Intelligent People Have More Doubts

No one who is silly realizes that he is silly. Sillyness makes you act unbearably and like a besserwisser. You overestimate yourself because you are arrogant and think you know everything. Intelligent people have more doubts about things. They are more insecure and have a more humble perspective on things, because they know that nothing in the world is given.

Bertrand Russel once said that the problem in life is that stupid people are often more confident, while the smartest have more doubts. It would also explain why it is not always the smartest or most well-educated people who are successful.

Many of the most important positions in society are held by extremely incompetent people, the types who are not very good at anything other than driving with others.

The BBC made a documentary on the subject called The Problem With Smart People. There was one specific thing that stood out: mediocre people are often the most successful in society because they have full confidence in their limited knowledge.

They know how to “sell” themselves. Silly people are masters at getting attention. In the modern business world, everyone needs to know how to sell themselves. Just look at the social network LinkedIn; if you go through people’s profiles you will notice how many CVs say that “I am an expert in…”

But then we have intelligent people. They often do not even feel comfortable talking about themselves. They do not see themselves as experts. They do not have the same stable self-confidence that silly people have because they focus on what they do not know.

In 2012, McArthur Wheeler planned the biggest event of his life. He was going to rob Pittsburgh Bank, and he even had a secret recipe for it: lemon juice. When he entered the building with his bag, ready to take the money out of the vault, something went wrong. He did not know why; he was insane. “I would be invisible,” he repeated.

It was not long before the story spread around the world. McArthur Wheeler was sure he would be invisible if he put lemon juice on his face. That’s how he planned to get away with the robbery.

Errol Morris – the journalist who covered the case and interviewed Wheeler – almost admired how convinced he was that it would work. However, it was not a mental illness that made him believe it. What really made him think it would work was his confidence and self-confidence.

His stupidity, the journalist said, was what prevented him from seeing his own stupidity. This story is also an example of something called the Dunning-Kruger effect.

It is a cognitive bias where people with low ability have a false sense of superiority and see themselves as more intelligent than others. Of course, they come to the wrong conclusions and make bad decisions, but their incompetence makes it impossible for them to see it.

Intelligent people have more doubts. They doubt everything: what is going on around them, what is affecting them, what other people are saying and even what they are thinking. On the one hand, this can be very helpful as they accumulate more knowledge.

But it can also be a disadvantage, as they have a harder time making concrete decisions. We all also know that the most important thing in today’s world seems to be to be able to react quickly. We do not give ourselves time to reflect on things because we go from analysis to action in no time.

Charles Darwin actually talked about this in his book Man’s Derivation and Gender Selection. He complained that people asked for immediate answers to all the questions raised by his theories. But knowledge requires time and high precision. One cannot reach the truth in a day or two; sometimes it takes a lifetime.

But something else we all know is that today we can not wait our whole lives to end up in position. A career will not wait. If you think about it, you probably know brilliant people who have not reached their goals. Keep in mind when exceptional people get caught up in individuals who are obviously incompetent.

So if intelligent people have more doubts, what is the key to dealing with it? To have no more doubts? Not at all. What is required is that they refocus the way they look at things.

• Never underestimate yourself: smart people should be aware of their abilities and trust them. They often look at other people and notice qualities they do not possess (determination, outgoingness, charisma, social intimacy). But there is no need for it. What they should do instead is learn to measure themselves and appreciate their own amazing qualities.
• Have determination: because intelligent people have more doubts, they must learn to direct their complex and sometimes chaotic thoughts. They must combine thinking with determination.
• Find a place for your talents when the time is right. Sometimes intelligent people are even extremely pessimistic. They feel that it is almost impossible to find a place where they can develop and show their true potential. It makes them frustrated, lowers their self-esteem and sometimes leads to conformism. But instead of giving up, they must remain alert. It is important to be receptive to opportunities and be ready to take action when they arise.

Perseverance and determination are the best friends of an intelligent person who has not found room to grow. So if you add a little wisdom, you will have the perfect combination to beat mediocrity and opportunists who have no true talent.