“Each one has the capacity, the power, to be either sane, balanced, or otherwise. To discover whether one is balanced, one must start negatively, not with assertions, dogmas, or beliefs. If one can think profoundly, then one will become aware of the extraordinary beauty of intelligent completeness.”
— J. Krishnamurti
Have you met a know-it-all? They seem to have all the answers. What’s happening (and what should happen) in politics, their organization, their locality. . . they even seem to know how you should live your life.
Such people cannot afford to appear wrong in front of others—being wrong is seen as a threat not just to their intelligence but also to their identity. So, they silence voices that don’t agree with them. They tune out when someone else speaks. And when they come across a person more skilled or successful, they do whatever they can to ‘eliminate that threat.’
If you want to become smarter in the true sense, it’s better to try “to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent,” as Charlie Munger said.
Speak less, listen more. Be inspired, not intimidated, by people better than you; learn from them instead of avoiding them. Let go of what’s not working out rather than trying harder to make it work and creating more problems in the process.
Let situations, not your emotions and preconceptions, influence your thoughts, actions, and conduct. That’s how you become smarter, by becoming free from mechanical ideals and beliefs, fear, and delusion.