Yes, this is a serious guide. If you can do the things listed in here, you will be smart...or at least appear to be. The trick, of course,
is to be able to do the things listed here. And there's the rub.
There is a theory of mine that people who are smart don't benefit too much from books (or articles, papers, emails, etc.) that tell them how to be smart.
Those that are not smart, unfortunately, cannot benefit from them. Don't believe me? Well, why do companies have initiatives to "Do things the right
way"? Or have cute little posters like "Try and you'll Succeed" or things that show you how doing things correctly initially will save time later?
Do they honestly think employees don't already realize this? Well, some, the stupid, probably don't. But telling them these things at this point in
their lives is useless.
Let me give a specific example. Suppose you are the type of person who likes to run with scissors. I mean, you are an adult and running with scissors.
Not a kid. But fully grown. And not grown in college. I mean in your 30's at least, kids, etc. If I tell you not to do that one of two things will
happen. You'll either ignore me because you already know what you are doing is dangerous and just don't care or you'll ignore me because you are a
drooling idiot and can't comprehend the magical way I push air through my windpipe while vibrating my vocal cords and pursing my lips to form words.
Either way you are still running with scissors.
So then, what is the purpose of this? Well, nothing really. The smart people will read this and say, "Yes, that's right" to all of them. They'll go
away smug with the knowledge that they already knew everything in here (smart people like to be reassured they are smart). Stupid people will go away
saying "Wow, I can do that. I'll be smart. Not stupid like people say. But smart." Of course, they'll be wrong. And the really sad thing is that they
won't even know they are wrong.
If you are still reading at this point, here it is:
- Know what you don't know. It sounds silly, but unless you realize when you don't know/don't understand something, you can never hope to be
smart. Were you the type of kid that understood everything in school when the teacher explained it, but were hopelessly lost when you got
home and tried to do it on your own? Do you feel threatened when people ask you "Why"? Do you say "Um" a lot? You need to know what you don't know.
Otherwise you can't ask questions. See below for why you need to ask questions.
- Ask questions. I'm not going to say there are no stupid questions because that would be a lie. There are plenty of stupid questions. Try not to
ask those. Still, asking a stupid question is better than asking no question. Asking questions gives you knowledge and understanding. Asking questions
lets you know what you don't know.
- Giving an Example is not the same as understanding. If all you can do to explain something is to give an example, you don't understand it. In fact,
a big light bulb should be blinking in your head telling you this is one of those "know what you don't know" moments. If you understand something you
can explain it. If you can explain it, you can do so using concepts (see below) and not examples. Examples are fine if someone doesn't understand your
concepts. In fact, many people (stupid people) can only understand examples, so you need to be ready to whip them out. But have the heavy artillery
(concepts) in reserve.
- Concepts are key. I would almost go so far as to say concepts are all that matter, but that would be wrong. You need to know how to apply
concepts. Actually, you also need to know when to apply which concept. Here is a good example of a concept. If you take a number and divide it by 100,
all you need to do is to move the decimal place over two spots to the left. If you already know how to do that, but aren't sure why, you don't
understand concepts. If you know why that trick works, you understand concepts. Here is another example. Nine women working together cannot make a baby
in 1 month. If you understand that nugget of wisdom and know exactly when to spit it out, congratulations - you understand concepts.
- RIF - Reading is Fundamental. Read, read read. Don't read the first sentence. Don't not read the last sentence. Read everything. Make sure you
understand every word.
- Realize that memorization is not intelligence. Yes, there are some things (like times tables) you need to memorize. But, in general, there is
very little info you need to keep in your noggin. What you need to be able to do is to know how to find information. You are, of course,
already at the second best website for that. The best is Google. Google, Google, Google. Then Google some more.
- Break hard problems into small problems. D'uh. If you understand concepts, this should be a no brainer.
- Finally, and most importantly, everything can be explained using car analogies or Simpsons episodes. Don't believe me?
Email me something that can't be.
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