How to Identify a Pseudo-Smart Person
4 things truly intelligent people never do
Over my career as a copywriter, I’ve interviewed dozens of top performers. I’ve been privileged to have genuine, deep 1-on-1 conversations with heads of multi-million dollar businesses. These are aggressively smart people, who make me feel humbled just by their presence.
It’s comical how different these people are from my peers. Many of my acquaintances feel extremely smart. They have zero achievements to back up their ego. Even when every piece of evidence shows that they’re not so smart, they find a smart reason why the world is wrong and they’re right.
That’s not how top performers think. Here are four things I noticed truly smart people never do.
1. They don’t overthink
Instead, they test things with brutal immediacy.
Ironically, a hallmark trait of highly intelligent people is humility. Intelligence is a by-product of experience and knowledge, and smart people are painfully aware of the things they don’t know or can’t do.
When you think about it, overthinking is just a state of inflated ego. You think that you can ‘think up’ an answer to your problem. You think that you’re smart enough to solve a problem just in your head.
