Don't Be So Smart

Dan Pink:

The older I get, the more I realize how stupid it is to be, try to be, or think you are the smartest person in the room. Now comes a bit of empirical proof.

Here’s a short audio op-ed from social psychologist Robert Cialdini, co-author of the outstanding new book Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive, about the dangers of having too much faith (real or delusional) in one’s own intelligence.

“If you’re the brightest person in the room,” James Watson, who (along with Francis Crick) discovered the structure of DNA, ”then you’re in trouble.”

I've read Cialdini's book Influence years ago and it was superb. I expect Yes! to also be very good.

Listen to the audio-clip. It is is both thought-provoking and encouraging.

See my previous post: What Is IQ?