Beyond Smart
Another way to frame this topic: intelligence doesn&#x27;t always lead to impact, and impact is what matters.<p>Example: I met a ton of trivia &quot;nerds&quot; through a friend a few years ago. They had all met at an Ivy League college, they were clearly &quot;smart&quot; in that they knew a lot of information and could follow a logical argument <i>but</i> somehow none of them were able to use their smarts for anything practical. They had jobs you didn&#x27;t need to be that smart for, and their personal lives were sort of messy. I didn&#x27;t really know what to make it them at the time, now I think they had the &quot;smarts&quot; but they didn&#x27;t have the &quot;drive&quot; so their brains sort of did them no good.<p>Another example: Plenty of people are constantly frustrated that they are misunderstood. &quot;I am so smart but I can&#x27;t get anything done around here because everyone&#x27;s an idiot.&quot; Some people go through their whole life believing this. Luckily I had a job that disabused me of this and taught me to communicate my ideas clearly and persuasively to others. But without that, without the ability to persuade people of your ideas, you might as well not have them.