Don’t Surround Yourself With Smarter People

There is an idea that I have been guilty of uncritically parroting and promoting in the past: surround yourself with smarter people. Another popular version is never be the smartest guy in the room…

There is an idea that I have been guilty of uncritically parroting and promoting in the past: surround yourself with smarter people. Another popular version is never be the smartest guy in the room. Discuss with vgr_zirp → Beneath the humblebragging in both versions (your cut-off for smart is a de facto declaration of "look how smart I am; only Einsteins are worthy of surrounding me, and I understand the things they say!"), there is a basic logical issue: If the smarter people are dumb enough to surround themselves with the likes of you, they are dumber than you, which means they're smart and

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• Phuong Ha Tran Nguyen
• Jennifer Tsai
• Amir
• Svitlana Midianko
• Benjamin Laufer
• Jaclyn
• Kelly Chong
• Elizabeth Qiu
• Grace Nguyen
• Sahil Patel
• Ethan Benjamin
• abinaya dinesh

related reading

• Don't Surround Yourself With Smarter Peopleribbonfarm.com
• finding the right peoplenicoles.substack.com
• finding the right peoplestartingfromnix.com
• finding the right peoplestartingfromnix.com
• How To Understand Thingsnabeelqu.substack.com
• Stop trying to have "interesting" friends — LessWronglesswrong.com
• Is It Worth Being Wise?paulgraham.com
• Why aren't smart people happier? - by Adam Mastroianniexperimental-history.com
• finding the right peoplenicoles.substack.com
• Humans are not automatically strategic — LessWronglesswrong.com
• How To Understand Thingssubstack.com
• Stevey's Blog Rants: Done, and Gets Things Smartsteve-yegge.blogspot.com