the topic, but they likely found a way to make it clear and engaging.

deedubaya 14y ago

"Don't encourage others to catch up to you, slow yourself down to their pace." Fuck that. I've been doing that all my life, and it leaves me unsatisfied. How about, "Surround yourself with other smart people and change the world."

bking 14y ago

I just keep my mouth shut and do everything while they all finally figure out what I knew, I have the solution done a lot faster, and I look better for it. There is no need to and try to be bossy and push someone into an answer if they aren't ready. Just have the solution done for when they realise it.

ZoFreX 14y ago

This article reads to me like a guide to faking it, when really you should actually be doing all the things suggested, not for the sake of not pissing people off, but because they are smart things to do! I think if you ignore people that you view as less smart than you, don't believe that good ideas can come from anyone, don't listen to other people, are mean, speak up too often, speak too forthrightly, don't attempt to use other people's strengths, and underestimate people, then you are not the smartest person in the room, you are one of the dumbest, albeit with the largest ego.

cema 14y ago
I absolutely agree. And I want to add that IQ and smartness are not the same thing (although there is a positive correlation which sometimes confuses people).

boris007 14y ago

This article is ridiculous. Damn right you should be yourself, at 100% volume, always.

gadders 14y ago

tl;dr version: Don't be a dick.

dkroy 14y ago

This should be titled, "How To Be Effective When You Have Too Large of An Ego For Your Own Good". The biggest issue that I have noticed from people that act like this have an ego problem, not an intelligence problem. The people that I am most impressed with are the ones that have the patience to work with a team of all skill levels.

rubidium 14y ago

Let me try and make the point that this article should have made. Being smart and being wise are two different things. Intelligence/smarts is like CPU speed. How quickly you can pull in new information, process it, and spit out an answer. Wisdom, however, can be much slower. It ferments, cooks, and mixes information and experience. It's a slow process and pretty much all people are capable of it (to different degrees). Often, smart people dismiss those who take longer to process things because they think it's about processing speed. That's a big mistake to make.

gadders 14y ago
Or, to take your computer analogy, having a super fast CPU is no good if you can't interface with other parts of the system. It's very rare in any setting where people can achieve stuff on their own. You may have a brain the size of a planet, but at some stage you will need to work through other people, or get their help to realise an objective. Having social skills and good manners, as well as a big brain, will help with this.

F_J_H 14y ago

I read this article and immediately thought: "Cue the variations of 'I know! It's so hard when I have to wait for other to catch up!' comments." I was not disappointed. I'm reminded of the Oscar Levant quote: What the world needs is more geniuses with humility, there are so few of us left. Probably more annoying than the "smartest person in the room" is the person who thinks he is the smartest person in the room...

georgemcbay 14y ago
The most annoying IMO is the guy in the room who really is smart, but is not (yet) wise. I've run into this with young-20-something programmers who really are exceptionally bright but lack the perspective of real world experience. These people can be insufferable when they are sure they are right and think everyone who is trying to temper their cocksureness is just being negative.
- ChuckMcM 14y ago
  Or is too old to 'get it.'

eranation 14y ago

It's all about emotional intelligence, the problem is that there are no really good tutorials...

ChuckMcM 14y ago

Very very hard lesson: "You can be 100% right and 0% effective."