Always remember: Assumptions exist where data doesn’t. And the only data worth collecting is about the ‘self’, and in the direction of what the self wants. Lastly, if you have ever told yourself that whatever you have in your life is less, then, my friend, terming it as less is a perception that is born only after you compare yourself to someone who has more. If you hadn’t compared yourself, then what you have are perfectly fine tools, the most important of which is the ability to learn. With these tools, you can develop yourself and earn whatever you want. You can have whatever you want because several others from much worse conditions than you have done it, and continue to do so.
In comparing yourself, you will find all the reasons to be miserable, all the excuses to not take action, and all the wrong reasons to want to take action. But in not comparing, you find and focus on what you have at hand and making it better. If somebody has more than you, good for them. You have you, so use your mind and the ability to learn together.
WHAT DOES SMART, CLEVER, INTELLIGENT, WISE AND STUPID REALLY MEAN
What really is the definition of stupid? People tend to call anybody stupid based on how they feel at the moment. Stupid can be one who knows nothing, knows less, makes mistakes, isn’t very articulate, does something they ought not to, does something slowly, is obsessed with physical appearance, doesn’t take life seriously, or one who fails to follow instructions. People call politicians they dislike and won’t vote for, stupid. A politician not only convinces people that his opponents are too stupid to govern, but proves by getting elected that people are too stupid to vote. A machine can be stupid, an animal can be stupid, an experience can be stupid, basically anything can be stupid.
When it comes to words like smart, clever, intelligent, wise and stupid, almost nobody cares to adhere to the meanings in the dictionary. We use them based on our understanding and feelings at the moment. Therefore, the first four are very often used interchangeably. So, keeping with the tradition, let’s define these words in a manner you might find easier to use.
1. A smart person
A smart person is one who is more able than others in doing something. It could be someone who has a natural talent at something, a person who does something better than others, a person who learns something more quickly than others. I am sure you have seen when somebody doesn’t need much explaining and is able to catch on very quickly, they are called smart.
2. A clever person
A clever person is one who knows how to use that ability for self-benefit. Basically, a clever person is not only smart, but knows how to use, capitalise on, and create benefits for oneself that are beyond the traditional course of benefits those abilities are known to provide, and aim to create much bigger opportunities for themselves. This is why such moves are called ‘clever’ moves. And that is why successful businesspeople, politicians, powerbrokers and other such people are called clever. For example, this world is largely led by clever people, and therefore their strategies, ideas and plans continue to focus on self-benefit rather than the benefit of the world.
3. An intelligent person
An intelligent person is one who works on becoming self-aware. We call somebody intelligent when they have some perspectives on questions and problems we find much confusion with. Upon hearing them talk, we say, he is really intelligent, because to you, they are making sense, or at least making you think from points of view to which you can relate. You may also refer to them as smart because you are impressed by their ability to produce interesting arguments and unexpected ways of looking at information. You regard this as something you haven’t learned to do yet, thereby making them better at it, and therefore, really smart.
4. A wise person
A wise person is one who becomes self-aware. A wise person can also be clever but out of self-awareness chooses to be restrictive and free at the same time, therefore, wise.
So, what is left is stupid. Who is that? Everybody is stupid and nobody is stupid. Stupidity has everything to do with what you believe at a certain time. For example, your ego can make you believe a thousand things about yourself, and if you acted based on those beliefs, you would be a fucking moron in the eyes of people who know better. Let’s take a more specific example: a person who thinks he is intelligent because he has read a lot, watched a lot, and memorised a lot, but missed out on thinking a lot. They are gonna look fucking stupid in front of a person who has done a lot of thinking. The examples can go in all directions; you will assume you know something for sure, but the result will show otherwise, and you might feel stupid. Out of overconfidence in your abilities, you might make claims which would be proven otherwise, and others might call you stupid. You would trust someone because you believe them, and after they betray it, you would call yourself stupid for ever trusting them. The scenarios are way too many.
We are all stupid at certain points of time because we all go through these things, we all have believed in ideas that we later realised were nonsense, and therefore, nobody is stupid forever because of our capacity to learn. Even the greatest minds act stupidly at times, and it is accurate to call them stupid for that. So, if you believe that you are incompetent or stupid, then you need to know that’s because of a very common belief too. This belief is called: there are smart people and then there are dumb people—a lot of us believe that.
It obviously comes from comparison. You look at a smart person, compare yourself with them, and conclude: wow, I don’t have as much knowledge as they have. Therefore, I am fucking stupid. The belief is that smart or intelligent people cannot be stupid because they know a lot, they can think very fast, they can talk very fast, and they produce very interesting arguments. So they are placed so high on a pedestal that in comparison you are bound to think of yourself as a moron. We have already talked about perfect people.
If you watch a lecture on a subject by a professor and think, I am stupid for not understanding anything, then based on the available data, the difference between you and that person is they have learned something which you haven’t. That’s it. This can be solved by you learning what they know. The point isn’t that you should—unless you want to. The point is, you do not become stupid for not knowing things because things can be learned. Some of them may take very long, require painful sacrifices and discipline, but it can be done. People do this all the time.
It’s not wrong to be impressed by amazing achievements or qualities, but concluding from that, I can never think like them is the belief that is making you stupid. Not only can you learn just about anything, you can learn how to learn anything, and you can also learn how to unlearn things—that is the true potential in you. Instead of the dumb belief that divides people into two intellectual classes, you need to start living your life with this truth. Empowering and degrading yourself are two sides of the same coin. Both require energy and time. It depends entirely on what you believe. So, do you wanna limit yourself and believe you can never think like somebody or do you wanna elevate yourself and believe you can learn anything in this world?
Don’t forget, having wrong beliefs is what makes you stupid; it’s the right ones that set you free. The only difference is the wrong ones are easily available, and you have to fight for the right ones.
The Rudest Book Ever Page 15