the rule of thinkers

i think i'm very smart. which is not the same as actually being very smart.

now, i score high on standardized tests, graduated from the last, great hope for public school education, etc., so i'm not a dummy. that said, a curiously large number of friends happen to be a bit smarter.

i see two possible ways to look at this. the half-glass full way of looking at things is that smart people surround themselves with other smart people. this makes sense and has some truth to it. i hate dumb people. if i am guilty of prejudice, it is against dumb people. they annoy me. they bewilder me. deep down, i strongly feel they should be prohibited from procreating. thus, i gravitate toward people with brains.

i like this explanation. it reaffirms that i really am a genius. here's the flipside though and ultimately what is more accurate. the more friends you have smarter than you, the more inflated your view on how intelligent you really are. you associate with people who are similar, not to how you actually are, but how you perceive yourself to be.

the upshot: if all your friends are brilliant, you consider yourself brilliant. now start counting. if there's a "surprising" number of people just a touch more brilliant than you, bad news: you're not nearly as smart as you think.