Television ads have always been fascinating to me. As a kid, when I first saw an advert of a mango flavoured soft drink, it had an amazing idea. In order to show how the flavoured drink is close to a real Mango, the ad was so edited that it showed a man inserting a straw in a mango for drinking its juice. Impressed by this brilliant idea, I tried the same on a real mango only to realize how foolish it was to do so. I didn't stop there, I shared this experience with everyone, every-time that advert appeared. So it was not just fine to act stupid but also share about it with near and dear people. Years passed on, I don't remember when exactly and what was the precise trigger which switched the "Sounding Smart" button in my system. The focus in every interaction shifted from listening with a curiosity of a child to working on 'how to' sound smart in my response, like an intelligent adult. There is no wonder anymore in exploring new things, it is all about how I know it already and how I know it better than others. The pleasure of patiently discovering new ideas is all gone, now it is all about the rush to answer first. The clever mind knows everything but what's good for it. Also, greater cleverness does not equate to smarter decisions. As a matter of fact, in some cases it might make your choice a little more foolish. Keith Stanovich at the University of Toronto has spent the last decade building tests for rationality, and he has found that fair, unbiased decision-making is largely independent of the IQ.
If you are the smartest person on a Zoom call, then you are in a wrong Zoom call.
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