How to Waste Your Intelligence (The Path of the Foolish Genius)
The reason many clever people don’t live up to their potential
There were two students who lived on a mountain with their master.
They were training to become wise sages.
Every day they would study philosophy, and practice its teachings — they were devoted to their craft.
The master was proud of his students.
They both had strong work ethics, were eager to learn and were disciplined enough to accomplish their goal.
But it was clear to him that the older of the two boys was far smarter.
Things came easy to him. He absorbed information from books like a sponge and could put new knowledge into practice immediately. He was a human calculator. He could spot any pattern and solve any problem.
The younger student wasn’t so gifted.
He was forced to read things three or four times before they finally sunk in and took a little longer to identify patterns and solve problems.
Each day, the master had his students hike through the woods to the spring to fetch a barrel of water.
Before they left, he would always say:
The wise proceeds with caution.
But the older student was confident. He knew the path like the back of his hand. He’d studied all the information his master had given him and didn’t feel the need to be cautious.
And even though the younger student was also familiar with the track, he always had his master’s warning in the back of his mind.
So, he would carry a bow and arrow, as he’d throw rocks to bait any predators that might be lurking.
Years passed and the boys had never encountered anything — the rock baits were never necessary, and the bow had yet to be drawn.
And such, the older student grew tired of caution and had picked up the pace.
But the younger student continued to throw his rocks as he always did, even though his companion laughed at him for it.
One day, after he threw his rock as he always does, he noticed a rustle in the bushes.
He drew his bow — just in case — and waited…
In the blink of an eye, a mountain dog launched from the bushes and sprinted for his friend.
He took a breath, aimed his bow and released the arrow — catching the dog halfway through the air.
This leads me to believe that…
wisdom begins with caution
“A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.” — Proverbs 27:12 (NLT)
So although the older student had the intelligence, who was wiser?
This is very interesting to me because I’d always thought ‘wise’ was simply further along the line from ‘smart’ as a measure of intelligence (see Figure 1).
But the more thought I give it, the less accurate it seems.
Because ‘smart’ can mean a lot of things, a lot of things that don’t really matter.
Your IQ is irrelevant if you die due to lack of caution.
I see it more like this now:
Some quick thoughts depending on where you feel you are on that chart:
If you feel you have low logic — study the world
If you are irrationally cautious — study the mind
If you’re smart, but rash — slow down and analyse situations before jumping in head-first
But please…
if you’re smart, don’t waste your intelligence
“Trust in Allah, but tie your camel.” — Sufi proverb
I watch a lot of mob/gangster movies —many of them are based on true events.
There are repeating characters that make up these mobs — from Kings and Queens through to Pawns.
The pawns
You can’t hate these guys, because they’re at their ceiling. They don’t know any better.
They’re low-intelligence and low-caution characters. They do what the boss wants and they don’t question the consequences. These guys get the job done, but they can’t make decisions for themselves.
But remember this:
These guys don’t get blamed for the crime — nobody really cares about them.
The Kings
The bosses/dons are the real masterminds — these are who the feds are after.
Why?
Because they’re intelligent characters who consistently make high-pressure, high-stakes decisions.
The reason they are so interesting, and the reason your heart hurts for them, is because you know they’re smart, and you know that deep down they’re good people — but they got involved in the wrong things.
They were running legitimate complex businesses and they put loyalty above everything.
How can they be dumb? It’s not possible to take a business to that level, no matter how illegitimate, without high intelligence.
But at what cost?
They meddle in the underbelly, they steal and they murder — all to make dirty cash. They can never actually reap their reward because they’re swimming in the low-caution (high-risk) zone for too long — they can’t relax.
And things always go bad for these guys.
Take Nicky Santoro for example — a real person, but played by Joe Pesci in the 1995 movie ‘Casino’.
Nicky is a hot-shot. He’s not exactly a don, but he sits in the room with them. He was somewhat of a knuckleduster in the Las Vegas Italian mob.
(SPOILER)
But after all the smart-ass comments, ruthless torture and lavish spending — Nicky ends up dying a humiliating death.
He may have been smart, but he was never wise — he was a fool for wasting his intelligence on such a ruthless profession.
These guys could’ve been happy, they wanted to be happy, but they weren’t able to put their intelligence in the right place.
They were smart, but not cautious — and therefore, not wise.
And this is what makes their characters so sad.
If you are a pawn with no potential — don’t worry about this advice.
Ignore it!
You have nothing to worry about. There is no opportunity cost for you and you can continue to live a shallow life with no qualms.
But if you have potential, if you consider yourself intelligent, then you have the capacity to be an interesting, happy and valuable person in the world.
But you have to be cautious in order to allow your potential to blossom.
3 steps for intelligent people to cultivate wisdom through caution
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.” — Rumi
1. Go slow.
I think of people who drive faster than the speed limit — especially in school zones.
You’re going faster to save yourself a few minutes, but you could end up losing your life, or someone else losing theirs.
For what?
When you go slow you have more time to make good decisions.
This goes for life too.
Move slowly through life and allow yourself to think things through.
The phrase: “It’s better to lose a second of your life, than your life in a second,” comes to mind.
2. Use your imagination to think ahead.
Imagination is not just for drawing and painting.
Like the chess player imagines what will happen a few moves ahead, you must use your imagination to predict what will happen in the future.
When you’re riding your bicycle and you approach a driveway — imagine the possibility that someone drives out at the same time as you go by, no matter how unlikely it may be.
Gambling might be exciting and fun — but you must look ahead at the risk associated with it.
That’s why a wise man doesn’t gamble excessively, but a smart, rash man might.
3. Don’t rely on anyone or anything else if it leaves you at risk.
My Dad taught me a lesson when I was learning to drive:
“Never trust their indicator.”
If you’re waiting to turn out of a street, and a car indicates to turn in, wait until they’ve actually turned.
Because if you go early and they don’t turn — yes it’s their fault, but you’ll be dead so it won’t matter.
Hopefully, those simple steps will help you as much as they’ve helped me.
Because being cautious and thinking things through (assessing risk) is true wisdom.
Nobody will ever get things right 100% of the time, but if they can minimise risk and increase the odds — over time they will succeed more often than not.
A wise man doesn’t walk on eggshells, but he does carefully assess each situation. He drives slowly around schools.
He always moves forward, but he always proceeds with caution.
Thank you for reading. Let me know, what are some things/rules that come to mind for you?
Please leave a like if you enjoyed it, and subscribe if you’d like to read more like this!
This article felt slightly different.
Less philosophical than my others, but it was front of mind for me this week and I feel it can add significant value.
I really believe that caution is an underrated lever for utilising your intelligence — it’s not sexy or glamorous, but it is effective.
And effective is what matters.
Sincerely,
eren
Last week’s article in YouTube format: You can't find your purpose because you're too focused on yourself
Oh, and I’m 77 years old.
I loved this article. I have always been cautious and it has totally paid off. Nothing bad has ever happened to me. Thank you for bringing this to the attention of those who are wise enough to see the value in being cautious.