My Two-Cents: The Smartest Person in the Room
Never be the smartest person in the room.
Someone said this to me the other day, and my first response was what the fuck, I love being the smartest person in the room! I have an unnaturally large ego. However, I think a little Girl-Interrupted Syndrome never killed anyone. If you don’t think there’s anything idiosyncratic and special about yourself, how is anyone else going to? Having an ego isn’t a sin, as long as you and the people around you keep it in check. Anyways, back to my ego – nothing feeds its atrocious appetite more than being the smartest person in the room. Nothing. That’s why this piece of advice tasted so god-awful to me at first bite. But then I took a second to really choke down this euphemism in all its glory. Hmmm. *Chewing sound*
If you are the smartest person in the room, it means there is nothing in that room you could possibly learn. Nothing that will make you better. Only false praise that will pad your ego. And though false praise can be nice, it is exactly what it sounds like: false.
(And what’s wrong with that? Thought the little devil sitting on my shoulder.)
False praise, like most false things, has a way of catching up with us. If you are always the smartest person in the room, eventually everyone in that room will not only catch up with you – they might also surpass you. If anything, the best thing you can do for yourself is to be the stupidest person in the room. Because that way, you have the most to learn. If wit was measured by the amount of opportunity you set yourself up for, then by being the stupidest person in the room – maybe you are actually the most intelligent. (And I like the sound of that).
This advice might be the most insightful thing I’ve heard in a while. Besides the advice my mom gave me the other day not to spend my extra loan checks on Chick-fil-A – because in 10 years with interest, that’ll turn into one DAMN expensive chicken sandwich. But anyways, I figure I should start setting myself up to be stupid more often. Go places where I look like the village idiot. And no, I’m not talking about the Char Bar in Vermillion – I will always act like the village idiot as soon as I walk into that establishment, for better or for worse. What I’m getting at is going to places that question the previous intellectual authority I thought I had. Going places where you can ask questions you honestly don’t know. But where you know someone else will have the answer. And even more daring, choosing not to act like you know the answer. Being brave in your stupidity. Because the only thing truly stupid is failing to get ahead by being unable to acknowledge that we might be the one behind in the room. That and being a Minnesota Sports fan. That is also fucking stupid.
Sincerely, Kate
P.S. -- if you read my blog and enjoy it (or hate it) and have something to say about it, email me! --> kthorstenson12@gmail.com
