[dropcap]I[/dropcap]t’s good to be smart. After all, intelligent people earn more money, accumulate more wealth, live longer and if they are men, attract more women. However, intelligent people have a reputation for making dumb mistakes, especially in situations that require common sense.
In a post, Travis Bradberry, president at TalentSmart, a human resource consultancy, states that the scariest thing about the errors that highly intelligent people make is how unaware they are of them.
“People of all levels of intelligence succumb to what’s called the “bias blind spot.” That is, we’re great at spotting other people’s mistakes and terrible at recognizing our own. The sillier the mistake, the harder it is for an intelligent person to accept that they’ve made it,” says Bradberry.
Below are the five major characteristics of smart people that push them to make stupid mistakes in life:
They do not work hard for their money
Smart guys work smart; hence their income comes easy and in bulk. They do not feel the pain their money comes with; hence they have no difficulty in spending. This is evident on the suspected hacker, Alex Mutuku who spent lavishly despite having no job on record and even bragged on social media on how rich he was. His income is suspected to be earned from a ‘click and wait’ means. He might have engaged in a lot of work to design hacking programmes, but eventually the earnings are not equal the task, they often are more.
“Smart people develop overachieving personalities because things come so easily to them. They simply don’t understand how hard some people have to work to accomplish the same things,” says Mr Bradberry of TalentSmart.
Egocentrism
According to Simply Psychology, egocentrism refers to a person’s inability to see a situation from another person’s point of view. An egocentric person assumes that other people see, hear, and feel exactly the same they do.
They believe that the world revolves around them, their feelings and decisions.
The Guardian states that most intelligent people make mental short cuts all the time. One of the most powerful is self-serving bias: we tend to think we are better than others. Most people think they are above average drivers.
“Smart people tend to undervalue the opinions of others, which means they have trouble believing that anyone is qualified to give them useful feedback,” Bradberry wrote. “Not only does this tendency hinder their growth and performance, it can lead to toxic relationships, both personally and professionally.”
Smart people are overconfident
Smart people believe so much in themselves that sometimes they forget the consequences of their actions and the life they choose. In most case, they do not think twice before embarking on an activity, because everything is normal to them, and they shall succeed anyway. This can be fatal as they fall in to unseen ditch for lack of a second thought.
Mr Bradberry, states that smart people are used to being congratulated for their surprise actions hence they will rarely consult in anything.
“A lifetime of praise and pats on the back leads smart people to develop an unflappable faith in their intelligence and abilities,” Bradberry wrote. “Smart people often fail to recognise when they need help, and when they do recognise it, they tend to believe that no one else is capable of providing it.”
Omniscience
It is a belief that one knows more than they actually do, or knows all they need to know. This in most times blinds the smart people. Sometimes they have little knowledge, which endangers their action, and professionalism.
Bradberry says that it’s harder for smart people to take advice because they grow so used to being right all the time that it becomes a part of their identity.
Invulnerability
Sometimes it can be termed as arrogance. One’s intelligence makes them invulnerable to criticism or attack. For smart people, being wrong can feel like a personal attack, and being right, a necessity.
Smart people have a tendency of feeling that people envy them, and they want to bring them down at all costs. They are therefore defensive and cannot take in any criticism.
Do you agree with this analysis? Scroll down and share your views and examples.
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