Surprising Downside of Being Smart (Why Intelligence Is Actually Holding You Back)

Much of our education system is aimed at producing “smarter” students — academically. We, as a society, all seem to firmly believe that the smarter a person is the more successful, the more well-off, and the more likely he/she is to have a fulfilling life.

So if that is the case, it makes complete sense to train and develop smarter students — but, we may have it wrong…

There are key disadvantages to being smart.

(and if you are one of those that fall in this “clever people” category, I don’t expect you to agree with any of what I say…I’ll explain why).

But before we jump straight into the weeds,

Let’s define “smart”?

-> There is academic intelligence, and,
-> There is social and emotional intelligence.

We are talking about the academic side here.

And this is typically (and traditionally) measured by how high your Intelligence Quotient is…

…or more commonly known as IQ.

The higher your IQ, the “smarter” your are.

Much of our education system is aimed at improving academic intelligence, and IQ is still the primary way of measuring cognitive abilities.

We spend millions on brain training and cognitive enhancers that try to improve those scores.

But what if this quest itself is a fool’s errand?

What if being smart isn’t really the end goal we should be trying to achieve?

Let’s me talk about Lewis Terman

In 1926, psychologist Lewis Terman put the IQ test to the test (hi5 for the play on words). He used it to identify and select a group of gifted children.

He wanted to pick out the best of the best.

He combed through California’s schools to hand pick 1,500 pupils with an IQ of 140 or more -

80 of whom had IQs above 170.

Together, they became known as the “Termites”.

His name Terman, hence Termites.

Awful, terrible, name. But interesting study.

And the highs and lows of the lives of these Termites are still being studied to this day.

Let’s get straight to the point. Here is a summary of the results:

1. Termites salary was double that of the average white-collar job, but a handful pushed this average right up,
2. Many achieved wealth, fame, and success (some easily recognisable names in there),
3. However, many pursued more “humble” professions which didn’t require any high levels of intellect, and digging deeper…
4. Their smarts didn’t endow personal happiness — the levels of divorce, alcoholism, and suicide were the same as the national average, and,
5. As they entered old age, their intellect lead to them being less fulfilled, as opposed to having a better view on life.

So being part of the elite in terms of IQ doesn’t perfectly correlate with success. And success here is in whichever way we choose to describe it.

Why is this?

Isn’t being smart and intelligent the master key to success in life?

Well, there are key glaring disadvantages to being smart. Most of us don’t seem to realise this, because, well, we are smart.

Smart people:

• Find it harder to see past their own flaws
• Are more likely to not take action
• Have a tendency to develop a fixed mindset, less grit

Let’s explain each. As it is quite important.

Can’t See Past Their Flaws (Cognitive Biases)

Here’s a situation.

Have you ever had an argument with a smart person about something so bizarre you walk away thinking….

“How can he possibly even believe that?”

Yet somehow,

You start to question whether you are the one that’s wrong? And maybe that smart person is actually onto something?

This is a common trait of smart people.

They are able to see the flaws and biases in other people,

BUT

They have their own mental blind spots which they create themselves. Purely because they have the capacity to have these deep internal narratives and develop logical arguments…

…that seem to make complete sense, but are flawed with layers of personal biases.

In simple terms -

Smart people get themselves into some obscure corner through deep conjecture in areas you probably haven’t ever considered (and ones that probably aren’t even relevant).

But they are able to tie it all together neatly and eloquently with complex layers of justification, because they are intelligent.

And only smart people can do this.

More Likely to Not Take Action (Analysis Paralysis)

Similar to being blind to your own flaws,

Smart people have a tendency to over-analyse situations to a point that — they just don’t take any action, AT ALL.

We’ve all heard of analysis paralysis, right?

Well it affects the clever and intelligent bunch more than anyone else.

I know many smart people who will look into a new idea or venture, and analyse the absolute daylights out of it, trying to plan for every single possibility.

And they do this because it seems to be the “smart” thing to do.

And what does it achieve?

1. They either start to focus on the holes in the idea, holes that are self-created,
2. They find there are too many areas that require more analysis (*facepalm*),
3. They realise there is a lot more work involved than previously suspected,
4. They chase their tail without actually taking any meaningful action at all, and,
5. Lo and behold — they lose interest.
6. …Repeat cycle.

And being a smart person, only they have the capacity to do this.

There Is More to Lose (Fixed Mindset)

Being smart is a big prestigious title to have next to your name.

And a weighty burden.

Imagine doing something that people label as stupid, and you lose this illustrious status.

OH NO!

Why would you take that risk?

It makes more sense to then try and maintain this title, instead of doing something to jeopardise it right?

This is an idea coined by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck — the fixed mindset and the growth mindset.

• Fixed mindset — people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them.
• Growth mindset — people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work. Brains and talent are just the starting point.

The growth mindset is a quality that virtually all successful people have, and studies have proven the effectiveness of teaching a growth mindset to students can have a profound impact.

* If you’re interested: Incredible talk on growth mindset.

Smart people fall into the trap of believing they are special.

Which leads to thinking they don’t need to work as hard, and the harder they work, the more they have to lose.

Breeding a fixed mindset.

HANG ON — So is the aim to not be smart?

That doesn’t make any sense -

Are we supposed to teach students to be less intelligent?

NO.

I hope you can see that intelligence is overrated, and that teaching purely to enhance one’s intelligence leads to several disadvantages.

This is a crucial first step. It requires a big change in our thinking.

BUT

There is something we can and should teach.

There are other measures, measures that we aren’t as aware of, that are more important.

These measures can lead us to more success professionally, personally, and provide a better toolkit to a more fulfilling life.

Along with IQ — it is important to consider

EQ (emotional intelligence),

MQ (moral intelligence), and

BQ (body intelligence).

All fancy terms and measures for one key thing…

BEING MORE AWARE.

Aware of what?

Aware of your mind, aware of your behaviours, aware of your body, and aware of your own downfalls.

There is a previous post I’ve written that goes into great detail on just this — link below — if you’re interested.

Previous article that explains it all.

So, even if you did receive the best academic training from a top university.

A person with less education who has fully developed these other aspects can be far more successful than a person with impressive intelligence who falls short in these other categories.

** I understand there is a problem here though

I realise this post will only reach smart people.

The ones that fall in the higher intelligence category.

So,

As you read this you’ve probably already created a bulletproof argument through clear and articulate mental narrative that disputes everything I’ve written.

Your argument, I can imagine, is strong enough to back up what I’m saying must be incorrect, or has flawed logic.

Maybe some of you will become aware of this. Some, may not.

Hey, well, at least I tried?

Jasky Singh — Director (K2 Audiovisual)