Do you consider yourself an intelligent person?
Of course, you do! After all, you are reading an article from I Heart Intelligence.
Well, being smart is awesome. Throughout the years, it has been proven that intelligent people are wealthier, lead a more successful life, and even have a longer lifespan than those with less luck in the knowledge department. However, these bright individuals often make silly mistakes they are afraid to admit. Apart from being profitable, agile, and inventive, they also have many flaws, such as being overconfident, pushing others too hard, and having a hard time accepting criticism.
Sometimes, the mistakes intelligent people make are beyond comical. That’s caused by the simplicity of the situations they involve themselves in. For instance, quite a few intellectuals often fail to realize that sometimes a certain circumstance requires nothing but common sense. Thus, they try to stand out with some creative solution, which only makes things worse.
Problem-solving is not the only area where an intelligent person might make a silly blunder.
Here are 8 times when smart people make absurd mistakes:
1. Smart people are too self-assured.
When the people around you, including friends, family, teachers, co-workers, and more, have been praising your outstanding intellect throughout most of your life, gaining a little extra confidence is inevitable. However, being too self-assured and believing that things will always go your way is a risky assumption. In most cases, it results in people thinking no one else is capable of helping them when they need guidance the most. While this could be manageable, other extreme situations lead to the smart person becoming a narcissist as a consequence of the excessive admiration they are receiving.
2. They push others too hard.
Being overachieving is a blessing and a curse for any intellectual. They tend to be overproductive, which means they get a lot of their assignments done for a short amount of time. However, many of them expect others to behave exactly the same. Smart people set the bar far too high, and when the ones around them fail to meet their expectations, they simply assume it’s caused by a lack of effort.
3. Intelligent people always need to be right.
Admitting you are wrong is hard for almost anyone. Though, it is particularly challenging for those who are convinced they have obtained high levels of intellect. That’s normally because they have gotten used to being right, and they may have forgotten what it feels like to be on the other side. At some point, being right becomes a necessity for smart people, while being wrong is unacceptable. What they fail to recognize is that we are all flawed human beings who make mistakes. No one is perfect, not even the smartest person alive.
4. They don’t understand the concept of empathy.
Intelligent people may have far-reaching knowledge of many things, but they can still be lacking emotional intelligence. This happens as they usually put their personal achievements on top of their priorities, forgetting to consider other’s feelings. Unfortunately, for many of them, empathy is not amongst their strongest qualities.
5. Smart people give up too easily.
For some of the most brilliant minds, failure seems like the end of the world. Similar to their inability to admit their mistakes, a number of intelligent beings cannot accept failure. And instead of starting over when things don’t work out, they just stop trying. However, truly experienced people know that making mistakes, failing, and losing are things that teach you how to be more patient, resilient, and level-headed.
6. They lack perseverance.
Sometimes, when smart people are facing an incredibly challenging task that requires tons of hard work to be accomplished, they feel as if they don’t have what it takes. They fall into a loop of negative thoughts leading them into believing that if they can’t do something easily, there must be something wrong with them. To gain their confidence back, they quit the difficult assignment and move on to something else that they know they will be able to attain effortlessly. This way, they fail to develop grit and rule out perseverance from their stack of admirable personal qualities.
7. Intelligent people multitask.
In today’s world, being able to do several things at once is a valued trait. Smart people often dive into the world of multitasking, thinking this is the only way they could manage handling all of their duties and responsibilities. However, engaging yourself in many things at the same time can actually decrease your productivity. When your mind wanders through a number of areas at once, it can never be 100% efficient for either of them. A part of it is always somewhere else, making it too hard for you to be equally good at the things you’re doing.
8. They undermine other people’s opinions.
This has a lot to do with their excessive confidence. Some intelligent individuals tend to underestimate others’ viewpoints. Hence, they are convinced that there aren’t many people that can give them valuable feedback. This particular attitude often results in developing toxic or narcissistic traits.
Do you know someone whose personality relates to some of these silly mistakes? Are you that someone? Let us know in the comment section!