<story><title>What I&apos;ve Learned About Smart People.</title><url>http://tmac721.tumblr.com/post/17500383225/what-ive-learned-about-smart-people</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>espeed</author><text>Humility is the key to understanding, but hubris often prevents people from growing because they believe their understanding is right from the beginning.&lt;p&gt;For a while I have understood that people see the world in fundamentally different ways, but about two years ago I had an epiphany that really crystallized it for me. Now I see people existing in either one of two camps:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  1. Those who believe the world is the way they see it.
  2. Those who realize how limited their perspective is.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
Alan Kay (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/alan_kay_shares_a_powerful_idea_about_ideas.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/alan_kay_shares_a_powerful...&lt;/a&gt;) has a developed a similar view. He often quotes the Talmud saying, &quot;We see things not as they are, but as we are.” And he often says, &quot;We can&apos;t learn to see until we admit we are blind&quot;.&lt;p&gt;When Jim Collins was doing his research for &quot;How the Mighty Fall&quot;, he identified hubris as being the first stage of decline for great enterprises (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10565&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10565&lt;/a&gt;). This is the concept of &quot;pride goes before the fall,&quot; and I believe one of the reasons for this is because we stop asking questions and begin to &quot;lean on our own understanding.&quot;&lt;p&gt;We become complacent with our picture of the world and continue on whatever trajectory we were on when we stopped recalibrating. Unless we were right from the start (which almost never happens in a dynamically changing world), we&apos;ll veer farther off course.&lt;p&gt;A better way to go is to constantly be asking questions -- continually adding to your perspective, refining it, and recalibrating your path based on what you learn. As the saying goes, &quot;you don&apos;t know what you don&apos;t know&quot;.&lt;p&gt;This seems so simple, but admitting you don&apos;t know everything and continually asking questions requires humility.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>itmag</author><text>Some things that hammered home this understanding for me (in order of reputability): LessWrong.com, Myers-Briggs Type Indicators, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, PUA.&lt;p&gt;These days, I mostly understand that there are always many perspectives and try to see wisdom as the art of picking between perspectives. But sometimes I get stuck in my old ways and search in vain for the &quot;right&quot; opinion/perspective/paradigm/whatever. This no-one-true-perspective meta-perspective means that life experience and hard-earned wisdom become much more important factors for the good life.</text></comment>
<story><title>What I&apos;ve Learned About Smart People.</title><url>http://tmac721.tumblr.com/post/17500383225/what-ive-learned-about-smart-people</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>espeed</author><text>Humility is the key to understanding, but hubris often prevents people from growing because they believe their understanding is right from the beginning.&lt;p&gt;For a while I have understood that people see the world in fundamentally different ways, but about two years ago I had an epiphany that really crystallized it for me. Now I see people existing in either one of two camps:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  1. Those who believe the world is the way they see it.
  2. Those who realize how limited their perspective is.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
Alan Kay (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/alan_kay_shares_a_powerful_idea_about_ideas.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/alan_kay_shares_a_powerful...&lt;/a&gt;) has a developed a similar view. He often quotes the Talmud saying, &quot;We see things not as they are, but as we are.” And he often says, &quot;We can&apos;t learn to see until we admit we are blind&quot;.&lt;p&gt;When Jim Collins was doing his research for &quot;How the Mighty Fall&quot;, he identified hubris as being the first stage of decline for great enterprises (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10565&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10565&lt;/a&gt;). This is the concept of &quot;pride goes before the fall,&quot; and I believe one of the reasons for this is because we stop asking questions and begin to &quot;lean on our own understanding.&quot;&lt;p&gt;We become complacent with our picture of the world and continue on whatever trajectory we were on when we stopped recalibrating. Unless we were right from the start (which almost never happens in a dynamically changing world), we&apos;ll veer farther off course.&lt;p&gt;A better way to go is to constantly be asking questions -- continually adding to your perspective, refining it, and recalibrating your path based on what you learn. As the saying goes, &quot;you don&apos;t know what you don&apos;t know&quot;.&lt;p&gt;This seems so simple, but admitting you don&apos;t know everything and continually asking questions requires humility.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JesseAldridge</author><text>I remember having a similar realization.&lt;p&gt;When most people say that something is true, they don&apos;t mean, &quot;I think that&apos;s an accurate reflection of reality.&quot; -- what they really mean is, &quot;It is in my interest to accept that as true.&quot;&lt;p&gt;A lot of things made sense after that.</text></comment>