7 Stupid Mistakes Smart People
Make
These are the most common
ways smart people sabotage their careers and their lives.
Being smart is a huge leg up in life, but it's not
a golden ticket. Intelligent people, despite their natural gifts, can, and
often do, end up stalled in their careers and unhappy in their personal lives
just like those of us with less lofty IQs. Why? That's what a recent poster to
question-and-answer site Quora wanted to know.
"What are some stupid things that
smart people do?"
this inquisitive person asked, spurring a fascinating collection of
entrepreneurs, techies, and students to offer their best insights into the most
common missteps made by smart folks. If you're the clever type, consider
yourself forewarned (and therefore forearmed to fight these errors).
1. Privileging thinking
over doing
"Smart
people love to think. It comes naturally to them, and they're good at
it," writes entrepreneur Chris Yeh in his thoughtful
answer. "But thinking only takes you so far, especially when you're trying
to make an impact on the world. At some point, you have to do. Research
and planning are great in moderation, but can offer the dangerous illusion of
progress. In the end, the only way to make a difference is to do something.
Start now."
2. Ignoring design and
aesthetics
If
you're an expert in a subject, it can be easy to forget that nonexperts are
often much less interested in the details than you are, and much more
interested in the overall feel of a thing.
"When the iPod originally came out,
technical people complained about its lack of features and perceived high price
offers
entrepreneur Lee Semel as an example. "In the meantime, it was
so cool and easy to use that normal people went out in droves to buy
it."
3. Showing excessive
respect to authority figures
OK, this isn't a mistake only smart people
make, but if you tend to respect the well-educated and intelligent-sounding, it
can be an easy trap to fall into. "Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram was
right, a lot of people (including smart
people) obey authority unquestionably, even if the results are detrimental," cautions
founder Arsne Hodali.
"Many
smart people often seem to be followers, probably because they grow up spending
so much time pleasing others via academic and extracurricular achievement that
they never figure out what they really like to work on or try anything
unique," adds Semel.
4. Underrating effort
Grit is often more important for success than raw talent, but because they have raw
talent, smart people sometimes fail to develop grit, warn several respondents.
"Smart people, who've had difficult concepts come to them easy early in
life, often struggle later on when tenacity and discipline become primary
qualities," claims software engineer Maurice Stephens.
Smart
people are "constantly praised for 'being smart' whenever they do anything
well," concurs Semel. "The danger is that they become so reliant
on feeling smart and having people praise them, that they avoid doing anything
that they're not immediately great at."
5. Being overconfident
Just
because you're smart in one area, doesn't mean you're smart about everything,
nor does it mean that you can take shortcuts. Many smart people make the
mistake of thinking it does, several people pointed out.
"One study published in the Journal
of Personality and Social Psychology gave logic problems to people to
solve and found that smart people tended to make more mistakes than those of
average intellect, because smart people were more likely to take shortcuts or
make assumptions due to overconfidence," reports student Sayan Chaudhuri.
"Smart
people sometimes think that just because they are expert in their field, they
are automatically qualified in areas about which they know
nothing," Semel claims. "For instance, doctors have a reputation
as being bad investors."
6. Always wanting to be
right
Being
right has its place, but so does being kind and being sane. Smart people aren't
always the best at picking their battles, according to Semel, who writes:
"Many smart people act as if being right trumps all else, and go around
bluntly letting people know when they are wrong, as if this will somehow endear
others to them. They also believe that they can change other people's minds
through argument and facts, ignoring how emotional and irrational people
actually are when it comes to making decisions or adopting beliefs."
"Many
smart people indulge a dangerous combination of ego and logic and behave as
though being right all the time is somehow endearing," agrees Chaudhuri.
7. Overvaluing education
Don't
let schooling interfere with your education, Mark Twain famously advised, but
according to a handful of respondents, smart people not only often make this
mistake but fail to even see the distinction. Software developer and
entrepreneur Tim Scott succinctly notes that smart people often "undervalue
experience," while Chaudhuri says that "a high academic pedigree can
make some people think that where someone got their college degree reflects how
smart they are." Obviously, often it does not.
Semel
puts it this way: "Smart people often use smartness as measure of the
entire worth of a person. They fail to see the value in or even relate with
people who are different."
BY JESSICA
STILLMAN
http://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/7-stupid-mistakes-smart-people-make.html
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