#people even say boris johnson doesn’t act nearly as stupid behind closed doors lol which makes perfect sense

[iman-92]

not to sound all 48 laws of power lol but letting people think you’re a little less smart than you are is truly a cheat code.

i don’t even mean acting dumb but for example letting people tell you things that you already know (and not pointing out that you already know it lol) and letting them enjoy that moment of feeling like they taught you something (as long as they aren’t condescending about it) goes a long way in creating positive relationships. you don’t lose anything but the way the brain/subconscious works, that person is inclined to like you a bit more bc of that positive association where you made them feel smart lol. i do that with senior colleagues all the time 🤠

in other ways, people like smart people as long as you don’t make them feel like you’re smarter than them lol. i mean intelligence is fairly subjective but either way, after school age there aren’t any real prizes in society for being the smartest person in the room. intelligence is associated with superiority and it’s implied that if you’re smarter than me then you’re better than me. not true but we know facts and feelings aren’t the same. behaving as though you’re the smartest person in every room just means that groups of people will have a strong desire to gather to take you down a peg.

i also feel like it’s generally just better for people to underestimate you. when people are shady or liars and you let on that you’re not an idiot, they just get better at lying to you. why give someone that advantage?

anyway! it’s interesting the games we play in life. idk much about chess but I think it wouldn’t be unreasonable to compare social interactions with a long game of chess. it’s actually very smart to know when to not be smart.